Pastoral residencies — post-seminary experiences designed to enhance and broaden ministry capabilities of fledgling pastors — received a fond gaze back last week from some of the people who best know the programs, which are scattered around the country.
Here’s the Rev. Dr. Beth McCaw’s current metaphor on where many church leaders find themselves these days: the pandemic has catapulted them into the air — maybe involuntarily — and they’re still airborne.
Dr. Keisha E. McKenzie told the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty during his Leading Theologically broadcast last month she’s drawn to biblical characters with vision, including the prophet Jeremiah and John of Patmos, especially the latter with his “vision of a new Earth populated by an uncountable number of people from all kinds of backgrounds.” Her affinity is for “people who have learned what it is to be just and faithful and true and kind. A community of love as practice — that’s the vision John was drawn to.”
Together with the Rev. S. Balajiedlang Khyllep, a colleague at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s World Mission Initiative, the Rev. Dr. Hunter Farrell has written a book to help congregations decolonize their mission outreach. Farrell, the former director of Presbyterian World Mission, was the guest Wednesday of the Presbyterian Foundation’s the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty on the broadcast “Leading Theologically.”
The Rev. Dr. José Irizarry collects turtles and children’s books and is a salsa dancer when he’s not busy with his new job as president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Speaking on the broadcast “Leading Theologically” the day following the shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Presbyterian author, speaker, facilitator, composer and musician David LaMotte said that while it’s important “to name the horror of what humans are doing to each other,” it’s also crucial that we acknowledge that most of the world is at peace.
Wednesday’s edition of Leading Theologically took on a nautical theme as host the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty and guest Gina Yeager-Buckley launched into this topic: “Turning the Ship: What Ministry Feels Like Right Now.”
You can find examples Rev. Jenny McDevitt’s creative spark on her Instagram site, found here. To hear about where that spark came from, listen to her Wednesday conversation with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation and the host of Leading Theologically, which can be found here or here.
