Seminary Conversations: The Response

Nearly a week ago I posted a piece reflecting on three conversations I had with students at Luther Seminary. In the following days I was deluged with comments (pro and con) about the truth or fiction about what I wrote. The most encouraging news, however, was that I don't feel like I need to synthesize those responses because I keep hearing that these discussions are now happening. So, rather than re-hashing what many of you are already talking about I have a couple parting suggestions to get you on your way.

1. Students need to take ownership of their seminary experience

The responses I heard centered largely on the distance felt on the seminary campus. Students don't feel comfortable--or even safe. This is a problem, but it is not one so big that students themselves can't work to fix it. Have the conversations. Don't gossip. Be respectful to one another and treat each other like the future church leaders that you are. If somebody needs help give it to them, and be honest, even when that is the hardest thing to do.

Along those lines...

2. Be open to personal critique

I would hazard to guess that the real reason why students primarily feel unsafe has nothing to do with physical safety or institutional coldness (read: your candidacy committee). Instead, I think the biggest obstacle to safety are the walls that students throw up in the face of one another. You are not perfect. You confess it in chapel (if you attend... and you probably should). So, don't take negative comments as a personal attack. Ditch the God-complex; it won't serve you well in the seminary and will kill you in the parish.

3. Your theology doesn't work all the time. That's good.

If you had God figured out that would be a pretty puny God, hardly deserving of your worship. So, get off your high theological horses and listen to somebody who says things with which you don't agree. This goes for people who have so-called "accepting" beliefs as well. Feminists and GLBT-promoters can be just as narrow-sighted with their opinions as fundamentalists.

4. The true measure of your worth to the community is not what you say but what you do

The differences between academic and practical matters are never so clear as in the seminary. At the same time that you are learning about preaching methods and atonement theories, you are encountering fellow students in need of a word of grace and peace. What you believe about God is not nearly as important as what you do in God's name. This is not works righteousness--it is love of the neighbor.

I sometimes think we use the wrong word to talk about eternal life with God, because salvation encompasses not just eternity but our wellness in the here and now. So we use the phrase "eternal salvation" to the detriment of our physical, emotional and even spiritual well-being. If we want to talk about salvation in a kind of holistic way I think we had better start acting like the Christian leaders we envision ourselves to be.

All of this is to say that the seminary is a complicated place with so many facets that seem outside of our control. So is life. My first piece may have come across as aimed at the institution and this one at the students, but the reality is that these should be one and the same. Institutions are nothing but the people of which they are made up. Revolution may be what's needed, but it's a revolution in the mentality of the student body, the staff and faculty, and the administration. It starts with you. I think the conversation that has started is a useful one. Keep having it. Learn from it. Grow into it.

Then, as we move toward Advent we have the same hope of Mary and the hymn writer that "the world is about to change."