Today I’m starting the second session of summer school. I’m taking the Clinical Pastoral Orientation portion of my degree. There is a classroom and lab element to the class. The lab is doing visitations at the hospital. So, the class is about practicing being pastoral I guess. I like the idea of hands-on practical ministry. I’m actually looking forward to the class.
I also wonder if this is the right approach to teaching students how to be “pastoral”. It’s kind of hard to follow up the Missional Formation class. Adam Cleaveland is doing the same thing at Princeton right now. He has been writing about his experiences. He mentions that he often has No Words and in the silence with patients meets God.
I’m looking forward to the hands-on stuff, but not so much the classroom. I think there is definitely something powerful about meeting people, hearing their stories and being the presence of God for them. I’m hoping to share my experiences and stories from the class over the next few weeks.
Make this class stop!!!!!! Please be in charge of that. It has already taken all my will to live so I can’t….
I wish I could Chris… I have no will either. We’ve become lame seminary class zombies!