Year One Done

I’ve completed the first year of seminary and it has been amazing to see how God has worked through the year. The classes challenged and stretched me in really helpful ways. The mix of schoolwork, church life, and work turned out to work well throughout the year. This last semester I felt that I was able to settle into a good rhythm and build friendships both at school and church.

Edinburgh Theological Seminary

            I had four classes this past year: Greek, practical theology, Old Testament and church history.

            I found Greek to be easier than I expected. It was also nice to have a class that was more binary in its approach to learning. (You either know it or you don’t!) Another thing that made Greek really enjoyable was the translation of Bible verses from the original language. We were able to see how the Greek grammar influences the meaning and can be easy to miss or hard to translate.

            Practical theology was broken into sections of about five or six weeks on specific topics such as leadership, pastoral care, and counseling. For pastoral care, each student proposed a pastoral project to work with a mentor to get first hand pastoral experience. I was able to work with my pastor, Neil MacMillan, and the music team at church. I led a devotional before rehearsals and met up with each band member for a pastoral visit.  This was a really good opportunity to get to know the people in the band and start thinking more about how the church community is built. It also led to me becoming more involved at Cornerstone, but more on that later.

            I really enjoyed Old Testament. The assignments in this class were designed to help the students think through Bible passages in a very thorough and structured way. This winter/spring, four of the six assignments were short essays on the book of Esther. It was really nice to have one short book to focus on while we learned about how to look at setting, character, plot and literary elements in biblical narrative.

            I found church history the hardest class to engage. It wasn’t difficult to understand the material, but it took the most work to earn a good grade. This winter/spring, we focused on the reformation. For the paper for this class, I studied the influence of Philip Melanchthon on the Lutheran reformation. He is a lesser-known reformer, and it was interesting to find out about other people who supported the bigger names in the reformation.

            In addition to these classes, I also took part in an extracurricular preaching lab. This class ran for about six weeks and at each meeting three students would deliver a twenty-minute sermon. After preaching, both the class organizers (a retired pastor and a one of our professors) and the other students would give feedback. This was a bit of daunting audience, and I was absolutely terrified on the day I was to preach. However, when I stood in front of the class, I felt at peace. My delivery was weak and halting, but the class was supportive and gave constructive feedback. I enjoyed the preparation, and I think I understand better how to improve the delivery.

            Surprisingly, finals week turned out to be one of the best weeks at school. While I learned a lot throughout the semester and got to know people, the week leading up to finals and finals week itself gave me the opportunity to study with a good group of guys. The hours we spent together memorizing Greek and discussing church history was both fun and built our sense of community as a class.  

Cornerstone Church

            As mentioned above, I did a pastoral project with the music team at my church here in Edinburgh. During a meeting with the music team leader, she asked if I would be interested in volunteering to take over the leadership of the group. This is an area of ministry I have been interested in exploring and the opportunity was an answer to prayer. So in March I started leading the band on Sundays and at our practices. The band is seen as a way to reach out to musicians in our community, so anyone who is interested is invited to come to practice and be a part of the team. We start our practice time with devotional with the goal of being reminded of the Gospel and keeping our focus on worshiping God, not ourselves. This has been a great opportunity for me to form relationships with band members.

            I have also had the opportunity to get to know a few people in the church over the course of the year. The people at Cornerstone are very friendly and there is a strong culture of building community. There are some structured events like Bible studies and church picnics, and I have been shown hospitality by a number of folks who have had me over for lunch after church or around for dinner during the week. I am so thankful that God has been opening doors here, and I am especially thankful for my flat mate, Chris, who also likes to show hospitality. 

Edinburgh Commercial Cleaners

            Work has also turned out to be a mixed blessing. I am working as a cleaner for Edinburgh Commercial Cleaners. The company has several contracts around the city, and I work in a small office building in the downtown area. It is a solo job, meaning I clean the entire office building (four floors) by myself each weeknight. I appreciate the opportunity to work with my hands and either let my mind take a break and/or listen to audio books. One downside is that it takes up my evenings so I am unable to be involved in weeknight activities. As a solo-job, it also means that I am spending a lot of time by myself and do not have very many opportunities to meet people outside school and church (i.e. outside the “Christian bubble”). The job has been an answer to prayer, though, and I see the blessings in it. In addition to those mentioned above, the income from it covers my rent and transportation costs.

            In reflecting on the year, I cannot help but thank God for the many answers to prayer. From being accepted at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, to finding a place to live, a job, and a church home, God has given me exactly what I need. You have also been a part of this. Please join me in thanking and praising God for His answer to our prayers! Thank you for praying for me and supporting me. God’s work can be difficult, and His ways challenging, yet His grace is sufficient.