the semi feb 12 2013

jobs

Co-Editors Carmen Valdés Randall Frederick

Production Editor Matthew Schuler

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CREDITS

LEGAL

EDITOR’S NOTE RANDALL FREDERICK

Our last issue, “Crazy, Stupid Love” flew off the shelves! Apparently, it hit a nerve that resonated with many of you. There were, however, a few criticisms - mostly by way of running two articles under pseudonyms. Having worked in publications for over a decade, I’m not a fan of publishing anonymously. Our general policy at The SEMI is to insist writers be courageous enough to own their work. The last issue was unique though. As a hub of information and a “secret-keeper” to many, I understood and was sympathetic to the reasons that two of our writers asked for their real names not to be attached. Further, I think the negative reaction to both their articles and their request for privacy reveals something very telling about the level of honesty at Fuller - namely, that we ask for it even as we know how much damage it can do. To “own” something and say what is true, even what resonates with others, might cause us to lose friends.

To speak about reconciliation without navigating the challenges that come with what it really means to make peace, for instance, is just lip service. Perhaps we should look at the pseudonyms as indicative that there is still an incongruency among a safe, loving environment like Fuller... even when we are talking about something as crazy and stupid as love.

In this issue, that challenge continues. When speaking of the job market, it is like my father used to tell me: “A recession is when you friend doesn’t have a job, but a depression is when you don’t have one yourself.” We all know that the job market is tough right now and that we’re not working at a commensurate level of pay. The economist who is a dog-walker. The fluent linguist who is a teaching assistant. The doctoral student who moonlights as a waitress. What does having “a job” really mean? Is it just a 9 to 5, a calling, a career, a sense of purpose?

We are at seminary presumably because we feel compelled towards something by God - but what happens when you are, quite honestly, not someone God wants out there representing this-thing-we-do? Is there enough honesty in our community to admit maybe we’re training each other to have fewer employable skills? Something to think about.

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CONVERSATION AND BOOK SIGNING WITH JENNIFER PEACE

“My Neighbor’s Faith - Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth and Transformation” Held at the De Pree Reading Room, David Allan Hubbard Library. Reception to follow.

WOMEN IN MINISTRY: A PANEL DISCUSSION - PAYTON 101

Clementina Chacon, Grace Lubwama, Cassie McCarty, Elaine Vaden. Register by Feb 20 at osa.fuller.edu.

RABBIS-PASTORS SEMINAR SERIES: SACRED SPACES 2

Held at the First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena.

SPRING PAYTON LECTURES

Travis Aud

Speaking at the Spring Payton Lectures will be Ellen Davis, the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School.

The lectures are free and open to the public.

THE REST OF THE STORY WITH DR. DANIEL KIRK

Dr. Daniel Kirk, Associate Professor of New Testament, will be giving a two-day seminar on the context of the New Testament at Centerpoint Church in Roseville, located in Northern California. The event is FREE to all Fuller students or alumni!

THE REST OF THE STORY WITH DR. DANIEL KIRK

Dr. Daniel Kirk, Associate Professor of New Testament, will be giving a two-day seminar on the context of the New Testament at Centerpoint Church in Roseville, located in Northern California. The event is FREE to all Fuller students or alumni!

“MY NEIGH-BOURHOOD” FILMSCREENING

The story of a Palestinian teenager whose family is forced to share a section of their East Jeru-salem home with Israeli settlers.

Held at the First Baptist Church Pasadena.

CELEBRATION OF CREATIVE EXPRESSIONS

Travis Aud

A celebration of creative expres-sions: soloists, choirs, art sale, spoken word, preached word.

One of a series of events commem-orating Black History Month.

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You graduated Fuller recently, right? What has that been like, leaving Fuller culture and getting back out into the ‘real’ world?

It’s been a good transition. I really enjoyed my time at Fuller. I met some incredible people and really had a

lot of presumptions changed. I came from a fairly conservative background, attended a conservative Bible College, and intentionally chose Fuller because of its more “liberal” history. It was good to have a lot of what I had been taught challenged and deconstructed so that I could better reconcile things.

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ideas. Once we kind of had the idea for a the voice, we asked Simon Castagna to help us technologically put it together. In 2013, we are aiming to have more videos. We have a list of people who we think are doing interesting things with faith and culture and we want to highlight them. There are also some other people who are doing interesting things that do not have a faith connection that we want to include. Hopefully, the reader can connect those dots for themselves. We’re excited about this component. What are some of the personal challenges you’ve gone through in the last year?

Well, not really a “challenge” but this year I got married. I married the perfect girl. She’s incredible. She’s been really supportive. I think if you read a book about starting a website, they would probably say that you shouldn’t tack on another major life change because it takes so much time. Well, it did and it does, but she supports me and also helps to me not to get lost in it. I’ve learned a lot on how to balance my time.

Tell us more about that, how has it affected you as a man (i.e. do you feel humbled, stronger? have you seen a new side of yourself and/or your relationships)? Being married is the best decision I’ve ever made. It has given me a bit more insight into some of the issues we write about on the site. Being married has also matured me. Grad school is nuts. You live in weird ways. You spend marathon sessions in the library, you eat whenever you can and just live like a crazy person. I think had I not gotten married and started the site, I would have continued to operate that way. Thinking about someone else

As far as the real world is concerned, the transition was an easy one. I’m not sure I really ever left it. My interests always kept me connected to what was happening outside of Fuller.

Tell us more about The Public Queue. How did you start that, where did the idea come from, and what are you looking to accomplish in 2013?

TPQ was an idea I had before Fuller and it became more clear while I was there. I would be sitting in my theology class with Karkkainen, trying to reconcile aspects of God’s immanence while also anticipating the next Kanye West track. These things have always gone hand in hand for me. I liked reading books and articles on how to reconcile faith and culture, but got tired of reading about how to do it. I met a lot of people at Fuller who were already doing it and doing it well, so I wanted to provide a space for these conversations to happen. Then a friend, Billy Roberts, and I got together and started to brainstorm

Need.

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and looking forward to spending time with that person helps to reorient your priorities.

What did you want to be when you grew up? And do you still secretly harbor that naive dream? Have you accomplished it, and what is “the next thing” you want to accomplish?

It’s funny, I wanted to be a journalist as a kid. In high school I planned on going to school for journalism but instead got a “calling” to go into ministry. The more I got into it, the more I realized that my specific gifting would be wasted. I love to write. In every ministry job I’ve had I have done some sort of writing and editing. It’s just what I love. I think that’s why I started TPQ because I love to write. I noticed a deficiency in theological writing on the Internet and wanted to help by providing a space where this could take place. The next thing would be to get paid for what I am doing. Right now TPQ is a labor of love. I really love doing it and would love if it started paying my bills!

Who are four people who have inspired you the most? Why/how?

I’m a big fiction reader and love Kurt Vonnegut. His dark sense of humor mixed with a careful love of humanity really helped me understand human relationships. I always come back to him when I get stuck.

Aaron Sorkin. I’ve watched The West Wing through probably 10 times. He’s an incredible writer and can write comedy with some heart that doesn’t make want to poke out your own eyes.My dad has been a huge influence. He is a Psychoanalyst and a voracious reader of everything. I think I wanted to emulate him early on with my desire to “be well read.” Whatever that means.My wife Rebecca. Arrogantly, I think I’m a funny guy. I try my hardest to make her laugh. She’s not an easy laugh to get so when I get her to laugh I feel like I’ve really accomplished something. She asks me good questions. When I write something or I bounce an idea off of her and she doesn’t think it makes sense, she’ll tell me and I need that. If you were addressing the graduates of your high school, what would you say/ what advice would you give?

Full Disclosure: I was homeschooled! Technically, if I were to address anyone it would be my siblings in my living room! That notwithstanding, I would tell them to take a year off. Figure out what it is they want to do. Get to know who they are and then go to college with this new knowledge in hand. They will have a better and more enriching experience.

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Please join us for the WVI Apprenticeship Program Information Event Wednesday, February 27, 2013 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm, Payton 100 Hosted by SIS and World Vision International. Come and meet with World Visionʼs Professional Development Program Team. RSVP at sisplacement@fuller.edu.

World Vision International Professional Apprenticeship Program

Application Deadline is March 15, 2013 For information on eligibility and applying:

http://wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf/maindocs/B620BC9F4952B733882578CB007CF9D4?opendocument

SIS Practicum and Vocational Placement, sisplacement@fuller.edu

World Vision International, wvi_professional_development_programmes@wvi.org

Fuller Theological Seminary and World Vision International Professional Apprenticeship Program

Program Description The Professional Apprentice Program is designed to provide students, who have graduated with a Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies, with a 2-year job opportunity to work alongside World Vision International (WVI) technical professionals, gain professional experience and build valuable NGO knowledge. Although this apprenticeship does not guarantee a permanent placement within the organization, it offers a first step, provides two-years of in-depth learning and transferable skill building. Apprentices will be placed in a department and will be based in the United States in a WVI office: Los Angeles, California; Federal Way, Washington; New York, New York; or Washington D.C. Apprentices will have the opportunity to gain insightful NGO and field exposure while supporting research and evaluation conducted by some of WVIʼs best technical professionals. WVI aims to:

• Attract talented recent Fuller Seminary graduates with an interest in NGO relief, development and/or advocacy work

• Strengthen research skills, multi-cultural communication, broaden knowledge base and develop professional experience

• Provide an opportunity to develop personal strengths and professional networks with WVI technical ministry departments

• Retain for permanent positions within the organization

“What types of environments do you prefer not to work in?”

Sitting across from a panel of professionals, I found my pulse quicken and stomach churn as I blurted out, “That’s a great question…” while I wracked my brain for a genuine, honest, well-thought-out answer. I was in the middle of a job interview and felt prepared to talk about my strengths,

even my weaknesses. But environments that I don’t like to work in? Well, that was going to be harder to articulate. My mind raced with possible consequences of different answers: Would I be perceived as inflexible or too flexible if I answered in a certain way? Would I look unwilling to make mistakes or too open to them if I answered in another way? Would this single answer ruin my chance at the job? To this day, I remember that particular

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Set Apart for a Job

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Sarah Taylor, a recent MFT graduate, is famous for her dancing finger; knows nothing about sports but sounds like an ESPN anchor; and secretly loves dogs, though she pretends not to. She frequently craves hot dogs.

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I have also been on the other side of the process. Being the interviewer instead of interviewee certainly gave me a new perspective. In this job market, there are many talented, exceptional people interviewing for the same job and it can be hard to decide on one person over another. Usually, by the time a person gets an interview, he or she has made some sort of positive impression with a resume, cover letter, or initial contact. Getting this far increases a candidate’s hopes about getting the job and being granted an interview by an employer is definitely promising, but it does not guarantee a person will get the job. So, what sets one candidate apart from a pool of talented professionals? Be prepared. This may sound cliché, but it can definitely make the difference between an average and an exceptional interview. Research the organization you are interviewing for by visiting their website. What does the organization do? Where is the organization headed? How would the position you are interviewing for fit into the mission of the organization? Read the job description carefully. If possible, try to get a sense of the atmosphere of the organization. You might try to find someone who is familiar with the organization or a similar one so you can glean information about the work environment before the interview. If you have knowledge about the atmosphere of the organization, you will have a better idea as to whether the position and organization are a good fit. Armed with more information, you will be prepared to make a more convincing case to your potential employer about how you can make a contribution to the organization. Being prepared doesn’t end with researching the organization. Although the organization most likely viewed

interview question, but not much about the answer I gave. Lucky for me, and this was post economic downturn of 2008, I ended up getting the job anyway. However, the entire process was nerve-wracking and humbling. There were several other interviews I attended where I did not get the job. The whole process opened up fears and insecurities in me. Looking back, I realize a lot of my anxiety came from my lack of experience. I was interviewing for my first “real job” job post college and felt young and inexperienced.

No matter what your time in life, the interview process can feel like an evaluation of your entire self. Am I good enough, smart enough, and qualified enough to be recognized for the position? Do my achievements count for anything? Was the price tag on my degree worth it? Will people recognize how smart and capable I am in one or a few job interviews? Depending upon a number of factors, the interview experience may range from being a fun opportunity to an opportunity to present accomplishments to a terrifying and daunting task.

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your resume to offer you the position in the first place, it does not hurt to revisit your resume and consider whether the skills you listed are a good match for the position for which you are applying. Have you listed unnecessary positions or skills? Is there something you could add to your resume that shows your skills in a particular area that have been left out? Also, be prepared to answer questions about your job history, or lack of job history. You may have experienced a period of unemployment because you could not find a job or you may have been laid off, so be prepared to honestly and tactfully answer these kinds of questions.

Prepare beforehand for common interview questions. Some traditional questions include: Tell me about yourself. Why do you think you would like to work for us? What are your career goals? What are your strengths/weaknesses? Other questions such as How have you dealt with conflict in the work place? Give a specific example of how you dealt with conflict in the past? are more behavior-based. Employers want to know how you’ve handled work situations. Be prepared to talk about a few specific

situations you’ve dealt with at work as well as the lessons you’ve learned as a result. There are many helpful pamphlets and books that provide sample interview questions. Also, participating in a mock interview where someone acts as the interviewer is great practice for a potential candidate. Don’t forget the importance of presenting yourself well. Dress appropriately. Being overdressed is always better than being underdressed. Bring a copy of your resume and references to the interview. Remember to contact references in advance as it shows that you are able

to plan and think ahead. Arrive on time, preferably early. This shows the interviewer you are responsible and serious about the position. Think of the interview process like you would think about meeting a friend you don’t know very well yet. Not just any friend, but a friend in the professional world. Try not to be intimidated. Make sure to look your interviewer in the eye and smile. It’s ok not to know the answer to every question. We can’t always prepare for every single question. If you need more time to answer a

The whole process opened up fears and insecurities in me. Looking back, I realize a lot of my anxiety came from my lack of experience. I was interviewing for my first “real job” job post college and felt young and inexperienced.

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question, it can be helpful to repeat the question out loud or state “that’s a great question” to give yourself some time before you need to answer. Never put down a previous employer in an interview. Always have questions ready to ask your potential employer. An interviewer will often ask the interviewee if he or she has questions at the end of the interview. Being prepared with a question or two

shows that you have been listening during your interview. Questions are also a way to show that you have done your research and know something about the organization. This is not a time to negotiate about your salary, but it is a time to attain more information about the organization and specifics of your position. Once the interview is over, your work is not over! The last part of a good interview process is about follow-up. While calling the organization every day after your interview to inquire about your status may not help your cause, a nice, personalized thank you note will most likely be appreciated and help you stand out. If you feel bad about your interview performance, it does not hurt to write a thank you note. Even if you do not get the position for which you interviewed, the impression you leave still matters. The interviewers might have been impressed with you, but could not offer you the position. If you leave a good impression, even if you were not offered the job,

there is a chance that you may be called back to interview for another position in the organization. Or the people you interviewed with may have connections that could help you in the future. Performance aside, interviewing helps us learn about ourselves. Sometimes even our well-thought out answers might surprise us. Maybe you find yourself referring back to a particular job and

realizing how much it helped you grow as a professional. Also, a job that seemed amazing before an interview may not be one you want to consider afterwards. Contrarily, a job that didn’t seem very exciting before may seem full of potential afterwards. It is a comfort to remember that our worth ultimately does not come from our performance in a job interview, or the actual job we end up getting, or even our successes a part from this. Even after a discouraging interview, it comforts me to remember that God is in control. Whether we perform poorly or well, God is with us through the whole thing, and loves us for our unique gifts no matter our successes and failures. To learn more about the interviewing, set up an appointment with Fuller’s Vocational Discernment and Career Services office by calling 626-584-5358, or email vdcs@fuller.edu.

In this job market, there are many talented, exceptional people interviewing for the same job and it can be hard to decide on one person over another.

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“Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord.”

A popular song drawn from a popular verse. I admit I have always liked that song, though the inspirational posters inspired by the verse are rarely anything but cheesy. But as I listened to this song in chapel a few days ago, the words stuck in my throat. I could not sing. I could not hum. It took all in me to hold back tears,

because I have finally lived this verse. I have lived this song, and it was painful. It’s a great song that we often throw around in church with its upbeat message and tempo, it’s fun syncopation, but one that we sing without a thought to what it must feel like to those who are truly “waiting upon the Lord.”

This summer, I experienced that waiting. I finished an internship and started looking

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between classes. I waited and waited and tried to stay busy and productive so I wouldn’t go mad waiting. It was then that I realized a synonym for “waiting upon the Lord” is “feeling useless.”

I have always been one to work, especially with my hands. With my wife off to work every day and a stack of applications out to employers, this sense of uselessness drove me to a dark place. I prayed and prayed for a job where I could make a difference in this world, but none came. I felt that God had forgotten about me, and so I slowly forgot about God. It was my own “dark night of the soul.” I received the call to be a minister when I was twelve, and now I was thinking that every intentional step towards that goal since I was sixteen had been all for naught. All my volunteer hours, all the money invested in classes, all of it was a waste because God did not design me for this role and I had been fooling myself. I interpreted every rejection as a confirmation that I was in the wrong field, and that I should cut my losses and make way for someone whom God actually did remember.

To stave off what was certainly growing into full-blown depression, I started up my old hobby of woodworking. I rediscovered the sense of being productive and let the millions of happy memories attached to the smell of sawdust wash over me. With only the simple hand tools I had acquired in my surfboard and skateboard making days, I went about the slow work of hand crafting toy dinosaurs, shelves, and jewelry racks. It became an amazingly calming time for me, a time of meditation and reflection. It eventually turned back into a time of prayer, a sacred place where the sandpaper began to run on autopilot as I talked to God. School ramped up and I found my de-stress-er to no longer be video games or movies,

for another job, figuring on Starbucks or the like until I finished my degree at Fuller. When I made my intentions known to them, my friends and coworkers at my internship encouraged me to pursue a job in ministry instead. They affirmed the longing in my heart to jump into the professional ministry world that I have aimed for since I was sixteen. After years of volunteering, classes, and even an internship, I was finally sending out applications for a paid ministry position.

Door after door was shut in my face. I was shortlisted for assistant pastor jobs a half dozen times. It got to the point where I could recognize the tone of voice in the greeting, one which would momentarily inform me they had “chosen to move forward with another candidate” before those words ever met my ears. I was on fire for ministry—and still am—but was without a ministry role for the first time in seven years. The summer smoldered into autumn with no prospects, no opportunity to pastor people, and nothing aside from housework and more applications

Reed Metcalf (M.Div, ’13) is a Southern California native who is addicted to hiking, reading, and creating. He and his wife Monica live in Pasadena with several houseplants and a fish-less fish tank.

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but woodworking. Bitterness over my job situation lingered, however; it seemed to announce itself all the more as I continued to meet classmates who were working in churches. Depression always lurked right around the corner. After a particularly rough weekend when I discovered a classmate of mine—same year, same program—had been picked over me for a spot at my home church, I was back at the workbench. I was not talking to God that day. I was angry. I was bitter. I felt that I had spent years working for God towards an opportunity where I could do so at a deeper and more extensive level, and He had cast me aside like so much useless scrap wood. And so I worked, and worked without turning my mind towards God. I was using a metal file to scrape remnants of paint off the end of a red oak board that would eventually be a mantelpiece. If you have ever tried to pare

down a piece of lumber with a file, you know it is slow work. I filed and filed. I filed and sanded and filed and sanded and examined so long that I knew the number of rings in the board, top and bottom, left and right. I knew all its hues and grains and flaws and knots and how deep the paint had penetrated the pores and how far I needed to scrape until the board was perfect for what I had designed it to be.

And then, like a bolt from the blue, the words of God from the Book of Job resounded in my head:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.Who determined its measurements—

surely you know!Or who stretched the line upon it?On what were its bases sunk,or who laid its cornerstonewhen the morning stars sang togetherand all the heavenly beings shouted for

joy?Or who shut in the sea with doorswhen it burst out from the womb?—when I made the clouds its garment,and thick darkness its swaddling band,and prescribed bounds for it,and set bars and doors,and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no

farther,and here shall your proud waves be

stopped’?”

God answered me that day, much as he had answered Job: not as God the Judge, not as God the King or Father or Savior, but as God the Craftsman. God asked Job—asked me—whether or not I knew every hue, every grain, whether I had counted the number of rings in the world, or how many strokes of the sand paper had been used on this side or that. What about me - the work that is me, who I am? Did I know that raw material’s properties—its dimensions, density, flexibility? Did I have any idea how long it had to cure and dry, how much needed to

God answered me that day, much as he had answered Job: not as God the Judge, not as God the King or Father or Savior, but as God the Craftsman.

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be milled off, how finely it needed to be sanded before it could be what its crafter designed it to be? I was a board asking the woodworker if He knew what He was doing. I was asking God why I was being filed and cut and sanded while others were being finished and put to use. I was the clay in Isaiah 45:9 that strives with its maker, critiquing the work it knows nothing about. I wanted to be someone or something other than God intended, and I had the audacity to be outraged when God would not use me how and when I wanted Him to. God responded that He knows every grain and ring within me: that He knows the job I am perfect for, and He is crafting me for it even yet.

I am still waiting. I am volunteering again, but I am still waiting. I no longer question my call to ministry, but I hold my calling

in the tension that my specific role and place are yet unrevealed to me. The Craftsman knows, and with this I must be content. My bitterness has been shamed into humility, my despair into expectant hope. It is still difficult—and difficult is an inadequate word for this—to see those around me step into or thrive in ministry roles, but I must remember that I am not crafted for those roles. And so I wait, and I put my faith where my mouth is. I sit and trust and take strength in the fact that the One who made me—the One I call God, Father, Lord, Creator, and ultimate Master of all things—will continue to craft me into the person I am supposed to be. When I finally am that person—not perfect, but ready—God will put me to the work for which I was designed, and in which I will thrive as I work for God’s Kingdom.

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Of all the professions in the world I had to pick filmmaking. To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I chose this as a career. By my second year of undergrad, I had concluded two things: that I liked to write and that I liked being creative. When an advisor suggested that I try filmmaking, I was hooked. I saw this as an opportunity to communicate

a message to the masses. I wasn’t really looking to be famous, I just wanted to do something that had meaning. Little did I know that that would mean not getting paid adequately for a season and not being able to spend time with family because of a never-ending work schedule. Such is the life of a beginning filmmaker. However, as exciting yet draining as that

You’ve Been Called to Do What??

By: Avril Z. Speaks

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Avril Z. Speaks (MAT, ‘14) is a New Jersey native who now calls Atlanta, GA home. When she’s not in class or studying, she enjoys going to the movies, driving down the PCH, and wonderfully bad singing at karaoke.

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What exactly is a “calling” anyway? Is that even a real thing? Many people and denominations have different interpretations of what that word means. I simply see it as a form of vocation, a profession or task that a person is drawn to either naturally or through some type of training. Maybe it’s the dreamer in me, but I believe that deep down inside we all have an inner sense that there is something we should be doing with our lives. I happen to believe that inner sense is the spirit of God. However, the source of calling doesn’t necessarily make realizing it an easy task. As much as we’d like to think that God just freely dishes out a vocation with complete clarity, that is not the case for many of us. Instead, it comes in fuzzy, scattered pieces and we’re left to either try deciphering where the pieces go or to just trust God.

Somehow my calling has led me here to seminary. One of the hardest things for me to do since I’ve come to Pasadena has been to answer that elusive question “So what do you plan to do with that?” Their puzzled looks become even more intense when they realize that I’ve already made several films and that I already had a decent job teaching college students for several years. Why would I leave a job that I loved to come learn about theology? I was happy with my job, but there was still something tugging inside, telling me I needed to go deeper in my philosophy concerning film.

As secure as I am in my decision to come to Fuller, sometimes I still wonder how I went from teacher back to student within a matter of months. I try my best to answer people’s questions, but my answers change each time I’m asked. I’ve started trying to find ways to avoid the question. There’s the classic turn-around-and-start-a-conversation-with-someone-else. Then there’s the uber-spiritual response “We’ll see where the Lord

life was, I have always had something else tugging at my heart.

Just before I finished undergrad, I thought about whether I should attend film school or just go straight into the industry. One of my teachers and mentors at the time told me that if I went to school to get my MFA, I could always teach film. Something about those words appealed to me. Deep down, those words gave me hope and gladness inside. There was something about educating, mentoring, and encouraging the next generation of artists that was intriguing. I took her advice and went to film school.

Two years after graduating from film school and completing two feature films, I stumbled upon what would change my entire outlook on this whole filmmaking thing. I got a job teaching film at a small college in Atlanta, GA. It was a job that, although it had plenty of ups and downs, fulfilled what I felt was my calling to teach.

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leads.” It’s hard defining the usefulness of calling when you’ve given up life as you know it . I’m sure Abraham must have felt the same way when he left his homeland and set out for Canaan. And I’m sure he had his own difficulties in explaining why he was taking that journey. Yet he plunged ahead, waiting to see what the end was going to be. I think most of us in seminary are still trying to figure out what to do with this degree, even the ones who seem certain about their life goals post graduation. But the mystery of the call doesn’t make the call itself less valid, or something that should not be pursued.

So how do you define your calling to someone when you don’t know what to call it yourself? For me, the good news is, I’m not completely clueless. I do know what I’d like do with this seminary degree, I just don’t know how to describe it succinctly just yet. It doesn’t have a title. There is another aspect to my desire to teach and make movies and it has to do with communicating how faith infuses art. But my certainty stops there.

I could say that I want to be an expert in theology and film. But most people don’t know what that means. I’m not even sure I know exactly what that means. I could say I want to help forge a better relationship between the church and art. However, I know that in most churches

artists are often the forgotten ones when it comes to ministry, so once again I get some blank stares on that one. I could say I’m called to be a voice within education, within the film community and within the church. I think I’m onto something here, there’s just some kinks I have to work out. I’ll keep working on it.

So what is my calling? I have to believe that it has something to do with that adrenaline rush I get just before calling “Action!” on the first shot of a film production. I have to believe it has something to do with the excitement I feel when I see a student finally understand

how movies are made, and when I engage in all of my theology classes. And somehow I have to believe that at some point God will put all of these pieces together and the uncertainty will gain a bit more clarity. But for right now, I’m living through the tension, blindfolded, that is.

As much as we’d like to think that God just freely dishes out a vocation with complete clarity, that is not the case for many of us. Instead, it comes in fuzzy, scattered pieces.

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MinistryEnrichment

Title: Understanding Hospital Chaplaincy: How to Prepare for CPEPresenter: Rev. Cheri Coleman, ChaplainWhen: Tuesday, February 19th, 2013Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Place: Conference 220 (Second Floor, 490 E. Walnut St)

Description: Rev Cheri Coleman, a Fuller graduate and a current CPE supervisor at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, will be sharing important tips on how you can best prepare for your CPE experience. This seminar fulfills the requirement for interns applying for CPE and also fulfills a general Ministry Enrichment Seminar requirement for FE1. For more information on CPE, please access the CPE packet which can be found on the Field Education website.

Title: Orientation to Theological Reflection Presenter: Dr. Scott CormodeWhen: Friday, April 5, 2013Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM Place: Payton 102

Description: Participation in Field Education’s Orientation to Theological Reflection is required for those enrolled in their first quarter of the FE501 Part-time Church Internship (FE501A), FE533 Full-time Church Internship (FE533A), or FE500 Ministry and Leadership Practicum, for the Spring Quarter 2013. Contact the Office of Field Education at 626.584.5387 or fielded@fuller.edu to sign up.

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