Seminary

Right now I'm on a break from studying. It gets really tiring. My mind can only work for so long.

Today I woke up early knowing I only have so many hours to get my schoolwork finished. Tomorrow is Sunday - the busiest day of the week. I am teaching confirmation for 2 hours in the morning starting at 8am then I will grab my electric guitar and pedal board and run downstairs for the 3rd service band rehearsal. I would have liked to practice the songs again today but I just didn't have time.

Once I was awake I went across the street to Starbucks and started my schoolwork. At noon I got hungry and went to Subway and back to Starbucks. I came home around 4pm and kept going. I still have 3 assignments due tonight.

I'm realizing that preparing for and doing ministry takes up all my time. It has taken me away from community with others - which is what the Christian life is all about right? I have to ask myself whether I'm living my life the way it was meant to be lived or not. And I'm asking those questions as a full time minister and seminarian. I suppose one of the effects of living 40 miles away from campus is that I don't study with community. I live among those to whom I minister. I immediately think about the apostle, Paul. He constantly went from one place to the next. I wonder what his community was like. I want to find a group to chill with in Pasadena on Monday/Wednesday nights after my class. Just straight kick it. I almost want to say if it's a Bible study I'm not interested - I do enough of that. I'm talking about a group of people who know each other's names, share stories, go places, etc.

When I decided to go to Fuller I knew they didn't do community well. It's like when I visited Austin Seminary and they said you had to live on campus to go there because community was that important. Have we missed something? Fuller (in my opinion) is the absolute best place to study the Bible. But if we learn how to seclude ourselves in doing so are we missing the point?