Editorial: Welcome to Grand Rapids
Temperatures are dipping in west Michigan. Soon the leaves will turn golden and fall, rustling, onto the paths leading up to the doors of Calvin Theological Seminary. Already students, faculty and staff are treading those paths. New friendships are forming, old ones are being renewed, and everywhere the sound of pages turning reminds us that this is, after all, still a school.
Kerux Interview: Dave Ellens
Christian ethical teaching on the topic of human sexuality is a complex and contentious issue, perhaps most significantly as it pertains to homosexual Christians. Dave Ellens and Stephanie Sandberg, two members of the Calvin College community, have sought to stimulate conversation about the matter through the medium of theater. Kerux sat down with Dave Ellens to hear more about the project, which is especially relevant for seminarians seeking guidance on how to think pastorally about this issue.
Setting Out
Summer Reflection by Kristin Kuzera
Today marks my eighth day of classes at Calvin Theologically Seminary. With this week's unusually cool temperatures, summer already seems long gone. And I find myself immersed in a whole new world, the world of “Calvin Theological Seminary.” For those of you who are middlers or seniors, perhaps a short trip down memory lane will remind you of what it's like to be a new student. I asked around, and these are some of the things first-year students are saying:
Why Being a Pastor Sucks (or: Why I can’t Imagine Doing Anything Else with my Life)
Summer Reflection by Meg Jenista
The last two weeks of my internship were rough-going. I told my fiends that if another person in the congregation got sick, I was quitting. I was joking…mostly.
VBS week may have been the most difficult. Sure, I enjoyed the kids running around the church, running into my office to snitch candy then running down the hall to “spy” on Pastor Meg. It was a secret agent themed VBS and so I was “Agent Meg,” except some of the kids from our church kept blowing my cover saying, “You’re not agent Meg, you’re PASTOR Meg!” Yup, that’s right. You got me, kid.
New Beginnings
Summer Reflection by Jim Kuiper
This summer I did my “broadening” or “multi-cultural” internship at Pine Rest Christian Hospital as a chaplain. The Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at Pine Rest paired me with a very capable mentor chaplain who walked me through my paces in the different hospital wards, along with a good team of fellow seminarians also taking CPE. This group reflected with me upon my clinical experiences, meted out generous portions of tough love, showed me how I was goofing up, and then suggested ways I could do things better the next day on the ward. It was an invaluable experience. Some denominations make CPE mandatory for seminary study. I understand why.