Stuck

Stuck: the word that can most accurately describe my Seminary experience so far. It's not that I'm stuck in a small, secluded Michigan town. It's not that I'm stuck making less money than I was when working full time. It's not even that I'm stuck going to school...again. It's that seemingly everything that happens in the Seminary is stuck. Stuck at a point in the past. Stuck in the geographical constraints of Michigander Adventism. Stuck in stagnant theology. Stuck in the issues that we address as a learning community. Professors and students relay basic, conservative theology like they're breaking new ground. Professors and students announce outdated ministerial models with fervor for the new steps they're taking, and worry about the backlash. Professors and students spend significant time discussing issues in general that I've routinely joked about as being the ridiculous hot-button issues of our denomination, thinking that most mature Adventists could not still be wrestling with them.

In one class today we spent the whole period talking about the appropriateness of sports or television on Sabbath, jewelry, kneeling versus standing in church, watching movies in theaters or at home, headship in marriage, and (I wish I was joking) modesty in colors and designs. We were stuck in an earliteen Sabbath school class. If we really are graduate students, if we are really to be trusted with the present and future of our church, and if we are really to minister in diverse contexts throughout the world then we desperately need to get unstuck. This not only should be, but must be, the place where we wrestle with tough issues, different theologies, creative worship, and diverse and new opinions on myriad subjects. The Seminary, and, in many places our church, is stuck and we are squandering one of the best opportunities to change that.