EPMC Program

We're going full steam here at Calvin Theological Seminary. Here are both the courses that I am taking and the process to ordination (targeted for Fall 2006).

1. What Pastors Can Learn from Authors: We are reading authors like Stephen King and Ann Lamott and discussing writing styles, discovering your writing voice and how this all relates to preaching. This is a great class, it's discussion oriented.
   
2. Christian Reformed Church Polity: The CRC has a policy manual that is hundreds of years old and has lots of wisdom and it's based on the reformed creeds. It's a pretty tight box. The class is a lot of reading and writing.
   
3. Christian Reformed Church History: We are starting back at the reformation (1500's) and looking at how the CRC developed in Europe and through the immigrants took root in both the US and Canada.
   
4. Senior Preaching: We are learning a method of preaching called the 4 pages. It's one way of preaching, and so far it's been a good class.
   
5. Confessional Preaching: Is about preaching from the Heidelberg Catechism.
   
6. Field Education: Is the practical part of ministry and I need to document some of my previous experience and document some of my future work at Heartland.
   
7. Psych Evaluations: We all go through a stack of psychological tests to see if we are fit for ministry.
8. Faculty Staff Interviews: We are interviewed (ie oral comp tests) by a few members of the staff. Mine is on November 11th.
   
9. Bible Comprehensive Exam: I need to pass the bible comp exam which is at the end of October.
10. Application For Candidacy: In consultation with my faculty advisor, we need to put together an application for candidacy for ordination. It basically includes everything like field ed, academic course requirements, interview results, bible comp results etc.
    
11. Two Week Seminar: Next spring we are going to come back to CTS to take two courses over two weeks to complete the academic requirements.
    
12. Synod Approval: Early June 2006 we all are interviewed and hopefully I'll be declared a candidate for ministry in the CRC and be available for call.
    
13. Receive A Call: Heartland would extend a call to me, then I'll be examined at the fall session of Classis BCSE.
    
14. Classical Examination: If I sustain the Classical Exam, then I'll be ordainable, or as my friend says I'll have my ministers ticket.
15. Ordination Ceremony. The final step to this process will be the ordination ceremony, if all things go well, this will be in the fall of 2006.
    

I think that is it, yet new stuff gets added regularily to the list. They bill this program as 10 and 2, 10 weeks in the fall and 2 weeks in the spring. That is a bit misleading. I'll be here just over 11 weeks this fall and there is a ton more than just taking courses.

In a recent phone call with my Dad, he said to me this is an opportunity of a life time to study in a concentrated way at this time of life. I'm trying to keep this perspective in mind, but being away from my family and church home this long is very difficult.

storms

right now there is lightning, thunder, dark clouds, wind and lots of familiar rain. the leaves are changing color and it's a new season here in GR. for this ex. california guy, summer was too short. the change of season, although not welcome, is change and variety.

storms are beyond us, something we endure and recover from. the bad ones leave memories and damage that stay forever.

storms happen and they envoke stuff like denial, survival, recovery, grief, thankfulness and guilt. here is the deal about storms -- they are to be recovered from. not to linger in, but to get over. pick up, clean up the mess - recover from the disaster. walk with a limp, but walk. afraid of the thunder? that's natural, but still go outside. pick-up the broken tree limbs and plant a new tree. quit blaming and take a step towards recovery. the sun will shine again.

as much as we'd like to, we can't control storms. powerlessness is an awful feeling, yet some enjoy it and if they took the plywood off the windows they would find a new day. different than before, but good.

can't control the storms, but you can the recovery.

git r done

just got it.
and i love it.
and i won't lose it.
i love capitalism.

losing my mind

i just had it.

where did it go? it was in my pocket a few seconds ago and now i can't find my pen. this drives me crazy. i am obsessed with finding my pen. class is in 1 hour, i have 50 things to do, i feel under water already and i can't find my stinkin' pen!

they are pilling on the work here at cts and i have lost my mind. i find myself organizing the same folder over and over. i can't get to the work. can't focus, dig in and get er' done. and it feeds on itself. ever have that? the frenzy feeds the frenzy. where is my pen? did you take it? then comes the paranoia. i think you took it.

now my heart rate is up. even if i did find my pen, or you gave it back, i wouldn't be able to settle enough to read something.

that's it, i'm going to go buy another pen.

word verification

i've been hit with spam lately and so i reluctanly turned on word verification in the comments section. sorry.

front porch living

i'm currently living in an 80+ year old neighborhood. narrow streets, sidewalks on both sides, small lots and houses close to the curb and all the houses have front porches. the garages are on usually in the back.

lots of life on the streets here. college kids walking around, home owners taking their dog or spouse for a walk ... it's all quite sociable. i've had more conversations with people here off the front porch in a week than in my suburban neighborhood in chilliwack in 6 months.

ahh, the urban neighborhood, you meet people.

it's by no means a "safe" neighborhood ... whatever that means. but people manage their co-existance quite happily.

i think this is how we were meant to live. in closer proximity with each other. the suburbs with garages on the front of the house, decks on the back and large lawns between the house and the sidewalk are not designed for community, they are designed for privacy. it is difficult to meet people. function takes over from community. which is not just apparent in our neighborhoods, it's in our schools, banks and churches.

some blogs you should know about

i've been tagged by mike devries, here's how it works:

The explosion of the blog world in the last year has led to countless quality blogs being started, but sometimes it is hard to find them amongst all the other blog muck. Because there are so many quality blogs out there, I though I would try to start a meme to send some eyeballs toward those unknown bloggers. So, share a blog you think more people should read, and then tag 5 others (who hopefully read your blog!) to do the same.

hey you ... you've been tagged

• scott williams is the king of rants, an old aquaintance and new friend
  
• david trigueros one of the wisest pastor's in Long Beach
• david trotter helped me get going into the blog world, very generous and all round cool guy.
  
• darryl dash never met darryl but enjoy his blog.
• bruce gritter he is just getting into blogging but when he writes, it's worth reading
  

rant about church people

got this link from Scott

There are some people, who shall remain nameless because they don't have the courage to give their name, who feel it is their work in history to hold others accountable through slander and lies. They seem to believe that their meaness is justified by some supposed insult they have suffered by anothers actions. It becomes a festering wound so deep that they lose all perspective on what is right or wrong. All walls of common decency come down and a battlefield of disgusting filth becomes their playground. They become the hands and mouth of their own gods; vengence and retribution.

Link

first day of school

here is proof that I am actually at cts! my first class, my first day of school picture. this class is crc polity. that's dan roekema next to me, looks like he's reading the email i'm writting to patti. my other classes are crc history, senior preaching, confessional preaching and what preachers can learn from writers.

hekman

i'm walking through the stacks at the heckman library and luving it! i just got Christ and the Caesars by Ethelbert Stauffer. awesome read, move over readers digest. now i'm looking in the computer section. hmm anything on the new adobe creative 2 suite? how about going to the newspaper section and reading a hardcopy of the LA times. sweet. now if i can only figure out how to get tim horton's donuts in here, it would feel a bit more like home.

it's early early today

got up early, went for a walk and realized it was 3:30am pacific time. no wonder i'm messed up. can't sleep at night and can't get enough in the morning.

i love coffee.

denominations need to change

The last bit of the tour had all the students come together and 3 denominational execs, Peter Borgdorff, Jerry Dykstra and John Bolt gave presentations. I have alot of respect for these men, they carry huge responsibility.

Throughout their presentations came the theme, "we have to change." Which is a good start. Some stats prompted the need to change. Jerry Dykstra said that if we don't change as a denomination, we'll cease to exist in 25 years. Peter Borgdorff talked about how he was helping the denomination function more efficiently and also said we were growing by a mere 1% a year, which, to his own admission, wasn't enough to continue to be viable. John Bolt talked about the improving picture of the denomination's finance systems, but you were left with the feeling there was a long way to go before the denom was financially strong.

John Kotter, in his book, "Leading Change" speaks about the need for urgency or crisis to exist prior to change in order to fuel the desire for change and for the change to stick long term. Perhaps some of the crises being talked today is the first few drops of fuel needed to being the process of revitalizing the denomination.

Questions of long term viability, the relevancy of denominations today, are denominations needed are all on the floor for discussion. It's easy to deconstruct a denomination, but I don't think anyone knows what the church will look like in 25 years. We are all trying to just figure out the next hour, let alone tomorrow or next year. The swift change in today's society makes anything the slow moving denominations cook up seem irrelevant.

The thing I notice that was disturbing for me was the language the presenters used. Top down language. CEO language of corporations 10 years ago. Stuff like, this is what we are doing. Join us. We'll prepare you for the ministry. We are making a plan. Be a part of something big and impactful. Then there was the self congratulatory remarks - we are really good at this, other denominations would kill for a system like ours, we are having a big impact etc.

In other words, we'll figure it out, lead the charge and you fall in behind. Because we know and if we don't yet, we'll figure it out and when we do, we'll tell you.

Most change happens in organic churches from listening to people and sensing what God is doing here and now in people's lives. Not from the boardrooms, especially in the church. If you want to know how to help the church be viable in Chilliwack, go there and ask questions and listen. If you want to know how to change the denomination or the churches ask the churches. Don't let suits in a Herman Miller chair three time zones away tell the people of God who are praying for their meth addicted friend and is on his 3rd marriage what type youth ministry should his church buy into for his 15 year old on the west coast. Or how to plant a church in Surrey, BC or how to structure a 10 year old church's administration teams.

It still sounded and felt like top down, centralized power. Still. Centralization and the holding of power is all part of human nature. But for us to be alive we need to let it go. Trust, serve and bless.

It's about serving the churches, the pastors and most importantly the people, not the otherway around. They would have best used their time by asking the students questions and learning from their responses.

If the denomination realizes they need to change but continue with centralized power and follow me approach, nothing will change. A few herman miller chairs will be on ebay.

Go listen, be broken, say and believe you don't know. Weep from the pain in the world. Start reading more of Nouwen less of Hybles and Kotter.

From my own experience, changing structure, creating strategic planning processes, making goals and achieving them are all much easier than changing the heart.

But this is what the CRC denomination must do.

bob de moor and structure.

had an impromptu conversation with bob de moor, current editor of the banner. we hadn't seen each other for over ten years. we caught up on our families etc and the conversation shifted towards the structure of the church. he said something that was forward thinking for a denominational guy ... like structure is something that everyone used to serve in the past. our job was to serve the structure and uphold it. nowdays, the structure needs to serve the mission. it needs to be strong enough to support the ministry, but flexible to morph with the needed changes.

the 78' chevette

aaron took his new ride to grand rapids and the four of us have been bombing around town the last few days. it is truely vintage. my brother had the acadian version of this beauty in the early 80's.

tour of 2850 kalamazoo

part of the orientation to the seminary is a tour of the crc denominational building on 2850 kalamazoo ave in grand rapids.

it reminded me of a mpr teltech, the company i worked for in the late 80's early 90's. it has a few departments with some inhouse service department.

• crc product services. they do the design, artwork, printing and packaging of denominational materials. from the g5 servers to the 4 color printing presses this was a full service department including the regular ups shipping department.
• information services. the IT department.
• financial services.
  
• crc publications. they publish the banner, faithalive resources, world literature ministries and marking of all the publications.
• world missions. they have 250 missionary staff worldwide.
• home missions. they give leadership to the church planting and discipleship efforts in the denomination.
• christian reformed world relief committee (crwrc). they do relief work and community relief, and social justice. they are active in the hurricane relief work. the building was full of supplies they are co-ordinating with the red cross.

grand rapids brewery

just got back from tuesday nights at grand rapids brewery. tuesday is the unofficial seminary night. so aaron, dan and I (dale decided to stay home and stuff his pda) went ordered a pitcher and had some good conversations.

the boys

it's been a wild few days. flew the red eyed flight to grand rapids and met up with dan, dale and aaron. i'm here for 3 months and will be blogging about the experience here. more about why i'm here found at my other blog, mike and ordination.

we're living together a couple miles from cts.

today was registration day. sign up for classes, health care, buy books and meet new people.

it feels right to be here.

pigs don't stink

we were driving through lynden and one of the kids went, "eww, who farted?" then someone else said, "that's the farm, stuipid." then james said, "all animals stink". there was this long pause, and then he said, "yah, except for pigs. pigs don't stink. hey mom, can we get a pig?"