Lent 20

One of the many...let's say joys...of getting a Masters of Divinity is field education.  Virtually every seminary has something similar to it and calls it something different.  At Wesley, it's called Practice in Ministry and Mission, or simply PMM (or PM&M if you like having an excuse to use an ampersand).  Basically, students do some time interning at a local church or a nonprofit to deepen their practical education and learn what it's like to actually work in those settings.

So yesterday, many of the sites came up to Wesley for round robin style interviews.  I had signed up to meet with four sites: two congregational settings and two non-congregational settings.  As it turned out, both of the non-congregational sites couldn't make it up yesterday, so today I spent some time meeting and talking with both sites to see if I'd be a good fit.

One of the sites was the General Board of Church and Society, which is one of the general agencies of the United Methodist Church.  I've spoken before about how I'm a little bit (okay, a big) Methodist nerd, but for those who aren't as...let's say special...as I am, GBCS serves as the policy and advocacy branch of the UMC, striving to make society more perfect (another Methodist thing).  Their offices are located right next to the Supreme Court and across the street from the Capitol building in Washington, DC.  For some reason, in my four years of being at AU, I never made it over to the Methodist building (the building GBCS is located in).  I have to admit, I was internally fanboying more than any reasonable person should have been as I was walking from the Metro to my interview. And once I got inside and started my interview, I was geeking out about how great the work they do with a host of social justice issues and how they strive to be prophetic not just to society, but to the UMC as well (and Lord knows the UMC needs prophets).

I'm not 100% sure that GBCS would be a good site for me to do my PMM for a number of reasons, but I'm still so glad I had the opportunity to go down and chat with them and see the amazing work that they are doing.  I now have to figure out what's best for me at this point in my life as I discern my PMM setting, but I'm sure that whether I end up at GBCS or somewhere else, I'm going to have a good experience.

Today, I saw God in the work and ministry of the General Board of Church and Society.