Last Day

Yesterday was my last day at St. Mark, and it was definitely a tough one. I knew going in that I was going to have a hard time dealing with leaving, so I brought some tissues with me and hoped for the best.

I made it through the whole first service no problem. Although hearing Linda announce that I was leaving made me a little sad, I didn’t really have any problems getting through the service.

Then those awesome people had to go and have a party in between services for me. They got me a cake, made a beautiful card, and got me some presents. Linda made a little speech, during which I did my best not to cry and then they made me give a little speech too. They gave me a cross that has the Luther Rose on one side and the Chi Rho on the other. Basically awesome. They also got me the Pastor’s edition of the Lutheran Handbook and the Pastoral Care supplement to the ELW, which I have been told is an invaluable resource for CPE.

The second service did not go so well. Although I managed to pull myself together for all of the pieces/parts of the service that I actually had to do, I was kind of a wreck. Linda did a farewell/Godspeed at the end, and I even made it through “God be with You Till We Meet Again,” the final song.

I have had such a good time at St. Mark that I just can’t imagine not being there anymore. It’s pretty crazy. In August, when I found out about needing to do field education, I wasn’t super excited about the prospect of 8-10 MORE hours of my week being taken up by something beyond my control. I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to handle school and work, much less school, work, and field ed.

When I found out I couldn’t work at Prince of Peace, I was disappointed and worried about the project. I even tried to find out if I could possibly skip field ed for my first year and instead take care of it during my second and third years of seminary. Then Paul, the pastor at Prince of Peace, told me to contact Linda at St. Mark. When I went to talk to our field ed director, he was super excited. I figured maybe I could handle this after all—eight hours wasn’t that much and I could muddle through.

Then I actually met Linda and started going to church and meeting people at St. Mark. Within a matter of days, I went from dragging my heels about the whole concept of field ed. I gladly spent 5 hours at church every Sunday morning, coming back for Confirmation some weeks, going to Bible study, attending meetings, debriefing with Linda and more throughout the week. By Christmas, I already knew that leaving was going to suck.

Everything about being at St. Mark was just wonderful. I learned so much through all of the activities I participated in, I had a great time getting to know the people, and I felt SO encouraged throughout the whole year. Every time I did something in worship (almost every week), I got support from the congregation. Every time I taught a class, Linda or Stacey would thank me and talk me through how it went. Every time I went to a meeting, everyone took my opinion into consideration and thanked me for helping.

And Linda was the most supportive of all. She really let me just pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses, and we went off of what I wanted/needed to learn. She did a great job of answering all of my questions, encouraging me when I felt like I had no clue, and helped me talk through some difficult situations. When I was confused about something, she listened and helped me understand. I couldn’t have asked for more in a supervisor, and everyone I work with after this is definitely going to have some big shoes to fill.

Well, I’m working on getting things taken care of for next year. In the meantime, I’ll be starting CPE at the beginning of June, so I’m sure there will be a lot to reflect on in that matter. Until then, I’ll probably be pretty quiet.  

On Teaching Teenagers

Easter was a super awesome celebration of awesomeness. I really have no other way to describe it. The whole day was just great—exhausting, but great. And that’s all I have to say about that.  

A big part of my work at field ed this year has been observing and helping out with both the 7th/8th grade class and the Confirmation class (9th graders). This Sunday was the last time I led both classes, and it was a very interesting one indeed.

In the Sunday school class, we talked about the mission of the church. That meant reading the Great Commission (the end of Matthew), as well as the first part of Acts, where Jesus gives his disciples instructions and then ascends into heaven. It was a pretty cool lesson to get to teach. I had a great plan for reading through the passages, and then looking at the mission of St. Mark and seeing where the mission of the church came into play. Then I was going to have them write their own mission statements.

The class had some slightly different plans, however. I had four kids in class—all boys—and apparently I had set a precedent for myself by playing Apples to Apples with them the last time I taught class. This meant that they had decided before we even started class that we were going to rush through the lesson and then spend most of the day playing Apples to Apples. I was not pleased.

Something I’ve learned over the course of this year through teaching and helping out with these classes is that there is a time to be assertive and a time to change your plans. Sunday was definitely the latter. We compromised by spending a good portion of our time on the lesson, not rushing through the readings or the questions, with the promise that we would play Apples to Apples with whatever time we had left at the end.

This plan worked out great. We had one of the best discussions I think we’ve had out of any of the times I have taught that class. The boys were attentive and really knew the answers to the questions—even the ones that didn’t come directly out of the readings for the day. They were able to relate what we were reading to the Creed, and they even knew that Judas had killed himself—which led to us reading the account of Judas exploding in Acts. What more could a group of middle school boys want to hear from the Bible?

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of things. There are definitely times in the past where I would have insisted that we do things my way or no way. I think that would have been detrimental to the discussion on Sunday. The boys would have been sullen, I would have been upset, and true learning in faith would never have happened. Instead, we had a really great discussion, a good time, and they were even able to make Apples to Apples relate to our readings. God works in mysterious ways—even through silly games.

(On an unrelated note, I’m awesome at Apples to Apples).

Strengths and weaknesses

Yesterday, Linda told me that I'm "fabulous" after church. The reasoning was because of the craziness that went on during our second service. The acolyte hadn't showed up by about 5 minutes before the service, so we had a girl who is in the choir carry the cross in and take care of the candles and everything. Since she's in the choir, she couldn't do the offering, which we talked about beforehand. Part of the way through the service, I realized she also wouldn't be able to take care of her Communion duties, so I jumped up and took care of that.

The lector and I usually split the lector duties, so we sometimes get confused as to who is doing what each week. This week, the dismissal came earlier than we would expect, because we didn't sing a sending hymn. The lector wasn't quite ready, and so I jumped out and did the dismissal. No big deal--something needed to be done, so I did it.

We talked about this a little bit after church, and Linda thanked me for stepping in and just recognizing when something needs to be done. Instead of waiting around to let someone else take care of these issues, I did it myself. This is a great virtue--as the seminarian. But I pointed out that there IS an issue here--I can't take care of everything that needs doing when I'm the pastor. That's exactly the kind of pastor that I don't want to be, yet many congregations expect their pastor to be.


I guess what I'm realizing as I go through this process is that I'm learning a lot about myself. I already knew that I have some gifts for ministry and some qualities that I'll have to overcome. Through the last few months, I've learned what more of these are. I've also learned that something that seems to be a pro can actually be a con in the wrong situation. I'm hoping that I can continue to recognize these. This whole time has been a great learning experience.