Okay, so here's the internal pondering that's gone one through all the travel and frustration of annual conference and celebrating that I did not move this year (never again, if it was up to me, but it's not).
I have applied for a Doctor of Ministry program at Drew University in New Jersey. This is something I have wanted to do since even before I graduated from Duke with my MDiv, but I haven't ever been in the right place to do it. Now I think I am. At least, I am out of excuses and so I've applied, too close to the deadline, and so with the possible exception of Eric's, all the recommendation letters and transcripts will be late.
This is a different program from the MDiv at Duke; it's not an "in residence" program, where I would move close to the school and live there. Instead, I will do some coursework online and spend some time (a few weeks here and there) at Drew. There's even a class offered in Wales which I'd love to take, but am pretty sure I can't afford financially or in terms of time. We'll have to see.
What I want to study should come as no surprise to anyone who's read my archive: how our distinctive United Methodist theology and heritage can speak to post-modern culture and create faith community. I think this will involve a critique of UM practice, at least in some contexts, and also some "experimentation" (with willing victims, I mean volunteers, of course). It will hopefully also offer a sort of conceptual roadmap to what our Church has to offer to the industrialized cultures of our world. It might be great, and it might be garbage, but at least I'm trying...now if I can just get in to the program!
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