An Incomplete Field Guide to Ministry

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware reflect on some of the challenges and opportunities facing institutions, professors, and students within theological education today. How do we adjust to the economic and financial realities of current students? Do we imagine theological education as mainly vocational or mostly formational? 

Please note that this episode was recorded before Russia invaded Ukraine. 

Our guest today Carrie Ballenger, assistant to the bishop at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and Pastor to the English Speaking Congregation at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. Pastor Ballenger is also an LSTC Alum.

Mentioned this episode:

• Dr. Ted Smith's 2021 Sprunt Lectures presentation entitled “No Longer Shall They Teach One Another: The End of Theological Education.” 
• After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging by Willie Jennings
• Knit Purl Pray Preach, Carrie Ballenger's blog 
• Carrie Ballenger's recorded sermons 
• The Upper Room, an organization supporting Palestinian Christians, especially women and young people, to stay in Jerusalem.

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our producer and editor is Eric Fowler.

This podcast is brought to you by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that seeks to build up the Body of Christ and work for a world of peace and justice that cares for the whole creation.

If you or someone you know is interested in seminary, you can learn more about LSTC at lstc.edu/admissions

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware finish the series on Overwhelm, centering our inherent gifts and capacities in the face of a lie that we will never be enough or that we are failures for having limits.

Our guest today is Dr. Eunyung Lim, Assistant Professor of New Testament at LSTC, and author or the recently published book Entering God's Kingdom (Not) Like a Little Child: Images of the Child in Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and Thomas.

Mentioned this episode:

• Chicago Society of Biblical Research

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our producer and editor is Eric Fowler.

This podcast is brought to you by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that seeks to build up the Body of Christ and work for a world of peace and justice that cares for the whole creation.

If you or someone you know is interested in seminary, you can learn more about LSTC at lstc.edu/admissions

• The Door, which Emily co-edits with previous podcast guest and LSTC student Katie Mueller. Contact them at [email protected]

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our producer and editor is Eric Fowler.

This podcast is brought to you by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that seeks to build up the Body of Christ and work for a world of peace and justice that cares for the whole creation.

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware continue the series on Overwhelm, looking at intersecting oppressions and marginalizations, and ministry in the midst of different identities. How does our beautiful, expansive diversity as people also connect to divisions and isolation? 

Our guest today is Vance Blackfox, ELCA Desk Director, American Indian Alaska Native Tribal Nations, Founder and Director of Other+Wise, and LSTC alum.

Mentioned this episode:

• Kimberlé Crenshaw
• Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium: November 16 and 17

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware continue the series on Overwhelm. Today: Control will not save us. What does fear of losing control encourage us to do? What institutions and practices lure us with false promises of control? What if we imagine God's power as presence instead of control? How does an orientation of control encourage us to treat our bodies and those of others?

What might our leadership and lives look like if we give up control?

Our guests today are Pastor Franklin Golden of Durham Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC, and Pastor Veronica Mwakasungura, graduate and returning student of LSTC, ordained pastor with the Lutheran Church of Tanzania, serving with the Lutheran Church of Rwanda. 

Mentioned this episode:

• Willie James Jennings
• Michel Foucault
• Aaron Antonovsky and Salutogenesis 

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our producer and editor is Eric Fowler.

This podcast is brought to you by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that seeks to build up the Body of Christ and work for a world of peace and justice that cares for the whole creation.

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware tackle a series on Overwhelm. How do we anchor ourselves while caring for trauma in the midst of trauma? What strategies do we turn to? And what joys do we turn to in order to nurture ourselves? Whether it's travel, baking and making croutons with the mistakes, or reading Star Wars books and playing video games, we cannot ignore care for self and others. Our call is important. So is our care.

Our guest today is 2nd year M.Div LSTC student Katie Mueller, who brings compassionate skepticism, laughter, and a deep commitment to our ecological interconnections to her studies and life.

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our producer and editor is Eric Fowler.

This podcast is brought to you by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that seeks to build up the Body of Christ and work for a world of peace and justice that cares for the whole creation.

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware are back for another season of an Incomplete Field Guide to Ministry, covering lessons from our summer about rest, holding joy and sorrow, and facing exhaustion. 

"You can only do as much work as you can do. You're not created to run yourself into the ground for the sake of whatever your work is," Marvin reminds us.

Our guest today is Eric Fowler, our editor and producer, who shares how he got involved with podcasting and audio production. Eric also spent 6 years working in workforce development and economic justice with the Chicago Jobs Council, and is currently working for an equitable, carbon-free future at Fresh Energy in Saint Paul, MN. Eric is the spouse of LSTC grad Reed Fowler. They live together in Minneapolis, MN.
 
Mentioned this episode:

• Laziness Does Not Exist, by Devon Price
• The Nap Ministry
• Driver's license suspension in Illinois: License2Work.org
• Rhubarb House, an emerging Housing Co-operative in the Twin Cities, MN
• Community Development Corporation of Pembroke Hopkins Park

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our producer and editor is Eric Fowler. 

This podcast is brought to you by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that seeks to build up the Body of Christ and work for a world of peace and justice that cares for the whole creation.

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware wrap up a season and a semester. They reflect on lessons learned, the value of speaking outside a narrow area of expertise, and the bold exploratory conversations we've shared.

This year, we've accompanied Ministerial Leadership 1, taught by Dr. Wagner in the Fall, and Public Church 1, taught by Dr. Wickware in the Spring. The podcast started as an experiment to provide asynchronous content to students during remote learning. And as far as we can tell, it was a success! 

We're all full of gratitude for the rich conversations, thoughtful guests, and reflective listeners. There are so many questions to keep asking, conversations to have, and thoughtful work to lift up at LSTC and in the Church. So we're going to do it again! Look out for Season 2 in August, when we'll keep adding to this Incomplete Field Guide to Ministry. 

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our editor is Eric Fowler. 

This podcast was made possible by the Lyn C. and Stewart W. Herman Jr. Fund for Innovation in Theological Education.

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware discuss accountability. How can our ministry be accountable, not just to the church that hires the pastor, but to the broader community as well? How do we go beyond inviting a one-off guest speaker? Are we willing to lose some control by bringing more people into leadership?

Our guest today is the Reverend Senator Kim Jackson, Vicar of the Church of the Common Ground in Atlanta, and Georgia State Senator for the 41st District.
 
Mentioned this episode:

• Fair Fight

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our editor is Eric Fowler. 

This podcast was made possible by the Lyn C. and Stewart W. Herman Jr. Fund for Innovation in Theological Education.

Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware discuss church and society, community organizing, and power. What's so scary about power anyway? Where does it show up in Christian community? And how can preachers approach politics in sermons? (Can sermons even be apolitical?)

Mentioned this episode:

• Rita Nakashima Brock

We'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to [email protected].

Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for technology support. Our editor is Eric Fowler. 

This podcast was made possible by the Lyn C. and Stewart W. Herman Jr. Fund for Innovation in Theological Education.