As we begin our calmer and steadier summer season of Ordinary Time, I am writing to you from the shores of Gimli. Clergy from across the MNO are gathering with Anglicans from Ruperts Land Diocese for a few days of study, renewal and collegiality. 

I have been sitting on some news for a few weeks, not wanting to overshadow Pentecost Baptisms or Holy Trinity Confirmations. But I am excited to share it with you now. 

In September, I will be starting the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program in Contextual and Practical Theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Saskatoon Theological Union.

Before anyone gets worried, I am not going anywhere! The DMin is a program meant to be done while clergy are serving full time in their contexts. In fact, a significant piece of the program is research done amongst and with the people one is serving. So in a way, you will be doing this work with me. 

I am very excited for to do this work expanding and growing my knowledge, skills and expertise to be of use to the people and congregations I serve, to the greater church and maybe even one day have some opportunities to teach others preparing for ordained ministry.I will have more to share in the coming months and over the next three years throughout the program; but I am happy to share more, if you are interested. 

Below is the text of a “Ministry Ted Talk” that I gave about my research topic at Study Conference this week.

If you were to get 10 clergy people in the same room and ask:

What is a minister?
What is a Pastor or Priest? 
What is a Deacon? 
What is a Bishop even? 
What do they do? 
What are the most important parts of their job? 

What are the kinds of answers we would get?

Preachers, worship leaders or liturgists, administrators, care givers, event planners, life milestone commemorators, counsellors or really good listeners, social workers, justice seekers, facility caretakers, project managers, youth leaders, teachers and educators, spiritual advisors, confidants and life coaches, grant writers and professional government paperwork filers and on and on and on.   

How MANY more answers would you get? At least a different answer for every person, most likely. 

Now, not to put you all on the spot (but I will)…

 How many Lutherans would cite one of our confessional sources and (the correct) article?  

How many Anglicans would cite one of the 39 articles? It is article 23 I think? Correct me if I am wrong. 

And for the Lutherans, a reminder from Confessions class in seminary: it is article 5 of the Augsburg Confession.

“That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and Administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, ² the Holy Spirit is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear ³ the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake.” – Augsburg Confession V

So why am I quizzing you on long-forgotten pieces of things learned in seminary?

Well, ever since graduating from seminary, I have been wanting to return to school for more education, but life kept getting in the way. Finally, 15 years later, I decided to begin exploring various options for further education – okay, let’s be real, my wife Courtenay insisted I start looking at doctoral programs.

So after a year of exploring a variety of schools and applying to a few programs, I am happy to say that I am going to be starting the Doctor of Ministry program (or DMin) in Saskatoon at the Lutheran Theological Seminary and Saskatoon Theological Union. 

And my proposed research topic is in the area of the office of ministry. 

The question I am looking to explore concerns the understanding of what a clergy person is and does. We all do this job, we all live this vocation… and yet the work we do and the responsibilities we carry can vary wildly from cleric to cleric and context to context. 

So what do those confessional and foundational articulations of ministry from the Reformation era mean in the 21st Century? And how does that compare to the operating definitions that exist in our pews and pulpits? 

Everyone in church on Sunday morning or those whom we encounter throughout the week has a mental image of a clergy person in their minds…. But how clear are they really? Judging by the long list of jobs we do, I’ll bet that even our own images are fuzzy around the edges, if not largely opaque. 

We all know that the host of expectations placed on us would have us running in all directions. If we tried to live up to them all, we would have 17 or 25 number–one priorities that would run us into the ground week after week (oh… wait!). And our ability to organize our own work and focus on the essentials first while pushing the secondary and tertiary things down the to–do listwould become difficult. 

When we cannot fully articulate what is at the core of our own callings, what is the foundation of the vocation that we are called into? …. It only leads to frustration and resentment. 

But it isn’t just the operating understanding of what a clergy person IS that is found in the pews and pulpits these days… because we know that those definitions are also often terribly out of date. We aren’t serving in 1963 anymore; we are nearly 25 years into the 21st Century. Many of us are serving in a different church and a different world than we grew up in, and even a different church than we were trained to serve in.

Let alone, consider if the church was prepared for us as we were trained to serve. And how long ago have congregations forgotten the essentials and purpose of the church, and the essential core of what ordained ministry is in partnership with local expressions of the Body of Christ?

So, the final piece of my project topic is exploring these questions related to the office of ministry (what a clergy person is and does) given the definitions of our foundational documents, given the operating definitions at work in the pews and pulpits. Howdoes that all compare with what we all actually do in 2023 and beyond?

Because as we all know, the Church was changing long before 2020; and since then those changes accelerated and transformed us into the places where we find ourselves now – looking for places to find our footing and get ahold of where this thing called Church is going. 

My hope is that as I begin this research in my congregation, and probably with other congregations over the coming threeyears, and with you my colleagues, and that this topic area and resulting thesis project will create something of interest and of use to the wider Church as we navigate our future together.