Education

Because my ministry setting is particularly in the field of education, education is something about which I spend a lot of time thinking, hypothesizing, and wondering. It seems so clear that education is the answer to so many of the world's problems. AIDS in Africa, crime, violence, poverty, and the cycle that develops from those. To quote, "Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense." Then I think, "It's not just education, dummy. It's compassion." Getting people to know and getting them to care are not the same thing. How do we get people to understand the root cause of poverty and give a damn about it. How do we liberate folks (including me) from a wicked case of incurvatus in se and turn, instead, toward each other. If the church continues merely as assent to a creed rather than a collective action for good, a constant pushing for change that is deep in our bones, it's doomed. Assent and socializing are not the future of the church. The Xers and millenials won't stand for it. If the church is to become the living out of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of God's unconditional, irrevocable love for us, then the church will have to bring the Jesus-way into all aspects of life: political, social, economic, and, indeed, educational. Pray for us at PLTS. Pray that our students will continue to go forth from this place ready and energized to make a difference in the world. Pray that your own education would lead you to deeper reflection on the way things work and that, coupled with the Spirit's movement of your heart, it would help bring about the Kingdom of God. Peace. Pastor Greg.

Colleague Group

One of the blessings of being a first-call pastor is the opportunity to meet, every 6 weeks, with my first-call colleagues from around the Sierra Pacific Synod. Today, we met at Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church in South San Francisco and talked about the issues that face new pastors. It was a good time for sharing, listening, empathizing, celebrating, offering advice, praying, eating, and sharing the eucharist. One of the things that I do during that time is think of you, the people in the church who are considering a vocation in public ministry. And we hold you in prayer.

GTU-Wide Open House!

Last Tuesday, the Admissions Directors of the GTU schools met at the CDSP (the Epsicopal Seminary) to plan the 7-9 April open house that we will all sponsor! That's right: Our Spring PreviewPLTS will coincide with the open house of all GTU schools! This is another example of the way that the schools of the Graduate Theological Union work so closely together. To sign up for the weekend, send an email to PreviewPLTS@plts.edu.

ELCA Seminary Admissions Directors' Retreat

In early January, the Admissions Directors of (most of) the ELCA Seminaries gathered in Sonoma, California for our bi-ennial Professional Development Retreat. The retreat was facilitated by Sarah Cozzi, a PLTS alumna and founding director of Celebrate Living (www.celebrateliving.org) and focussed on the "dance" that our Admissions vocations involve: the dance between "working for" God and "trusting in" God. The retreat also provided us a "time away" for reflection, communion, and prayer, as well as a bit of time to get to know each other better and enjoy each others' company.

LSM Gathering

In late December, I was with the LSM Gathering in San Diego. What a great gathering of promising individuals, clearly committed to the life of the church. It was great to hear speakers such as Pr. Kim Erno and Sunitha Mortha talk about their ministry experiences, as well as to hear from the LSMers about theirs! The Seminaries were able to sponsor two discernment workshops for about 40 people, as well as set up tables to display materials about our schools. After the event, about 12 people came north for a few days in Berkeley on PLTS's campus. The wind and record rain we had that week didn't discourage them! For more information about LSM, visit www.lsm-usa.org.