5/12/2008 – Monday

It doesn’t seem that the math works, but in six weeks I’ll be back in Philadelphia. In late January I packed two bags and my backpack and wondered how I would put together the materials to teach Stewardship and assist with an Introduction to Clinical Pastoral Education. Soon after arriving I received the notice that the CPE program at Abingdon Hospital had ceased operations. I was the chair of a board that no longer existed. But the students here began to write case studies in an effort to build the skills to observe and remember the encounters in hospital visitation to be able to write verbatims.

Kantonen’s book seemed like foreign territory to the students who generally were given a chapter from a book to read or assigned to go to the library to read a chapter or two as an assignment for a course. Giving them the books and expecting it to be read in its entirety took some continuous conversation. Yet they gave the Stewardship survey to their colleagues and we all marveled at the similarities to the students from the US in their attitudes toward giving. They too, wanted the quick and easy answers to how to solve the financial problems of a church, but the task of teaching generous giving began to take shape.

Actually the invitation to the speak to the Settler’s church put some shape to all the thinking I had been doing. It helped to be asked to develop a day long [6 hour] presentation. That helped to work with a Men’s League presentation, a conversation with Young Adult League members, a Theological Café presentation and a yet to be held campus conversation on Generous Giving.

This week Phil Knutson will be in town, so I guess I’ll start the process of debriefing. What did I learn, what helped, what hindered, what worked, what didn’t. In a way I’m interested in seeing the final results as well.

If you are interested, there is a tape of the Theological Café presentation in the Splash Cast section of the blog. I also taped the Pentecost Service. I broke the service into 4 sections: A Trio Anthem; the final staff sermon by Georg Scriba on Pentecost; The communion; and the final hymn. In the Splash Cast player there are four speakers in the bottom left, so you can pick and choose what you want to hear.

Georg Scriba has been a faculty member for 16 years and most recently the LTI Administrator. Pentecost was his last sermon as a LTI staff member as the University requires retirement at 60. He retires from the University and moves on to the local congregation in Hayfields. Enjoy the sermon and the hymns as well. Some of the singing is truly stunning.