Let's Talk About Sex

The song "Let's Talk About Sex" was playing as I walked into my Models of Young Adult Ministry class this morning! If you weren't awake by now, you were now! This specific topic was not explicitly named on the syllabus, but all of the readings for today were somehow related to the topic of sex in one way or another. The professors were definitely hinting at it... as were the authors of the assigned book and articles for this mornings class. "Churches are scared to talk about sex..." the readings say, so let's do it... let's talk about sex.

Sex is such a touchy thing. Indeed it is, and it seems like everywhere one turns, no one else wants to talk about it as a serious discussion. As a group of 50 seminarians, we changed that today. We started off with a classroom poll (anonymous) about sex, marriage, and ordination. What we found is that not everyone agrees. On most of the specific questions, the class was split 60-40. Knowing this going into the discussion was quite interesting, yet expected in seminary. We then talked about what the Bible says about sex and marriage. Each of us had to work through our own definitions of 'touchy' words like: chastity, fornication, adultery, fidelity, sex, hooking up, and marriage. It seemed like one of the harder definitions to develop was "marriage" in light of the ongoing controversy about same-sex marriage and homosexuality in the church. 

Studies, studies, studies. Much of the assigned reading for today's class contained research material about what emerging adults (ages 18-29) thought about sex and the church. The key point that many of these research studies made was that sex is something we need to talk about in the church with our young people. We can't keep avoiding it and pretend that everybody "just knows" how things are "supposed" to be. Church leaders especially need to initiate conversations about this topic. 

Purity vs. Liberation. We then had a guest speaker who talked about common views of sex in the church. He spoke about the two prevailing, yet opposing points of view. (1) Purity--people must remain pure until marriage; (2) Liberation--no one has any right to tell me what is morally right or wrong. Our speaker then suggested a third route: sexuality from a perspective of witness of and to the gospel. He didn't make any very solid claims, but he did cite a whole lot of Corinthians and Ephesians. Overall the lecture left us with more questions than answers.

This was quite the class to have bright and early on a Monday morning, but I'm glad it happened. If we can't talk about sex at seminary, how are we ever going to be able to talk about it in our churches to our congregations? The conversation was so compelling that it even overflowed into the lunch hour and dominated table conversation. Nobody pretends that we are all going to agree of the topic from a theological perspective, but I think it was clear today that this is something we cannot ignore--we need to talk about it. Anyway, this is how my week has started! I hope to write another post about other things going on sometime soon. Now, it is time to read about tomorrow's topic! The Lord be with you now and always! =)

"...never go down the drain!"

This week has flown by! Holy moley, where did it go already?! It's Friday, but it feels like a Monday! This is insane! I am going to attempt to recap the week, but I feel like I have lost it... it's just gone already! Sheesh! =)

Visiting Home. I have not been to my home church in I don't know how long, but it's been awhile. I know I have not worshiped there since Christmas... which is weird when I think about it. Fortunately, I was able to make it to the mid-week program this week, which just so happened to be the final week of it for the church-year! Phew, that was close! I brought a friend of mine, and we had a wonderful time. It was great to see all those wonderful, familiar faces, and First Pres WC has a way with hospitality! Every time I am there it feels like I never left! Also, great news for my church mom! HOOOORAY! =)

Saying Good-bye. Do you want to know something that I do not like? Saying good-bye. Yep, it's pretty much one of the worst things ever. The school-year is coming to a close here, and the first of my very dear friends has already departed, and I won't get to see him for three months! (Holy cow--that's too long)! There are many others friends who I also won't get to see for the entire summer because they have this whole love-thing going on for the West coast or whatever! But worst of all, there are friends that I won't get to see for an even longer time! International students (one Scottish friend, in particular) and graduating seniors won't be coming back in the fall! Ugh, this stinks! The only upside is the awesomeness of Skype... that is all.

Another good-bye we had to do as a community yesterday was a good-bye to all of the Youth Conference participants! This is a bitter sweet thing, but a necessary one nonetheless. The final sending-off was a worship service yesterday where none other than Kenda Dean was preaching. She is a pretty awesome preacher! She preached from Revelation 21, and took it in a very optimistic direction and related it to the the Youth Conference. She reminded us--quoting Mr. Rogers--that, "You'll never go down, never go down, never go down the drain!" Overall, very interesting and a good close to the conference.

Short-term class. My intensive course started today! Wooo Hooo! There is so much reading about "emerging adults," which I should probably be working on now, but my eyes need a break! The interesting thing is that I am reading about a demographic group that I am still a part of! Oh Sociology... it's been too long! Anyway, it was quite wonderful today, and I anticipate it being just as wonderful the next two and a half weeks! It also includes a field trip to DC and Virginia! Oh yeah! =)

Romans. I have a lot of "favorites" in the Bible, and sometimes they change quicker than I can keep track of. One of my favorite, favorite epistles is definitely Paul's letter to the Romans! Oh, and guess what? There is an entire conference just on that Epistle here at PTS next week! I can hardly wait! Three whole days of Romans--sounds all kinds of fantastical to me! It's going to be cha-awesome! Okay, I am geeking out a little bit here--sorry, moving on...

It's weird to think that I am very nearly 33% done with my education here at Princeton! Two more years to go! Yippee! I hope all is well with each of you! Please, continue to send me any prayer requests you may have. Blessings and Peace! =)



 

General Conference [not Assembly]

Good day, dear friends, and what a beautiful day it is here in New Jersey! A bit cool for my liking, but nonetheless, very pleasant outside--a great day for reading! So, that's what I am doing--preparing for my short term intensive course, "Models of Young Adult Ministry." For this class, I have been enveloped in a book titled Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood. It's all very quite interesting, especially because according to the book's definition of "emerging adults," I am still one of them! Hooray for me! Anyway, I have a few things to share with all of you:

Methodist General Conference. Let me preface this section with this: I am not Methodist, so if any of this information is incorrect, I am counting on my good friend KO to comment and correct any mistakes I may make here. Anyway, the United Methodist Church, unlike the PC(USA), is an international church. Every four years, they hold a General Conference which includes representatives from all of the Annual Conferences around the world. This General Conference begins today in Tampa, FL and lasts through May 4. Among other important issues that they will be discussing, they will also be voting on what I suppose would be considered the equivalent to the PC(USA) Amendment 10-A. There is a movement to remove the phrase, "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," from their Book of Discipline. So, it wouldn't hurt for you to say a prayer for wisdom and guidance for them. Despite denominational affiliations, we're all God's children and need to support one another. I have also posted a video that was recommended to me below. It is a United Methodist pastor (and Ph.D. student here at the seminary) preaching about the subject last Sunday. I strongly encourage taking 20 minutes out of your busy schedule to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HV4s4fB6DHg

Fall Term Classes. Another way I am able to add to my productivity of today was to schedule classes for the Fall semester! Wooo! This is super exciting! I enrolled in some super awesome classes: Greek, Preaching, The Problem of Evil, Presbyterian Polity, Insiders and Outsiders (Church History), and Field Education (church placement). I must admit that I am a little bit anxious about Greek. Rumor on the street has it that people tend to be good at either Hebrew or Greek, rarely both; and I am pretty darn good with Hebrew. I am hoping that my knowledge of Latin, English, and a little bit of Spanish will be able to help with Greek! The Problem of Evil is an ethics class (my other major in college was Philosophy), yay! Presbyterian Polity--definitely a requirement for my Presbytery, but unlike some Presbys around here, I am looking forward to it! Insiders and Outsiders is a modern church history class--we'll see how this goes because history is not particularly one of my strongest interests. Finally, I am doing Field Ed at Forest Grove Presbyterian Church in Forest Grove, PA! This is super duper exciting! =)

As I near the end of my first year in seminary, I think about all the wonderful people who have been instrumental along the way! Thanks to you all! Until next time, take care, beloved friends! Blessings and peace! =)

With Joy and Happiness

This week was oober busy, friends, so I have had zero time to sit down and write a blog post. This nice thing about this week is that it is over! I have successfully completed all of my assignments, exams, projects, papers, everything! Wooo Hooo! Time for a loooong weekend before May term begins! Before moving onto that, however, I will try to fully recap this past week:

NT Exam. After spending 3 days or so memorizing the entire New Testament, studying key terms, reviewing essays, remembering maps, etc etc. I took the test Wednesday morning, and I feel great about it. Easy peasy! Word in the cafeteria has it that the hardest part about the whole thing was Scripture Identification. Lucky for me, I am very good at this without actively studying it. It's just the kind of memory I have, I suppose. Also, we had some interesting bonus question: seven dwarfs, seven churches in Revelation, quotation from Jude, etc. Our NT professors have quite a sense of humor.

Hesed in Pastoral Care. My 12 page PC paper was about my theology of Pastoral Care. I wrote about the importance of hesed--that is, steadfast love and faithfulness--in care-giving. It's quite interesting. I discussed compassion, empathy, and co-suffering on three levels: individual, communal, and cosmic. I'll let you all know what my professor thought of my paper in about a week's time. ;)

Hannah's Identity. My other paper, which ended up being about 10 pages in length was a little bit more difficult to write. There isn't much literature on Women's Narratives in the Old Testament, so much of what I wrote was just from me (with little scholarly support). I made an argument from a feminist perspective about Hannah's search for self-identity. We'll see if my professor thinks I made a compelling argument.

Psalms. I love the Psalms! They're pretty awesome. I have had to do a number of projects for this class, and I did each and every one of them with joy and happiness! If you'd like to see some of my work, shoot me an email, send me a text, or find me at church on some random Sunday; I'd be happy to share. =) After going to the singing portion of my final, my whole practicum class went to our professor's house for a cookout! It was pretty awesome to relax at this point during finals week!

 

Let's go Pens! On top of all of these finals, I have had to deal with the up-down, roller coaster, inconsistent playing of my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins! Now, I know that many of you reading this are Flyers fans, but come on, this series has been ridiculous. The defense and goalies need to step it up! I'm hoping we push it to a game 7 after tomorrow's game! Let's go Pens!

I hope all is well with each and every one of you! Blessings and Peace!! 

That was a quick semester!

Happy Lord's Day everyone! I am here to inform you that my handy Princeton coin has led me to write this blog. I was on the fence about how to take a study break--guitar, laundry, or blog--so I flipped my Princeton Semianry Bicentennial coin. If it landed on the Princeton side (picture of the seminary), I would play guitar; if it landed on Paul-Romans quote side, I would write a blog. If gravity decided not to work, and the coin was suspended in mid-air, then I was going to do laundry! Fortunately for me, it landed upright against the base of my dresser... I took this as a sign to play guitar and write a blog! So here is what my week is going to look like:

Theology of Pastoral Care. My PC paper assignment is to write my theology of pastoral care. Easy task, right? Surely, but it's is a very vague assignment! I went to town, though, and really enjoyed working on this paper yesterday! Everything sort of fit together perfectly! I love when this happens! I think my ideas flow nicely, and I am a Bible-quoting machine in this paper! I still have some proofreading, citing, and class-evaluating to do before I finish the paper, but I really like what I have so far. Yippee!

Exegesis of Hannah. Paper number two! This one is going to be a monster! Relatively speaking, there is not a whole lot of literature about women narratives in the Old Testament. I've done most of the exegeting and research, I just have to write the paper. I think I have a pretty strong thesis to work with, but I have to find an organized way to make my argument compelling! This may be Tuesday and/or Thursday project.

Psalter & Worship Service. This final is already complete. I was so excited to do it that I finished it over a week ahead of time. For my Psalms class, we got to pick several small projects that would compose our final assignment. I choose to make a mini-Psalter (25 psalms) that will serve as a good start into the Psalter as a whole. I have also included an index of my "Pastoral Care Psalms." Each Psalm that I chose includes vertical habits (simple grammatical terms describing the Psalm), suggestions for prayer, several word description, and a memory verse. The other part of my final was making an entire worship service: every liturgical element, prayers, hymns, announcements, anthems, movements, (thesis of) sermon, benediction, etc. I had a ridiculous amount of fun with this... which is probably a good sign for my future! =)

NT Exam. A cumulative exam on the entire New Testament! I am feeling pretty confident about this, especially after spending the better part of today studying for this! Terms, essays, outlines, Scripture identification, maps, themes, etc etc! I'm ready!

...what's studying without a little bit of silliness:

Alrighty friends, I think I am going to do some studying again! Thanks for the study break! Have a good one! =)

BGLASS

Hello to all of you! Despite the fact that finals week is next week and I should be studying and writing papers, I have decided to take a break and write a post about what I believe to be a very important topic! This past week was BGLASS (Bisexual Gay Lesbian And Straight Supporters) week here at the seminary, and it was filled with wonderful lectures and events. I will briefly review several of the lectures I have attended.

Pastoral Care of LGBT. Professor Dykstra is a pretty cool dude. I have never personally had him in class, but I have heard nothing but good things about the man. He has a wonderful teaching style, and he is incredibly easy to listen to. He spoke a lot about pastoral care to LGBT congregants, especially youth. Prof Dykstra also recommended the following website for information about supporting LGBT in the church: believeoutloud.com. He only got to speak for 40 minutes time, but he emphasized the fact that acceptance of LGBT parishioners is extremely important, and sometimes this acceptance on an individual basis is a process. Overall, a very good lecture.

Texts of Terror. Oh my wonderful lecture! My personal favorite from the week! Profs Lapsley and Sakenfeld (OT Biblical Scholars) presented Old Testament supports for anti-gay movement. They presented evidence as to why these biblical passages are misinterpreted and wrongly applied to our current context and situation. Discussion then led into why LGBT clergy and ordination is such a big deal in the church today. One of my collegues made a great point: why is this an issue and things like helping the poor are not? What is it about this that has people's feathers so fluffed up?

Children of God. A lecture by a Methodist minister and Ph.D. candidate here at the seminary specifically about ministering to LGBT youth. His emphasis was that we are all children of God, and should all be ministered to with equal care. He spoke of several personal stories in which this has been such a major issue, and made some novel ideas as to how we as a church could better address youth ministry overall.

10A. The amendment to change the language of ordination standards in the PC(USA) was also discussed all week long. Some agree, some disagree. The important thing is that we are in conversation about it. The question is: Are we actually in conversation about it? To many, it seems to be more of a disrespectful argument than anything else. There was a task force established for peace, unity, and purity in the denomination a few years back, but the divisiveness still continues. 

The week ended with a great big cookout on the quad with a huge moonbounce castle thing! Yay! It was a whole lot of fun! It was a great week with great lectures, great speakers, and great conversations! For this, I am grateful! But now, it's time to get back to studying and paper-writing. I will update again soon and tell you all about the papers I am writing and the project I have been working on (all extremely interesting to me, and hopefully to you)! Blessings and Peace. =)

Kingdom Quotes Pt. VI

 Good day, friends! Here are even more wonderful little quotations!

Everyone has a God-shaped empty place inside, a spot that can be filled only by the divine presence.


No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible.


Sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to sum up the day. Some days you could do everything right and still be wrong. Sometimes the day just... ends.

Mercy bears better fruit than strict justice.

There is no lasting hope in violence, only temporary relief from hopelessness.

The attributes we thought we knew about God until Jesus were turned upside down by God himself! God used what was foolish to shame the wise... and he did it in the most unexpected way.

The New Testament takes our illusions and destroys them. If you are serious about following Jesus, but you don't eventually die... you have some explaining to do.

Because words weren't enough, God put flesh on.

Scars remind us of where we've been; they don't have to dictate where we're going. 


How will God succeed when we are determined that God will fail?


There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and of unspeakable love.


In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.

Have an excellent weekend! =) Blessings and Peace!

The Holiest of Weeks

Greetings sisters and brothers! =) I just now recognized that I have not recapped the latter part of Holy Week or Easter through a blog post. So, that is what I am going to do now! Holy Week for me was filled with a whole lot of services, a whole lot of running around, and a whole lot of reflection. I hope yours was just as fruitful as mine has been. And also... lent is over! Congratulations to those of you who gave something up or took something on and succeeded! To those of you who struggled... you still have next year (or better yet, any forty days throughout the year that you choose)!

Letters of Paul. Well friends, I was as faithful as I hoped I would be with my Scripture memorization! I have memorized more Pauline verses than I thought I ever could or would! Hooray! I must admit, avoiding ice cream and cookies was much more difficult! This is probably for two reasons: my love of ice cream and cookies, but also my affinity to scripture memorization. I hope to continue my routine without restricting myself to Pauline verses.


Maundy Thursday. In addition to other holy services at the beginning of the week in chapel, I went to Nassau Presbyterian Church for a Maundy Thursday service. It was exactly what I expected of Maundy Thursday (and just as emotion-eliciting as ever)! Also, the preacher referenced a commentary on Mark that I thought was interesting. The Scripture lesson came from Mark 14--Peter's Denial. The preacher commented that we often breeze through this passage, and when in John, we jump right to the threefold declaration of love after the Resurrection. The commentary, however, urges us to focus on this passage and draws attention to the space between Peter and Jesus after each denial--it increases. Interesting observation.


7 Last Words. Friday I went to chapel for their special service. It was a Tenebrae service of the 7 last words of Jesus interspersed with Psalm 22 and, of course, music. Since the service was at 11:30, it wasn't particularly dark, but the service was just as powerful. Thank you seminary chapel for your faithfulness!


Easter Hockey Game. After an understandably emotional week of services, I headed home with a friend of mine to spend Easter in NEPA! We spent a lot of time with my family and even went to a WBS Penguins hockey game Saturday evening! Let's go Pens!

Easter morning, we went to the Presbyterian Church in my hometown, and then headed back to our academic Christian bubble in Princeton! Overall it was a pretty swell week + weekend!

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen!

Peace.

Kingdom Quotes Pt. V

I've been racking these suckers up a lot lately, so expect Pt. VI relatively soon! I hope you like them as much as I do! =)

(about suffering) Instead of feeling that we are opposed to God, we can feel our indignation is God's anger at unfairness working through us, that when we cry out, we are still on God's side, and He is still on ours.


Service is an event. Justice is a lifestyle.


If you can envision the invisible, God can do the impossible.


We beat ourselves up because we compare our behind-the-scenes to others' highlight reels.


It's in times like these when you really need to get your King James on!


The best rebuke of the bad is embodiment of the better.


Depression is when your soul gets tired.


Man depends on God for all things; God depends on man for one. Without Man's love, God does not exist as God, only as Creator, and love is the one thing that no one, not even God himself, can command. It is a free gift or it is nothing. And it is the most itself, the most free, when it is offered in spite of suffering, of injustice, and of death.


Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realised.


In youth we learn, in age we understand.


Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can really hurt me.


Make your decisions out of hope and not fear.

Enjoy your day, friends! =)

Bulletins!

Good day friends! It's wonderful to be writing this blog, and I hope that it is just as wonderful to be reading it. Today, I will be talking about a particular obsession of mine--bulletins! I know it's weird, but perhaps by the end of this post, I can convince you to hang on to those little pieces of paper longer than just an hour! So here goes nothing!


Hoarder of Bulletins! I love bulletins! Don't ask me why... there is just something about them! I don't know what it is, really. I do, however, have several theories:
1. I love organization and most bulletins are very good examples of something organized and formatted by an anal-retentive person. This is such an admirable quality. The movement of a worship service is oh so very important.
2. There is something about having a tangible piece of worship. It's like evidence. It's like a memory that you can literally hold on to.
3. Talk about a good resource! Can you say reference material?
4. 99% of the time, there is something about a worship service that I want to remember to eventually use one day. If I ever get around to organizing my drawer full of bulletins, I could put together a Word Doc of great ideas!
5.I have a not-so-good memory, and bulletins have great memories and reminders of events that I want to attend!
6. Sometimes I will take notes or write down quotes on my bulletin. If I take time to write it down, I should probably hold onto it!
7. I'm weird.

Psalms Final. I have a few projects to do for my Psalms final, all of which are really, really awesome! First, I need to compile a mini canon of 25 go-to psalms for my congregation. So essentially, I am choosing 25 psalms, organizing them, and giving a little bit of information about why these particular 25 are good to know (if you'd like a copy--please feel free to email me: ashley.reimold@gmail.com). Second, I have to put together a complete worship service around Psalm 90. This is where my bulletins will certainly come in handy! And finally, throughout the semester I had to journal through the psalms! It was one of those long and tedious tasks... but I must say it was totally worth it!

There should be another "Kingdom Quotes" post coming very soon! Hold steady through Holy Week, friends, Easter is just around the bend! =) The Lord be with you!

Palms to Passion

Palm Sunday. Oh, Palm Sunday. This is such an interesting day in the liturgical calendar. What do you do with it? You can treat it like celebration... after all, that's what it was back in the day. But then again, if your church is not very large and/or does not have Thursday and Friday services this week, you should probably treat it as Passion Sunday in place of Palm Sunday. You don't want to go from HOORAY to HOORAY (Palm Sunday to Easter) and miss the depths of Holy Week. The Seminary treated it kind of as both with their Palms to Passion worship service.

Palms to Passion. I really enjoy the music ministry here at the seminary. It is quite wonderful. We have four choirs! WHOA! And they are all very excellent. Our music director is a genius; our minister of the chapel is the best! We even had a guest conductor and organist! It was a pretty awesome service. The nice thing about the service was the movement. It started with Palm Sunday and ever so slowly moved through Holy Week: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... Sunday! Each section of the service had a hymn, an anthem, a organ solo, Scripture reading, and a time for prayer. Overall, it was very well pieced together! Oh and check out the palm cross I made! =)

Footprint. Every time I hear "footprint" in a religious context, I automatically think about the poem with the footprints in the sand that is just a tad overused (if you asked me). But that is not what I'm talking about here! Rather I am referring to your footprint... you know, concerning the environment. Here on campus we have an organization called ECOS (and I can't remember what the letters stand for, but they're the environmental group). Anyway, we just starting composting, so ECOS extended a challenge to everyone: reduce your footprint. Carry around a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and put all of your trash in it (minus compostable items, food, and hygiene products). Do this for three days, and whoever's bag weighs the least at the end of this time wins a $75 gift card to whole foods! Wooo! And, you get a free schnazzy looking water bottle for signing up!

Well, that's a pretty solid update! Interesting events are abounding this week! =) Also, I saw pictures from the Palm Sunday 5K--great job to all participants! It looks like it was very much fun! Keep up the awesomeness! Peace be with you.