Welcome to PTS! (Part II)

Like I said, my first week at seminary was quite the adventure. There were plenty of good and bad surprises (checking out Abraham's statue near UChapel; having to read 100 pages on Genesis Chapter 22--the Scripture it is inspired by,-- respectively), but overall it was quite fantastic. I have included some of the most interesting of these adventures below:

"Come with me for the journey is long." What a great song. The whole incoming class sang it during our first morning prayer session of orientation. The seminary music director broke us up into two and then four sections of the chapel. I never thought such a large group of strangers could sound so amazing. The director of music is nothing short of a genius! And, he's a very nice guy. We also sang some other selections with exceptional relevance to the beginning of our new journey. One could feel God's presence among us!

Passing the peace. This is something that, as Christians, we may have gotten so used to that we're kinda numb. Here at PTS though, we take it at what it really is--sharing the peace of Christ with each other and with the whole kingdom. One of my classmates actually showed us how to sign it (in ASL). It's really neat.

Bumping Icebergs. This was one of the funnier memories from Orientation. We were all required to go to a multicultural diversity lecture, which was a pretty good idea. It was just funny how they described possible conflict within such a diverse community. They used an analogy of an iceberg. One could only see a certain percentage of an iceberg above water (a very small percentage with respect to the whole), and then there is a large portion hidden beneath the surface. The message was that it is rarely the surface things that get us into conflict with one another; it is the things hiding beneath the surface of our personalities that clash--the core values and beliefs. They referred to this as, "bumping icebergs." It was a very informative lecture, but now every time some people have a difference of opinion on the simplest thing, we cite the "bumping icebergs" idea.

First world problems. Many students here at the seminary run into times of trouble. Some of these instances are serious while others are minor that just seem to ruin your day because of built up tension or stress. There is a website that many PTS students check out and even post on just to put things into perspectives. Our "problems" aren't really problems at all--at least relative to the rest of the world. It keeps us grateful and thankful. Check it out: http://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems/

EXTREME rock-paper-scissors. I think this may be helpful if you are a youth pastor/leader. It is a lot of fun. Basically we had a room full of about 150 seminarians who had just spent the previous few days jamming our heads with information about the school and the like. And with all these wonderful people we played an extreme version of rock paper scissors. What you do is simply have everyone pair up. Each pair plays rock paper scissors. The winner then finds another winner to play against. The loser then cheers for the one who had defeated them. Then when the two winners are playing, the loser of that pair brings all of their followers along behind the winner of the second game and so on. This continues until there are two people remaining and a room full of cheering seminarians (or youth)--half cheering for each of the two finalists!

Quieting a crowd. This last one is something that was probably overlooked by many, but it struck me as something simple that may be useful in ministry. We were in a auditorium with about 150-200 people--all of them involved in their own conversations. The lecturer was ready to begin, but had no really graceful way of silencing the crowd without yelling. So what did he do? He began singing. He didn't just sing any old song, though. He sang Amazing Grace. The people in the front were encouraged to join him until the entire room was singing the song. After only the first verse, the lecturer stopped singing and now had a quiet room to begin his discussion. It was very clever.

As for week two: bring it on. It should be a lot of fun, and I definitely look forward to the new experiences and adventures.

Peace. =)

Welcome to PTS! (Part I)

First week of seminary! It was fantastic (to borrow a word commonly overused by one of my very good friends)! I have learned so much over the past week, it's not even funny. I have read more in the past seven days than I did all summer, and my throat is sore from all of the Hebrew I've been working on. BUT, it has been one of the best weeks on my life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. This will be the first of a two part blog. This will clear up things I have heard that are simply untrue about seminary, and more specifically, Princeton Theological Seminary. Just a few misconceptions:

Everyone is here to be a pastor. On the contrary. Many of the people here are still working out their vocation. They are still discerning their call. Even more obvious is that not everyone is here to get an M.Div. There are many Duals, MAs, and Th.M students. Furthermore, just because one is pursuing and M.Div does not mean that they wish to go into ordained ministry. Many of the M.Div-ers want to go onto teaching and other endeavors. 

Everyone does and should get along at seminary. False. As the minister of the chapel so nicely put it: "Christian community is not easy." Many people come to seminary with big expectations for how a Christian community should function. Some of the best advice I got this week was from upperclassmen who simply shared their frustrations about other (unnamed) seminarians. During orientation, we called this "bumping icebergs." It's a simple concept. Bringing such a diverse group of people together from all over the country and even all over the world means that not everyone is going to get along. People have different backgrounds, different expectations, and especially differing opinions. Everyone is civil with one another, but not everyone is going to like everyone else. 

Nobody curses, swears, or drinks. This was proven false on my very first day here. People curse. People swear. And Thursday night is karaoke night at the local bar. None of this is done in excess or to the point of offending anyone, so it's a pretty laid back community.

Everyone is oober-religious. Don't get me wrong, seminarians are religious people. We just shouldn't be placed in a negative context. Why do we get a bad wrap for a negative experience some people may have had with other religious groups, people, or movements? We love Jesus, and we think you should too, but we will hardly 'harass' you about it.

PTS's goal is to make money. Now, officially, this actually may be one of their goals, but not from my empirical observations. It seems like this institutions goal is to help their students discern God's call--no matter what the cost. Administrators and Professors truly care about you as a student, a Christian, and a person. It is veeeery different than my undergraduate experience. Everyone here invests themselves in you, and they want you to succeed in the worst way! A great way to describe PTS in one word: hospitable. 

Prestigious people are arrogant. Completely untrue. I would actually argue that the reason why some prestigious people are actually prestigious is because of their humility. There are a number of world-renowned theologians and professors here, and every single one of them that I have met is extremely humble. Case and point: the president of the seminary (the president!) makes it a habit to eat lunch in the dining hall, sit with students, and remember their names. Wow! It's just amazing, and if I may say so myself, no easy task to remember all those names and make time to eat lunch in the dining hall. Many of the professors do the same thing. It's just awesome.

I am sure that there are and will be other things that need clearing about about seminary, and I will be happy to post them as I come across further misconceptions. Hopefully, I'll get to Part II of this blog, which will include more specific narratives of things that have occurred during my first week here (plus orientation), some time very soon.

Incoming class picture (taken by KS, a seminary student):

May God bless you! =)