Ah, the memories...

Fellow bloggers may be able to empathize with my plight. I've wanted to write one more culminating blog post about the conclusion of my seminary experience for several weeks. And I've wanted it to be epic. I've envisioned the sort of thing where people would be forwarding this blog post to their entire contact list, including it in Facebook status updates, tweeting about it, and maybe even WUPHFing. I figured that this blog post would cause random strangers to weep uncontrollably, to inspire people toward bigger and better things. I wanted to change lives.

I've been waiting for weeks for the perfect time to write that post, and it hasn't arrived yet. So, in the interest of moving on with my life, I'll just post a few simple reflections and include some final pictures from our graduation trip. It's much less grandiose than I had anticipated (but you're still welcome to WUPHF it).

Here's a quote on the chalkboard in the lobby at a random Perkins Restaurant in the Twin Cities, from Bob Merritt, who taught my preaching class, one of my four favorite seminary courses (along with "Self in Community," "Christian Social Ethics," and "Church History"). Through teaching that amazing preaching class, supervising my preaching independent study, leading a church that I deeply respect, and writing a wonderful recently-published book called "When Life's Not Working," Bob has become an important mentor to me (despite his relentless mockery of my black socks). I am quite certain that his preaching style and philosophy of church leadership will forever shape my own communication and pastoral ministry.

Julia and I enjoyed celebrating graduation with our friend and fellow graduate Micah Nagel and his daughter, Abby. Who would have imagined, when Micah and his wife Megan were in our Life Group and lived down the street from us here in Boalsburg many moons ago, that our lives would continue to intersect out in Minnesota? Megan's chemistry professor job at Bethel University took them out west, and Micah eventually entered Bethel Seminary's Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy program. What an unexpected and unplanned blessing that we'd graduate from seminary together!


During my eleven trips to Minnesota, one of my greatest joys was worshiping at many of the wonderful churches in the Twin Cities. Over time, I was able to identify my three favorites, where I continued to return at every opportunity. So, in possibly my final trip to Minnesota for a long time, I made sure to worship at these three favorites one more time.

Eagle Brook Church, pastored by Bob Merritt (my favorite model of church leadership)

Woodland Hills Church, pastored by Greg Boyd (my favorite preacher to listen to)

Church of the Open Door, pastored by Dave Johnson (my favorite worship experience)

Here's my seminary twin, Eric Hahn, for whom I was often confused, especially when I began seminary with a goatee much like his. Eric was in the program with me for several years before he shifted programs and graduated last year. Over the years, we've attended church together, played golf, watched the Twins in the Metrodome, watched Penn State annihilate Minnesota in football, watched movies, led worship together, watched many hours of The Office, attended a Senior PGA Tour event, and eaten multitudinous amounts of famous burgers of various girth, greasiness, and cheese configurations.



Here's another one of my favorite professors, Joel Lawrence, who formally taught me about Christian ethics and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology and informally taught me about preaching, church leadership, and countless other things. Joel is truly an academician with a pastor's heart and will soon be transitioning from the academy to full-time pastoral ministry, which will be a huge loss for Bethel but a huge gain for his church. I hope to be privileged to pick Joel's rather remarkable brain over the coming years.

I was thrilled to stumble upon the legendary Kristin Anderson during my final jaunt over to the seminary buildings just before we began our homeward sojourn. Though Julia was apparently done smiling for pictures at the end of a picture-heavy weekend, it was a privilege to have one final opportunity to thank Kristin for her truly remarkable work as the director of the InMinistry program. It is no exaggeration to suggest that she is the brains, the heart, and the soul of InMinistry, and my entire experience at Bethel has been dramatically shaped by her considerable influence. She wears hats of visionary, advisor, teacher, administrator, event planner, liturgist, cheerleader, chaplain, coach, delegator, counselor, and stand-up comedian, switching from role to role with aplomb. And she graciously walked alongside this ornery chap over the years, receiving my critiques with grace, accepting my apologies with warmth, applauding my successes with authenticity, acknowledging my growth with kindness, and honoring my future ministry with joy and hope. She will never fully know the breadth of my gratitude for her leadership.

Here I am, preaching to a very receptive audience of no one, in Bethel's chapel, site of many inspirational chapel services, program updates, and several Preach-Off competitions, one in which I was privileged enough to participate. I will miss this space very much, even with its hideous wall hangings, circa 1977.

Here's the room where we had our very first orientation meeting in January of 2006, where Kristin entertained us with jokes and inspirational stories, where I met cohort classmates Adam Bradshaw, Todd Rivetti, Eric Hahn, Nick Stumbo, Justin Wise, and Michael Bochman (in addition to the other 15 classmates who didn't make it through the program alive) for the very first time, and where I was thoroughly and completely overwhelmed by the amount of work that lay ahead before graduation. It's hard to imagine all that has transpired from that time to now.

Here's the library computer, where I did a little bit of research and also printed a lot of restaurant coupons and directions to local churches and golf courses.

Here's my final burger from The Nook, at least for the foreseeable future. We discovered this ridiculously scrumptious burger joint a few years ago, and despite the inevitable intestinal chaos that ensued, always found time to have at least one meal at The Nook.

Much to our collective chagrin, The Nook had a debilitating kitchen fire just before our last Intensive, so we were unable to dine here together one final time. Though Kate and I ate here together over graduation weekend shortly after it reopened and the atmosphere was still Nookish and the burger was still obscenely delicious, it just wasn't the same without "the boys."

I continue to thank God for the privilege it has been to spend these past years studying alongside Adam, Nick, Todd, Michael, Justin, Eric, Jason, Brent, Brodie, Nic, Ray, Nate and so many others. Seminary was certainly about study and research and thousands of mental push-ups. But it was just as much about eating burgers at The Nook with some of the finest men I've ever had the privilege to meet. We talked about church leadership and preaching and marriage and parenting. We discussed baseball (sorry, Todd, it's still a great game) and food (sorry, Adam, I'm not going to eat rhubarb pancakes from some fancy Cuban establishment) and music (yes, Michael, Petra still is the greatest) and technology (sorry, Justin, I have no idea what you are doing about 98% of the time on your various gadgets) and Big Ten sports (sorry, Eric, Brodie, and Nate for your Hawkeye, Buckeye, and Cornhuskereye affiliations) and fraternity memories (I hope you're able to locate your chronometric mechanism, Jason) and vocational transitions (this is lots of fun, isn't it, Ray?) and cheese consumption (I'll never understand it, Nic) and tiny, struggling congregations (we'll see where God leads, right, Brent?) and ballpark giveaways (do you still have your Twins T-shirt, Stumbo?).

We've disagreed about alcohol consumption and children in worship and the value of Twitter and the quality of Boston Market vs. Jimmy John's and the location of the Metrodome and the value of Greek/Hebrew and the legitimacy of megachurches and the appropriateness of paid pastoral staff and the wisdom of smacking doubles' partners in the head with tennis rackets. But we agree, more importantly, that God is good, friendship is good, and meat is good (most definitely in that order of decreasing value). If I had tried to specifically and strategically arrange it, I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends with whom to walk this seminary journey. I pray that God would give us continued opportunities to challenge, encourage, and support each other for the rest of our lives, no matter what challenges and blessings He places in front of us. I know that I've been irrevocably impacted by my Bethel Band of Brothers. Gentlemen, thanks for the laughs, rebukes, inspiration, help, and friendship. I will always thank my God for you.