So what are you doing after graduating? (Part 3)
"Following the way of Christ may not look the way it did 30 years ago, but God is still actively pursuing us."
Listening
Here it is where the fun begins: Everyone listens to God differently. The three common ways we hear from God are through the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit and the Church. Being that I much more of an active listener than a contemplative listener I have decided to go on an adventure to hear and gather stories from the Chruch.
Throughout the last year, God has been slowly giving me a vision of how I could choose to listen for God’s voice over this next year. I have embraced this vision with excitement and nerves. I truly believe that God has something to reveal to me through the adventure that is outlined below, yet I have never embarked on such a journey. The newness feels risky and unknown. However, I am excited to see what this risky, unknown adventure has for me.
I am going to be collecting stories from church planters, practitioners, pastors, social entrepreneurs, and theologians throughout the United States that are rethinking the way we “do” church. My desire is that these stories will provide hope to the Church that has lost a sense of what it means to belong to each other.
There seems to be a lot of fear in the Church today from those that are use to the Church looking a specific way, with a certain way of being. The fear is then heightened by the fact the church buildings are no longer the center of the town or community and there are less and less attending on Sunday mornings.
I believe that God is not done with the Church. There are amazing experiments, creative endeavors, and risky ideas that, I believe, are commissioned by the Holy Spirit and anointed by Christ for the Glory of God. These stories of hope seem to be hidden. My hope and goal is to help tell the stories of God’s creative movement in the United States. I hope to help the church understand that the Church is bigger than a building or a tradition. God is not done with us.
The truth is that God is not worried about the church building being filled every Sunday or not. God is more concerned with Creation becoming reconciled with its Creator. Following the way of Christ may not look the way it did 30 years ago, but God is still actively pursuing us.
This project is called The Listening in Place Project. I will be blogging and making videos about the people, projects, churches, and stories I encounter. I am also partnering with The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology to produce 10 podcasts for their podcast channel. The Listening in Place Podcast will be posted monthly starting in October 2016. (More information on how to subscribe is to come.)
I look forward to gathering these stories of hope our Church. I am excited and nervous to intentionally listening for God’s leading in my life as I embark on this crazy journey.
God's Provision
This is the part that is risky. Trusting that this idea is not just something I came up with one night, but that it is truly what God wants me to do over this next year. That means opening myself up to all of this falling apart.
I am thankful to already have the support of The Seattle School to help make this vision a reality. I now must be even more vulnerable and ask for my community to come along side me to support me financially this year. This feels strange to me. Yet, I strongly believe that God has set me on this adventure and that my community will come around to support me. Thank you in advance for your support; whether it is through prayer or through donations.
To execute this project well I will need around $10,000. Please prayerfully consider how you can help be apart of The Listening in Place Project. Below is a breakdown of the three different levels of sponsors that are available.
Connecting Sponsor $1000+
- Suggest 3 people to interview and you are guaranteed 1 will be interviewed.[5]
- The opportunity to have Cassie come and speak to your organization, church, or institution about her journey.
- Logo on Cassie’s Website with link if requested.
Cohort Sponsor $201 - $999
- Logo on Cassie’s Website.
Community Sponsor $1 - $200
- Name on Cassie’s Website.
Become a Sponsor of The Listening in Place Project!
This is what I am going to be doing this next year.
It is risky.
It is not a usual progression after seminary. And it is what God has put on my heart to do. I will faithfully step out and try, knowing that God’s vision for my life is bigger than I could every understand. I trust that God will provide through my community to share the stories of others working to bring about more of God’s Kingdom about in new and creative ways.
I hope you choose to participate with me on this journey. I will be posting blogs and video as often as I can and I will be posting the links to the podcast when they are released on The Seattle School’s channel.
Please pray for:
- The financial side of things to go smoothly
- Schedules of those I wish to interview to align
- Safety as I travel throughout the U.S. over this next year
Blessings Friends!
Cassie
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[5]The Seattle School stewards the podcast content. They edit and produce the final content.
So what are you doing after graduating? (Part 1)
"...what I hope sticks over the years is the freeing power of claiming my goodness so that others can claim their goodness. If I can hold on to a quarter of that notion, I think I’ll be ok. I think that right there might just be the fanciest part of this whole thing called seminary."
This has been the question that I have gotten over and over again these past few weeks.
As I finished up my Masters of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, I am aware at how fancy this all makes me. I mean FANCY! I now have a fancy hood, fancy letters by my name, and a very fancy piece of paper that is more expensive than all of my worldly possessions combined. Usually, what comes with such fancy things is the impression that I now know things – the idea that I have THE answers and to some extent have it all figured out.
Now, I don’t want my amazing professors from my school to get upset but I have to confess some things:
- Dr. Chelle Stearns, I do not remember all the different forms of atonement and their implications on my theological platform.
- Dr. Dwight Friesen, I can’t remember each of the existing cultural paradigm shifts that are actively present at this very moment.
- Dr. Steve Call, the only thing I remember about attachment theory comes from that super cute video about the baby and the mom.
- Dr. Ron Ruthruff, that list of biblical themes you gave in biblical theology … there was 5-ish right?
- Dr. Dan Allender, I don’t want to admit what I forget about your teaching because I am sure it will reveal way too much about myself that I do not intend to divulge.
That being said, I've already got my diploma so there's no going back!!
I chose to attend The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology (The Seattle School The Seattle School) because I wanted to go to a place that was more than a school. I wanted to attend an institution that realized that becoming a pastor is much more than learning the Greek alphabet and parsing some verbs. I wanted to attend a school that would value me as an individual and wanted to see me develop into the rooted, whole, intelligent, self aware, unique, silly, load, confident, caring pastor that I knew I could be.
Did I know exactly what I was getting into when I start The Seattle School 4 years ago? I had no clue. I had no clue that the work I would do could transform me so dramatically. I have explained to my friends that The Seattle School is like a therapy incubator. This metaphor still holds. I am not the same person I was when I moved to Seattle in 2012. I defiantly don’t have every answer that you might think I should have but I gained something more important than answers. I learned how to cultivate new questions to be curious about. I may not be able to quote Augustine or Luther off the top of my head but I learned how to say, “I don’t know… Maybe we could find out together.”
I learned that to be a good pastor is to claim the goodness of the humanity that I bring into the room with me. I learned that the cultural pressures of the pastoral office are not sufficient for listening to the Holy Spirit and facilitating opportunities for people to find restoration and freedom. I learned that the only way to help people transform into the beautiful creation they were intended to be is to do my own work to claim the beauty of my created self. When I do that, when I claim my beauty and goodness – which means admitting my wounds and pain, I create a space where others feel the freedom to do the same.
I may have been exaggerating about what I have forgotten from my classes over the last 4 years at The Seattle School… possibly. But what I hope sticks over the years is the freeing power of claiming my goodness so that others can claim their goodness. If I can hold on to a quarter of that notion, I think I’ll be ok. I think that right there might just be the fanciest part of this whole thing called seminary.