“Last in, first out.” That’s one of the perks of being Seminary president. Today is “Call Day” when our students learn where the church is sending them. The announcements happen in a festive service, joyous but anxious for students and their families, and the presidential perk is that I’m the last one to process in for the service but the first one to recess out. When I walk out, I head straight up to the balcony so that I can watch the students, calls in hand, walk out two-by-two.
They are going into a world they do not know and into experiences they cannot imagine. Some go with maturity; others have maturing ahead of them. Their average age is about 32. Some are A+ students but will need to learn better interpersonal skills. Others may not be good at parsing Greek or Hebrew but do have emotional intelligence, a characteristic of a good pastor. Some have seriously heavy student debts and are worried. Others have middling debts, and only a few have none. I watch them walk out of the chapel and think of all the interactions I’ve had with them during their time here. But most of all I pray that they more and more consciously follow Jesus Christ. They know it already in their heads, that they can’t put their faith in a seminary or in the institutional church or in their own abilities, good as they may be. They’re walking out to experience sin and grace in the depth of their souls, and in the experience to be reminded that faith has no other resort than Jesus Christ. Looking down from the balcony, I admit that I get a bit teary-eyed. I also wish I was a young man again walking out into life and ministry.
“Last in; first out” also happens to be the goal of people who go to church grudgingly. May these new pastors keep walking, walking in their communities, walking among their people, so that when Sunday comes more and more people will say, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Psalm 122:1)
“Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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