The Bulldog Bites Again

The Answer Has Been in My Pocket All Along - Apr 2010

For a while now, well-before this internship began actually, the lingering question in the back of my mind has been 'what comes next?'

Over the past couple of weeks the answer, for the immediate next step at least, has presented itself: I've been awarded and can now say that I will be accepting an offer of admission to the Master of Sacred Theology [STM] degree program at Yale Divinity School.

In returning to New Haven, I'll be putting my experiences from the field during this year in Malaysia into direct conversation with literature and scholarship in the fields of World Christianity, Mission, and Evangelism through focused coursework and a final thesis/writing project.

Although it delays my return to the land of gainful employment by a couple more months, this nine-month program will allow me to meaningfully use my time as the ELCA's 'first call' and job placement processes play out. Tentatively set to participate in the October assignment, I'll then be able to officially begin considering/being considered for positions and job openings - all with an eye to a May start date.

When I did the tassel-flip nearly a year ago, so quick a return to school was nowhere on my radar. Now I find myself heading back to Nutmegger country, again in a state of humbled awe and thanksgiving.

How did this happen? For those who might be curious, I'll post the opening paragraphs to my admissions essay below. If you aren't so curious, no worries lah.

With that, I'll sign off for now. Thanks for reading along and sharing in this good news.

All the best!

-p

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[From Dec 2009/Jan 2010]

It was in a Malaysian rainforest that I found my face one again turned to Yale Divinity School. A pastoral intern from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America assigned to work in a local Lutheran congregation in Kuala Lumpur I was there this September, in the jungle, participating in a leadership camp and evangelical fellowship/outreach event for migrant workers from Nepal.

One evening during the camp I was talking with one of the Nepali leaders of the Migrant Ministry Partnership about his work within that community. During that conversation he made, what was to my mind at least, an astonishing observation. “Here we (Nepalis) are, a mostly-Hindu people coming to a Muslim land (Malaysia) for work and somehow - somehow we find Christ and New Life in the process. This,” he said, “ . . . this is a 21^st Century Miracle.”

It is this ‘miraculous’ phenomenon, the transmission of faith within and between churches and peoples of the Global South/East, that has caught my imagination and sent me in pursuit of further studies, specifically a Master of Sacred Theology with an emphasis on World Christianity. It is a phenomenon that, for whatever reason, often goes largely under-reported or unacknowledged in congregations, denominational offices and institutions of higher learning across the U.S. and yet, as the ‘center’ of Christianity shifts further to Latin America, Africa, and Asia (see Jenkins 'The Next Christendom') and the plurality of religions and peoples present in the Global North increases, it is a phenomenon that will become increasingly important for the Church and its leaders to understand in the years and decades to come.

My hope in returning to Yale Divinity School for this additional year of study is that I will be able to build off of and complement the knowledgebase and interdisciplinary work I pursued for the MDiv and Certificate in African Studies by putting experiences from the field and Southeast Asia into intentional conversation with related literature, scholars, and (as relevant) previous fieldwork in East Africa. Vocationally I am confident that pursuing the STM would leave me better equipped and prepared for a specialized, ordained position with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – whether that call takes the form of an internationally-minded domestic congregation, further global service, or advanced studies and the academy.