Yesterday I finished CPE. It has not yet sunk in that I no longer have to go to the hospital, write verbatims, or knock on doors/curtains/tables, saying: "Hi, my name's Brett, I'm a chaplain here. Do you mind if I come in?"
I have learned a whole lot. I will take away a lot that I don't know how to fully put into words. Of course, we have to try - with our self-evaluations, endorsement essays, etc. Another way I've reflected is through my theology of ministry paper/reflection, which I've pasted below. I'll probably borrow a lot of it for my endorsement essay.
My supervisor, Ann, was a part of the growth and gain of pastoral identity/authority that I felt this summer. My group was good as well, and I was thankful for the program.
Katy, one of my group colleagues made a list of Ann-isms, including: How does God interrupt God's people? Ministry is where the action is. Questions lead to deeper faith. Feelings are what they are. Vulnerability is the universal connector. You are the prayer - you may not need words. Lamenting is a beautiful thing - what I loved is gone. Tears will teach you. Embrace the growing edges. Your gut always tells you what to say - then we wrestle with it. A pastoral challenge is an invitation for someone to think differently. Security is an illusion, yet all of humanity seeks it. Doctors are mythical people who patients are always waiting for. Beware capturing people in sermons or in worship the way you capture people in a hospital bed! Agendas can block your own ability to listen, communicate, and be pastoral. If you can laugh at yourself, you're going to be a great minister. God is in the surprises.
To think that I made it through, conquering at least for now my phobias of blood/hospitals/needles, etc., and offering good care - amazes me. Thanks be to God for a great summer of learning.
Here's my theology of ministry paper/reflection:
At the core of my theology of ministry is the understanding that all people are God's people, and that we are all described in Romans 3:22-25, “For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.” A pastor or a pastoral minister is not exempt from this brokenness by sin and lack of distinction, but is set apart by a call to minister to the terror created by this brokenness with the only things that she authentically can bring – her honest self and God's word, embodied and present. The word, the message, the ministry is contained in the richness of verses 24 and 25 above. This theology has a very concrete, visceral feel for me, and it goes more personal in 1 Corinthians 15:3-101, what I would describe as Paul's statement of faith. As a minister, the context of Paul understanding grace through his own brokenness and the fact that Jesus Christ came down to him, all the way to the cross, all the way to him on the road, to him the “least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle.” (1 Cor. 15:9) My theology lives through these verses, that authentic ministry means to me that we claim our identities here in this scripture - “But by the grace of God I am who I am.” To be a minister then, the minister must be true and authentic to this identity, gifted to her in her baptism, and sustained by the gift of faith, by living daily to be who she is – fully sinner, fully justified, called to share God's word.
Flowing from this theology, during this unit of CPE I have felt called to reflect on and truly embrace what it means and feels like to be a “non-solution-based” minister. I realized in this unit of CPE that one of my strengths is being able to sit with, (at least metaphorically) embrace, and listen to suffering without trying to “fix” something. I do not look for a solution or an end to tears, because sometimes opening oneself up to authentic sadness., anger, or confusion is just the pastoral care one needs There are comforting words to give from God, but I am learning that some of the most comforting words are those which open up a person's story, giving them space to find their own voice of personal creedal Christianity as Paul proclaimed in the Corinthians text noted below. Parker Palmer describes this type of ministry: “It is a love in which we represent God's love to a suffering person, a God who does not 'fix' us but gives us strength by suffering with us. By standing respectfully and faithfully at the borders of another's solitude, we may mediate the love of God to a person who needs something deeper than any human being can give.”2
At this point I feel empowered that my “strengths” for ministry are not as much the gifted talents I came in with so much as they are the edges in which I feel I have experienced the most growth. My edge which I have felt the greatest growth is in claiming my theology of ministry itself, and coming to an authentic understanding and living of my pastoral identity. This is also something that I believe I have brought to the group in this CPE unit. My growth in realizing and getting to know my own pastoral identity is hard to put into a few short phrases or sentences, but overall I have felt affirmed, challenged, blessed, prayerful, and balanced through this growing process in the CPE unit. I have come to intimately know and deeply trust my pastoral instincts, or as my CPE supervisor referred to it more aptly, my “gut.” It is as simple and rich as to say that I simply know myself better, my baptismal self because there is no other self, called to a specific yoke perfectly fitted to my authentic identity.
Another strength I have grown with this CPE summer is learning how I act among new experiences, stories, or peoples. Because I feel called, I was able in this CPE unit to live with the unknowns (e.g.: the elderly, various illnesses, how I would handle my blood/needles/medical phobias), to feel balanced, calm, and open to whatever might come my way. Befriending my anxiety about essentially cold-calling on people in hospital rooms was hard and I experienced a lot of growth in confidence. This confidence has pushed me to ask hard questions, offer to pray with people, and to feel emotions with people as I walk the road with them. But I was also gifted with (and surprised by) my calmness to not have that anxiety directed or triggered by people who were different, suffering, confused, angry, or unwilling to talk to me. A strength that really surprised me and enriched my CPE experience was that at the end of each clinical day I was able to get into the car and tell myself honestly that I had had a good day, I had done the best I could, and I felt happy and unburdened. While especially in those first few days I felt anxious knocking on doors, I did not have a theology which would make me feel anxious exiting doors – I did not wonder that I had not done enough, said the right thing, or approached a situation correctly. After all, why should I if I believe, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain” (1 Cor. 15:10).
In the last third of my CPE unit, I have actually felt most enriched by the things which still challenge me, those “growing edges.” By knowing my growing edges, pushing them, but also knowing my true weaknesses and limits, I am a more authentic and whole minister, just as the vulnerable people I minister to. I have discovered that a very specific growing edge for me is handling how to minister to people who are supremely devout (of any religion, but usually conservative). I think this weakness has also given me growth in my ability to not argue with people who think they have it all figured out but to be pastorally available and get to know what it means to offer a pastoral challenge. Another growing edge I have discovered is that sometimes my relative good health and inexperience with medical language makes me miss things hidden in people's language. Working in a Catholic environment has challenged me in a positive way, but also at times deeply saddened or frustrated me. I have come to experience my own limits and weaknesses and love them as a part of me. I have reflected often in recent days on the images in Isaiah 49 – of God calling us from our mothers' wombs, of God who will never forget us, with our names inscribed on God's hands. I feel that in these weeks of CPE I have gotten to know my own hands of pastoral ministry, and seen God's name inscribed on them. But ultimately I am sustained not by my own strength, willpower, or abilities, but by the knowledge that this is God's doing, that God is present, and after all, this is just God's work, my hands.
11 Corinthians 15:3-10 ¶ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them-- though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
2Parker Palmer. Let Your Life Speak. (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco) 2000, 61.
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