Midterms are over, how are we doing?

So, with midterms fully behind me, how am I doing so far?


Hey, pretty good! I don't want to jinx myself by admitting my mid-term grades, but all of them are what I'd call "really decent" and I'll be sitting quite pretty if I can maintain them all...we'll see. One thing that I'm concerned about is that my favorite class, Ministry Studies, is ironically the one that demands the least amount of daily work, and I'm worried that I'm giving it short shrift in it's study time. This class usually has a reading for each period, sometimes an article, sometimes a book, but NEVER has quizzes and only occassionally has a writing assignment due. Otherwise it is a very intellectually stimulating class--the kind that riles me up and gets me ranting late into the night--and has just one major paper due at the end...and that's what has me worried.


I think my paper is going to be on the study of campus ministry and how to introduce it to my congregation at Covenant (that's the point of the class: the study of ministry, thus our final 15 page paper is how we would introduce our congregation to a study of ministry in the hopes that we develop a new one.) And after some serious consideration of my call to ministry, and a call that is being only partially answered by Covenant, I think that this is a very appropriate paper topic. I'm pretty excited about it, done a lot of thinking...but no research and no writing as yet. And that worries me. I fear I'm procrastinating already. yeah, I know. You haven't procrastinated YET Marie...and yet, if I don't do the work ahead of time, it's already behind. Does that make any sense?

But for those of you playing along, that'll be my paper topic, and I'm writing it with an eye to sharing it with Covenant, as I really do think we're particularly situated in Staunton to do some wonderful ministry at Mary Baldwin College...and not the kind of ministry you might think. In fact...we already do it! We're just not quite as organized and intensional as we could be...and if we were, more people could be involved. Allow me to illustrate:

Things Covenant Presbyterian Church of Staunton, Virginia already has going for it in regards to campus ministry at Mary Baldwin College (in no particular order):

- existing relationships: we've got lots of faculty and staff members of the college that are members of our congregation, who (whether they realize it or not) are already doing some ministry by virtue of being their authentic selves in the classroom. Chief among these are (and yes, I'm naming you!) Rod Owen and Lynn Gilliland, but there are many others. I know that some folks have expressed a desire to distance their spiritual lives from their work lives, but I've witnessed some powerful work combining the two, and I don't think it needs to be necessarily uncomfortable. But this is the chief area for discernment of our congregation, so I shall go on:


- Existing programs: With the new civic engagement focus on MBC campus, we've already seen some activities, such as the joint mission trip to the Katrina Zone and bringing the Labyrinth to campus (yeah, that was my personal project, and it went very well. Students were very intrigued that a mainline protestant chuch would have a walking labyrinth, so I took the opportunity to let our name be known as the sponsor. It went well; this sort of spiritual exploration is needed on campus (from a developmental standpoint!) and again, we've got some stuff to offer.


- a freaking awesome associate pastor, who would totally connect well with MBC traditional students: Amy is just plain perfect as a mentor for these young women. I could go on, but I won't now. End of subject.


- Ok, me. This is definitely an area of passion for me, as well as academic and professional study. Since college I've been interested in the spiritual development of college age students, and there is a lot that can be done for students through an outside agency such as ours.


Further Ideas:

- sharing our Taize and Wholeness/Healing services. There is a chapel on campus that often stands empty, and no regularly scheduled worship services in this space.

- Blood Drives! They happen on campus, and we've already held two of our own...why not combine efforts? We could host one on campus, or intentionally invite students to our church.

- So students can eat free on TOW nights, but do they know that? What else could we offer to students as support?

- There are a few student organizations on campus that are student led, and they can always use more financial and moral support. We could designate funds and leadership to get more involved in a mentoring capacity to these self-designated students.

- There are students interested in the ministry on campus, and what they really need is exposure. We could open our sanctuary to guest student preachers, the student gospel choirs and student themed services, whether on Sunday or otherwise.

- There are several student performance groups (from choirs to theatre and music) that would love the opportunity to perform or practice in our fellowship or great hall.

- Rev. Andrea Cornett-Scott already has a store-front church near MBC that might really be intereseted in an inter-denominational partnership (at least, from my experience with her, I think that might be very interesting). It could certainly expand an existing ministry!

- And First Pres. Church, across the street from MBC, might be very interested in a partnership for a college ministry. They've got a convienient space and location, and might just need more energy and innovation to become a great partner.



And now I feel I must address something that I've heard often in class lately, and I'm sure must be on the mind of anyone reading along...

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Will this ever work? Isn't this too hard? Aren't there a hundred reasons why this won't succeed?

Ahem. This issue has reoccured in my life of late, and I feel I simply must say...

How DARE we doubt?? I'm sorry, maybe I've misunderstood, but are you DOUBTING that God can make this possible? Where have you been?! Have you read the book? You know, that one, the book with all the miracles and promises in it? THAT ONE??

I can understand hesitation. I can understand fear. But when the future and current leaders of the church have the audacity to claim that something won't ever be fixed, that a problem is TOO BIG, I get a little livid. How dare we doubt!

Do we not serve the God of Creation, maker of all things seen and unseen? The limitless stars, unfathomable time, depth of space and atoms innumerable? More concretely, do we not serve the God who proclaimed I will make of you a great nation, and in you ALL the peoples of the world will be blessed? Who took the stuff of creation to use not one, but TEN plagues to demand the slaves be set free? Do we not serve the Divider of the Sea? The Great Sound that made the walls of Jericho fall? Who was that guy up on the cross? Some poor sap, pinned and bleeding for being a rabble-rouser or was he our God Incarnate, dying and resurrecting to destroy the power of death over our souls? To do what we couldn't EVER do, but God could do? Cause maybe I've got it wrong, but didn't this God, our God, take the impossible and MAKE it possible? And doesn't this God stand by us today? Doesn't this God tell us that if we follow God with faith, that we can do the impossible IN God? Because if we say that something is too hard, too difficult, too big or too unpleasant to do, we are essentially denying our very salvation. We're saying that God can't do it.

Oh how dare we doubt!

Why, oh why, is it that we look upon what is impossible and magnificient, and focus only on the impossibility and not the MAGNIFICIENCE!? Is it that we're afraid of failure?

I know what you're thinking. That perhaps I am being a little naive. Or romantic. Or just an inexperienced optimist. I am none of these. I know that any attempt to do God's will, especially when it is both amazing and grand, will likely be hard and even very unpleasant. But isn't that part of the point?

It took over two hundered years to end slavery in America; that's over two centuries of slaves praying and resisting, and ministers and other faithful Americans praying and hoping and doing, and the vast majority of them never lived to see it end. Does that make their prayers in vain? No! They entered into the long line of faith that believed it would change, that it could change, and even though they didn't see it happen, they made it possible in their very belief.
Moses knew this with every step he took in the wilderness, knew he wouldn't ever set foot in the promised land and yet he walked forward anyway. The Israelites in the wilderness never saw the promised land, but they walked forward for their children, that they might see the promise. We must step forward to make change, not because we might see it in our lifetimes, but because it might happen in the lives of our children or grandchildren, that some future generation will see a justice that we have yearned for.

We cannot deny that our God can make the impossible happen, and we must be willing to try. We must be willing to fail. For the simple act of trying is a success, it is a step in the right direction. A direction for hope and faith and the belief that someday, although I might not see it, God's kingdom on earth with reign.

So that's my little rant for the day. It kills me, really kills me a little, each time I hear someone scoff at justice or beauty or goodness simply because it isn't easy, or it hasn't happened yet. Where is our faith? Where is our hope?
Where is our trust that in God all things are possible?




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I guess that's it. It was better the first time I wrote it, before the misty waves of Internet-ether swallowed the best part of this post. Ah well. Note to self: save more often.

how true!