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The end of the beginning

Hello? [Tap tap tap] Is this thing on? I've fired up the generator, the lights are flickering, so...


First off, to paraphrase a great American author, the rumors of this blog's demise have been greatly exaggerated. I would like to consider the time since my last post to have been a sabbatical, but really I was consumed with finishing my final semester of seminary, completing my ordination requirements, and then moving back to Englewood. And to be honest, a combination of inertia, laziness, and the lack of anything compelling to write kept me in hibernation. However, I am about to undergo what Facebook would classify as a "life event."

On Sunday, August 11, I will be ordained as a "teaching elder"--Presbyterian parlance for "pastor" or "minister"--in the Presbyterian Church (USA) at Broadway Presbyterian Church in New York City. I almost need to type that sentence again to have it sink in. So this is what those three years of seminary were leading toward! But ordination is not the life event I was referring to above. I suppose it qualifies, but no, the ordination is merely prelude to what will follow two weeks later. On or about August 27 Sandy and I will leave for South Korea, where I will begin leading the English Ministry of a church in the heart of Seoul. In a future blog entry I will say more on how that came to pass. Suffice it to say, I thought that we might one day relocate to Korea, but I did not expect that that day would come so soon.

Even before beginning this position, I know that seminary will not have prepared me for every aspect of ministry. When I ponder transitioning from studying for ministry to being certified ready to begin ministry, I think of the famous quote from Winston Churchill after the Royal Air Force defeated the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain (I've been watching a lot of WWII docs online): "This is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning."

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