Quarter Break

Time to crack open November I suppose! I write this from Orlando International Airport awaiting my flight home to Islip, Long Island, New York. At seminary we are on a quarter schedule, each quarter lasts ten weeks, and what a quick ten weeks that was. The nice thing about the quarter system is you work really hard for ten weeks straight and then get two weeks off for break at a time (with the winter quarter being interrupted by Christmas/New Years). The other nice thing about being on a quarter system is that by the time I'm beginning to grow weary of classes I only have to make one more push to finish out strong. Fourteen weeks worth of semesters=several pushes to get through to the end.

All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself in St. Louis. The city itself is a nice town with a lot to offer. I often found myself taking solace in Forest Park on the nice days we did have (October was a wash out, November has been beautiful, September was great). One of my favorite things to do is people watch. Not in the creepy stalker way but in the taking in creation way. I'm always wondering where people are running off to. Mainly I decide that people are off running to do similar things as I, such as taking a break from "life" in a beautiful park. But even with that there are time constraints that hold us back from what we would otherwise enjoy in the moment. Even sitting there reading or people watching I'm ever mindful of this annoying clock that keeps telling me what time it is and what I have to do. That's more of a sidetrack rant, but I stand by it. So to recap of the classes:

Lutheran Mind: This class was literally about the mind. There were many days I came back to my room needing a nap because of the mental beating I had just taken. Because of those continuous mental beatings I enjoyed that class immensely. Most of the lectures were engaging and the class discussions on Thursdays were great. It was awesome to bounce ideas off of our Professor, Dr. Biermann, and listen to him respond with his wealth of knowledge and passion. At first glance the course "Lutheran Mind" looks like/sounds like a typical hoop to jump through. But it was not that at all, Lutheran Mind is a brilliant course that has me fired up for systematics the rest of the way here.

Pastoral Ministry: This introduction to Pastoral Ministry was a lot of fun. The lectures were the absolute best part, the grading was a bit annoying but whatever, and the class discussions that filtered from the lectures were very fruitful. Dr. Utech's ability to story tell made that class so engaging. He has such experiential depth that I could only hope to have by the time I retire, and this guy is still relatively young.

Greek Readings: Greek Readings is a course that has the intention to make you ever more familiar with the language and give you a foundation before getting into the exegetical courses. The professor, Dr. Oschwald, is a very pastoral man with you guessed it--vast knowledge. Our section was kind of his guinea pigs on test styles for the course but aside from that it was fun to run through selected texts of the New Testament with him in the original Greek.

Hebrew Readings: Same purpose as Greek Readings except in Hebrew! This was my only class on Friday, and at 2pm, at first I was thinking this would be cause to gaze out the window in hopes of weekend glory. Yet it turned out I found myself wanting more time in the class. Dr. Bartelt is the guy for Hebrew in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The standard Hebrew text bears his authorship and once again he is another person with a knowledge that makes me long to be half as smart by the end of my time in ministry. This class often went over the allotted time as we listened to Dr. Bartelt share with us the wonders of the Old Testament and the Hebrew text. Seriously, this class was great. My only gripe is that Dr. Bartelt was gone for 2 weeks guest lecturing at a seminary in South Africa. Oh well, I'll get over it since he was helping further advance the kingdom to our brothers in Africa.

So there ya have it. Next quarter, which begins November 30th, I will be taking Worship, Intro to Exegetical, Intro to Historical Theology, Lutheran Confessions I, and Pastor as Counselor. I am looking forward to getting into these classes.

One more note before I shut down and board, I am finding that seminary is not the hoop jumping experience I thought it would be. Every faculty member I have run into so far, even beyond my own classes, has been extremely pastoral and relevant. The seminary led by President Dale Meyer are making great strides to engage this fallen world with the true Gospel. Theology does not have to be sacrificed to do this and they recognize this. It seems to be full steam ahead with reaching out and I could not be happier.

For now I'm off to Islip to enjoy a nice long break at home, a Phish concert in Philadelphia, a return to St. John's Brooklyn Thanksgiving Eve to preach, and Thanksgiving my favorite holiday.