Word on the Street

May 11, 2012

I spent this week at Perkins School of Theology at SMU at the Mentor Pastor Training Seminar. This fall Jenna Morrison will officially become an intern at our church as part of her seminary curriculum and I have the privilege of serving as her Mentor Pastor. This means Jenna will continue her work as one of our Co Youth Ministers, but since her classroom work is significantly reduced, she will be learning about many of the other aspects of ministry at Grace Avenue. In other words, our church will become her classroom for the 2012-2013 school year.

During my training this week I was reminded of how fortunate I have been to have great mentors all along my journey in ministry. Perkins calls this work "field education" and I have been blessed with professors and mentors that helped me connect my academic learning with the practical side of doing day-to-day ministry. In every walk of life we need "field education" to make what we do practical, fruitful and productive. It is especially important in the Christian walk to have "field education"; that is to take what we learn from the Bible and put it into everyday living.

One of my favorite mentors both in the classroom and in the field was a gentle giant named Virgil Howard. Dr. Howard taught New Testament studies at Perkins when I started seminary. Later he became one of my preaching professors. In many respects whether you like/dislike my preaching, you can credit/blame Dr. Howard. Eventually he became the director of the intern program at Perkins, mentoring many students in their "field education" as they finished seminary.

This week things came full circle for me as we gathered for closing worship at the seminar. In 2005 Dr. Howard passed away. It is always painful to lose a mentor and someone whom you respect and love at a very deep level. As the service began, however, I looked down at the bulletin and noticed that we would be using a prayer that Dr. Howard had written while he was the Director of the Intern Ministry. It is actually an interpretation of the Lord's Prayer. Dr. Howard would have been quick to remind us that you don't rewrite the Lord's Prayer. The best you can do is interpret it in light of your own experiences; "field education". This is what he wrote and what we prayed in that worship experience:

God, you are Father and Mother to each of us,
But nearer than our own breath:
Make yourself the center of our world and our lives.
Reign over us and among us;
Let your creative and life-giving will and dream for us
happen right now and right here in our world.
Make every bite of bread a taste of your loving presence.
Don't make us relive our failures day after day,
and help us not to make others relive their own failures.
And do not abandon us to our own violence,
but show us the way out of the cycle of violence
that threatens to destroy us.
Because your Reign and your Power and your Glory are, finally, all that matter.
AMEN.