Why I'm Here (working on another degree, that is)

The summer before my senior year at Seattle Pacific University, I found myself in Taizé, France.  Despite being a bit shy and introverted, I quickly became friends with Joel, a 17 year-old from Sweden.  We were in a bible study together, and one morning he simply asked me what I thought about Jesus.  He had very little knowledge of Christianity, and so throughout the rest of the week, we spent hours walking around the village, sitting under shady trees, and even camping out under the stars talking about faith and life.  Joel was truly wrestling with the question of what it could mean to follow Jesus Christ.  One night, I wandered out of the village and into the countryside to pray.  Suddenly, the weight of God’s compassion for Joel, and for the world, overwhelmed me, and I felt my heart break.  Joel was full of so much wonder and curiosity, and even faith.  He longed for Jesus, but was not sure how to reconcile such a faith with his life.  Walking alone in the moonlight that night, God assured me that Joel would not be forgotten when he ventured back to Sweden.

A few years later, I was an M.Div. student at Fuller Theological Seminary’s northwest campus and a pastor of small groups and adult education at a relatively new church plant in Seattle.  One Sunday morning I was leading a class discussion about faith and doubt when Melissa, a biology student from the University of Washington, shared her hesitation with Christianity.  She talked about how she wanted to believe in Jesus, but couldn’t accept the biblical story of seven-day creation, and so reasoned that she couldn’t become a Christian.  I asked her, what if the first chapters of Genesis weren’t about how the earth was created?  What if they were about who God is?  Her eyes bulged, and she smiled a little.  We opened the story and talked about what we could learn about a God who creates with love and purpose, and who is ultimately interested in redeeming all of humanity.  She left class that day with new hope in a faith she desperately wanted to believe in.  I left class with renewed resolve that small group and education ministries needed to work hand in hand, addressing the very real and relevant questions of what it means to follow Jesus Christ, today.

As I was finishing up my M.Div., I realized that my calling to the teaching ministry was shifting from the church and into the academy.  To help affirm this calling, I spent a year and a half as a teaching assistant to Ed Smyth, professor of educational ministry at Seattle Pacific.  Ed gave me the opportunity to gain confidence giving lectures and assessing student work, even allowing me the opportunity to teach solo on a few occasions.  While I can picture myself teaching in either a university or seminary setting, my time with Ed at Seattle Pacific really ignited a passion for Christian liberal arts undergraduate teaching.  One of my main goals in my time with Ed was to see if deliberate ministry could be carried out in an academic setting.  I felt that my calling was as much to ministry as it was to teaching and wanted to see how this could practically work out.  For 23 years, Ed has led a men’s discipleship group out of his home on Thursday nights.  For him, teaching is a window to discipleship.  Ed is an excellent teacher.  But his legacy at the school will be the hundreds of young men who have prayed on their knees on Thursday nights in his basement.  Wherever God calls me to teach, I want to leave a similar legacy of excellent teaching, creative scholarship and passionate ministry.

Lately, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been extremely helpful as I think about what it means for individuals and the church to follow Jesus Christ.  I am realizing that discipleship cannot be just a question of personal piety.  It certainly was more than this for Bonhoeffer.  The question of discipleship – what does it mean to follow Jesus Christ – is just as much a sociological, ecclesial or ethical question as it is a theological one.  Indeed, discipleship is even a question of religionless Christianity.  These are important questions for the academy and the church to consider.  What does it mean for Joel to follow Jesus from Taizé back to Sweden?  How does the church walk with Melissa as she grapples with her understanding of the Bible?  How can a university or seminary equip its students with the tools and ideas to not just think about God, but to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth? 

But there are more questions: questions of tragedy, of ethics, of culture…  What does it mean to follow Jesus Christ for the abused, for the Wall Street executive, for the iPhone toting teenager?  And how can the church foster a culture of discipleship for those who are seeking Jesus, both inside and outside of the church?  My task, then, is to express an understanding of discipleship that is grounded theologically, functions socially, ministers ethically and embraces the culture, in participation with God’s mission to world.

This is no small task.  And so I find myself working towards yet another academic degree – but for a clear purpose, and with a clear calling.  I am convinced that discipleship is playing a key role in God's continued restoration of the church today, and I cannot wait to see where the Spirit leads.

It is an exciting time to be a young theologian.