Gary Neal Hansen

Theology. It's good for you.

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Reading for Reflection (Letters to a Young Pastor)

December 1, 2016 by Gary Neal Hansen Leave a Comment

Reading for Reflection
CC by rabble-SA 2.0

Dear ______:

Sorry to be out of touch for a few weeks. I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year — National Novel Writing Month. I’m now officially a novelist, with a rough draft of 55,000 words in hand. But I’m behind in my correspondence

And thanks for the reminder that there are other, less traditionally academic, kinds of reading in seminary.

Reading for Reflection

When you tell me that one of your professors asked you to write a “reflection” paper I had a flashback.

One class required that I write brief reflections every week. I was supposed to read particular books and articles on spiritual life and ministry, then “reflect.”

This stumped me for a while. Academic history and theology were more familiar territory. I could analyze texts, declare a thesis, make arguments using evidence. But this reflection business seemed more like my journal entries.

I don’t share my journal entries. And I didn’t see at the time how that kind of writing, or the reading that informed it, was going to be graded as part of my master’s degree.

As you will deduce, I had bit of an attitude about it.

What I needed to do was broaden my reading strategies in one more direction.

One Back Story, Two Suggestions

The back story on this kind of assignment is that there is much more to seminary (at least there should be more to seminary) than simple mastery of classic academic disciplines. You can master your languages, your biblical exegesis, your history, and your theology without even touching two major issues:

1. You need to integrate all that Bible, history, and theology into your life. Academic knowledge has to work like compost in your garden, helping you grow and thrive.

2. You also need to integrate the fruits of all that scholarship into your practice of ministry. Few churches are going to hire you as their pastor simply because you do well in your classes. If they do they are unlikely to benefit. Academic subjects must again be digested, composted, to make ministry wise and fruitful.

So, seminary education, when everything is as it should be, works on both these integrative tasks — as well as filling your noggin with knowledge. Seminary needs to push you to think and feel and act on what you are learning, both in your faith and in ministry.

Suggestion One: Build Bridges

To do that you have to build some bridges.

One the one side of the chasm is you with your personal experience, your presuppositions, your opinions, your feelings, your personality.

On the other side of the chasm is the knowledge you’ve crammed into your head from books and lectures.

You need to connect the two sides with some strong cables and hang a roadway so that the knowledge becomes useable, flexible, winsome.

The subjects you study are actually all relevant in one way or another. But to make them useful for faith and ministry you have to draw the connections, consciously or unconsciously.

Take the time, often, daily if possible, to write in your journal. Think about what you read or heard in class that day, and stop to ask

  • “Why does this matter?”
  • “How do I feel about this?”
  • “How is this similar to, and different from, what I’ve known or believed previously?”
  • “How might this affect my faith and discipleship?”
  • “How might this affect my ministry, or its direction?”

Nurture that practice. Get familiar with asking and answering the questions. Then when you have to produce a formal reflection on some reading or other, you’ll be ready.

It won’t hurt you if you keep those questions in mind while you read all the time. You can write little notes about this kind of thing in the margins, and you’ll find your reading much more engaged and fun — whether your reflections are happy pious agreement with the author or angry arguments against the book’s points!

Suggestion Two: Read Reflective Writings

It will also help if you spend some time reading books that are written in more reflective and less academic styles. Often these make a good addition to your devotional life.

For instance, you could pick up a copy of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. You shouldn’t aim to read it quickly, cover to cover. If you just read one or two each day, that will be about right.

That’s what I do. I have no particular aim to finish the book. It is more important to reflect on it bit by bit.

Or you could read some of the writings of Henri J.M. Nouwen. Several of his books are edited versions of his journals from various periods of his life, such as an extended stay in a monastery, or his work in a L’Arche community.

Either way, reflection of this kind is not just helpful in completing your assignments. It is good for your soul. It is one of the things God uses in making you more whole and able to serve.

Blessings,

Gary

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I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Tell me about your own reflective reading!

(And if you like the post, I hope you’ll share it using the buttons below.)

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Filed Under: books, Ministry Tagged With: Desert Fathers, Nouwen, Reflection

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Theology. It’s good for you.

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