Student Perspectives

By Alexis Wright

When Rev. Charolyn Jones initially felt the Holy Spirit nudging her toward ordained ministry back in 1981, she was redirected to lay ministry and later to the women’s missionary society. Charolyn is quick to acknowledge God’s hand in the path she followed even if it took nearly two decades for her to finally move toward ordained ministry in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC).

“During that season the Lord blessed me,” Charolyn recalls. “I was elected a delegate to the General Conference quadrennials, which is an opportunity that would have taken years to get if I were an Itinerate Elder [an ordained minister in the AMEC]. That opportunity just wouldn’t have been there for me.”

By the second time Charolyn sensed her call to ordination, the AME church leaders were beginning to promote women. A new Bishop was appointed in 2000, and not only did he support women in ministry, but he encouraged Charolyn to begin examiner classes with the denomination. She was ordained an itinerant deacon in 2003 and completed her examiner classes in 2005.

“What matters is what gets the work of Christ done in the world,” Charolyn said. “I don’t think any one group of us has ‘the answer’ to the faith walk. It takes all of us to come to the table.”   
 
Charolyn, who began taking classes at SFTS’s Pasadena campus in 2006, is executive minister at Ward AME Church in Los Angeles. In this position, Charolyn oversees the operational resources for 31 ministries. She is also secretary of the Southern California Conference of the AMEC.  

In an effort to minister to the disenfranchised in her community, Charolyn helped to  organize a health-care reform town hall in August. She attained sponsorship from U.S. Representative Diane Watson for the forum which included California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. The forum attracted over 500 people, inclusive of a diverse representation of  the 33rd Congressional District. 

“People need to be able to make an informed decision on issues that affect their lives,” Charolyn said.

Considering she works full-time as a senior project manager and is involved in ministry at Ward, Charolyn really values the flexibility of SFTS’s course schedule on its Pasadena campus, which features night and weekend classes. 

Rev. Wendy Tajima, associate dean of enrollment whose office is on the Pasadena campus, values the experience and perspective of Charolyn and other AME students.

“When the AMEC decided to ask their itinerant deacons to earn the M.Div. degree in order to be ordained itinerant elders, we were more than happy to welcome them to our program,” Tajima said. “Because they are already in ministry, the night and weekend schedule is ideal for them. They have been a gift to our student body, offering real-world church experience and adding to the voices that make the SFTS Southern California dialogue so rich.”

In her classes, Charolyn gravitated toward the social gospel and liberation theology. “I really resonate with trying to help the disenfranchised as well as the enfranchised,” she said.

Charolyn credits SFTS with broadening her understanding of what ministry in practice can look like.

“Seminary has helped me be conscious of non-cookie cutter ministries,” Charolyn said. “One size doesn’t fit all.  Ministry takes you out of your comfort zone, and that’s good. Seminary is helping me to know that my way isn’t the only way. I love the diversity of perspectives that the other students share.”

By Evans Presley-McGowan

Matthias Peterson-Brandt is a PK2: both his parents are pastors, making him a pastor’s kid times two. His mother is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor while his father is ordained Lutheran and teaches.

He grew up in the church, being active in the youth group during high school and involved in campus ministry in college. He double majored in English and Spanish at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Through Americorps, Matthias spent a telling and important year after college serving the homeless and others who visited the Chicago-area soup kitchen run by a group of Franciscans. He loved the formative experience, feeling God’s call to serve the homeless and immigrant population.

There was “a deep, through and through sense of fulfillment in the daily interactions and a tangible sense of doing something for and with these people,” Matthias said. “It was not about the gratitude but simply doing the work that needed to be done.” 

One might say Matthias follows the simple servant model of ministry: “Ministry is not glamorous work most of the time,” yet something about it resonates deep within, nurturing his spiritual well-being. 

“Ministry has to be holistic,” Matthias said. “We can’t just talk about the Spirit knowing that you’re hungry. At its core, ministry is an experience of the resurrection, of giving life and having your own life enriched through the experience.”

The SFTS San Anselmo campus attracted Matthias not only for its beauty and location, but also the warm welcome he received from the Seminary’s enrollment department. He was drawn also to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley for its interdenominational variety. He is currently taking a class at the Pacific School of Religion on sexuality and spirituality. “As ministers we need to be aware of how we think and what we believe about sexuality.”

Since his arrival at SFTS in 2008, Matthias has enjoyed the “awesome” community. It’s small enough that you know everyone, and has a home-like feel, including the professors and staff.” 

He enjoys his classes, particularly theology since it has the most discussion: “I learn better from discussion than lecture. It can be a safe environment to debate and offer each other how we think about God.”

His personal spiritual practice often includes reading the Psalms, which are “rich with emotion” and “expressive of a relationship with God.”  Matthias is an avid reader, preferring fiction and poetry, and often has at least one book outside of class that he is reading. He enjoys outside activities such as Ultimate Frisbee, biking, camping and canoeing with his two younger brothers and dad at least once every two years.

This past summer Matthias completed his Clinical Pastoral Education credit in Los Angeles near his girlfriend, Valerie, a fourth-grade teacher who “helps me understand myself.” He became more comfortable with being a pastoral presence amidst pain and suffering. “People look at you as a chaplain with religious authority, whether you want them to or not. We should deal with that [authority] responsibly.”

One of the driving questions for Matthias is “How do we live out the gospel? Many of Jesus’ teaching and injunctions were to care for those in need.” Matthias is well on his way in living out this call.

Reprinted from Spring 2008 Chimes

Leslie Burke is not only a fourth-year part-time student at San Francisco Theological Seminary in Pasadena. She is also a woman of many talents.

Burke, 53, obviously enjoys education and she has been through much of it.
A registered nurse practitioner, Burke has a master’s degree in public health administration and is a director and administrator of a home health agency. She is also a lawyer and an ordained minister in the Unity Fellowship Church movement.

“I’ve combined those things together, primarily being in healthcare and advocacy work for the disadvantaged,” Burke said. “I’ve always been connected and drawn to the health industry and service.”
Burke, who was raised in a Baptist church that her great aunt founded, was inspired to pursue spirituality in healing with the rise of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

“I came upon a lot of stigma and rejection, and it really questioned the faith and Christianity of people,” Burke said. “There were a number of people in churches in the early 80s that did not respond or provide care.”

So Burke began working with people living with AIDS and spiritually guiding them.

“I found that a person’s spiritual base touched their healing and willingness to live,” Burke said, adding that it really made a difference to those with AIDS if they were reminded that God loved them no matter what. “They were still children of God.”

Through her work, Burke helped build an outreach program at the Unity Fellowship of Christ Church where she has been a reverend for the past 10 years. It was through that work, she felt called to SFTS in Pasadena.
She chose the Seminary both for its location and convenience – she could still work and go to school – and because of its unique diversity.

“I really liked the fact that there was a diverse faculty. There were people from a variety of denominations,” Burke said.

Some of her favorite courses include church history and a mission class. She appreciates that classes still challenge students to think for themselves and discern their own beliefs.

“One thing I’ve tried to do is keep an open mind going in. I go in with my background and training but always go in ready to listen and try something new,” Burke said. “I was grounded enough in my connection with who God is to be open and hear new things.”

Burke has also greatly enjoyed the chance to interact with other students and share views and experiences. And despite her resume full of degrees, she is already the doctoral program. “I am staying open to the call of God,” she said.

Although Burke doesn’t know exactly what God has in store for her, she is sure God will use all her many talents. “It’s a wonderful thing in your life when you can see everything coming together,” Burke said. “And the call to ministry has done that for me.”

Reprinted from 2008 Winter Chimes

Wherever Sam Chung goes, and he has been many places, he meets people wherever they are, both physically and spiritually.

From Portland, Ore., through the plains of Ohio and all the way to New York City before returning to his home state of California and eventually San Francisco Theological Seminary, Sam has explored God’s call to serve others wherever they are in need.

It was in Portland at an AIDS hospice center where his living faith first faced a dying reality. Most of the patients were gay, and he had always been told that these people were some of the most deviant, inhuman and sinful people. His relationship with them shattered his belief of what it meant to love others. They too are children of God, and children who were dying before him.

Faced with questions like, “Do people with AIDS go to heaven?” Sam could not simply give a theological answer in words. A much more powerful response would be to live out God’s love for them.

“Ministry isn’t a knee-jerk or a reactionary sort of love,” Sam says. “It’s long-term, committed.”
Belief is more than words for Sam. It is “about community, not just as Christians but as people: how we live, how we share, everything!”

Sam went on to earn his bachelor’s in both history and religion at Oberlin College in Ohio and his master’s in social work at Columbia University in New York. After the 9/11 attacks, where over 100 Filipino-Americans died, he met with Asian American families to help heal the wounds of losing a loved one, from filling out death certificates to praying with them.

Wherever Sam’s been, he has taken or studied theology. From auditing a class at Union in NYC to beginning courses last year at SFTS’s southern campus, he has shown an intense curiosity about theological and spiritual matters. While in NYC, those he served referred to him as “the Rev” because he always asked how they were doing spiritually.

 “A lot of people can check in to see if someone is physically or mentally OK,” Sam says. “I wanted to make sure they were also spiritually OK.”

Sam’s comprehensive mentoring approach reflects his broad perspective of community. A “dabbler in many things,” his study interests include postmodernism and ethics, and he is a self-described “liberal humanist.” While growing up, Sam was taught what the Bible says, and since he has learned more about what the Bible means to him.

“For me, salvation is more of a process, rather than a one-shot deal,” Sam says.

After numerous discussions with his pastor, Rev. Dr. Chuck Robinson at Wilshire Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles (M.Div. ’67) and later with the SFTS dean of enrollment, Sam decided SFTS would be a great place to live out his faith as he studied theology.

Sam originally joined the community at SFTS/SC but this year has moved to the northern campus with the help of his home presbytery, Pacific Presbytery. In the vein of his postmodern approach, Sam enjoys the interconnectivity of his studies and the challenge of the future church.

“Like so many professions, pastors balance between the past (what is known) and the future (what is unknown),” he says. “We must be able to relate to everyone in our congregation, meeting them where they are and then pushing them to the greater good.”

Reprinted from Spring 2008 Chimes

First-year student Elizabeth Campbell has been inspired multiple times over since entering San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Whether it is her courses, her work as a youth director at Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo, or her training for a half-marathon, Campbell believes her first-year experience has been rewarding and fulfilling.

Pursuing a master of divinity degree has been something the New York native contemplated for a long time. When she was 14, Campbell attended a Federated (Methodist-Baptist) church in New York. Her pastor suggested that she become a pastor herself someday. At the time she wasn’t sure about it, but the idea stayed with her. It wasn’t until age 17 when she participated in the Youth Theology Initiative that she became extremely interested in theology.

Campbell chose SFTS for its M.Div. program because it was a good fit. “I felt like it was a really balanced program,” she said.

So far Campbell has really enjoyed her coursework, particularly systemic theology and Old Testament. “I’ve been really inspired by our professor Annette Schellenberg,” Campbell said. “She is very engaging. She has been a neat academic professor and role model.”

One of Campbell’s favorite things about SFTS so far is getting to know people and living in a community environment. She wanted to go to a school where she could interact with other students, and she found that at SFTS. In fact, in May she will be running a half-marathon as a tribute to a friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. She has raised more than $2,200 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through a local Team N’ Training program.

Campbell has also discovered a new interest in spiritual direction. Although she did not come to SFTS for its spiritual direction program, a few classes have intrigued her to the point of considering an SFTS diploma program in spiritual direction. And ultimately, she hopes to earn a Ph.D.

But one goal at a time.

“Ideally, right now, I would love to become a pastor at a church, doing many different positions,” Campbell said, noting that working as an assistant or associate pastor might be the best path. “I really enjoy worship renewal and working with families.”

As a triplet, Campbell has always had a strong bond with her sisters and family. Though she misses them and her home back East, she is thrilled to be in California and at SFTS.

“I love it out here,” Campbell said.

Reprinted from 2008 Winter Chimes

It has only been six years since Arnolfo “Bong” Bringas came to know the Lord as his Savior, but in that short time, his faith and passion for God have grown immensely.

Bong, 45, is extremely active in the Filipino Community Presbyterian Church in Eagle Rock where he is Clerk of Session, an elder, a member of the worship team, Bible study leader, Sunday school teacher and occasional preacher.

Because of his eagerness to serve God, his church encouraged Bong to attend San Francisco Theological Seminary in Pasadena and become a pastor.

During ‘Introduction to Ministry,’ one of his first courses at SFTS, Bong felt assured he was in the right place. “I felt my call was affirmed, and I understood why I was in seminary,” he said.

Bong looks back on that course as his favorite class. “That’s where I began to build relationships with other classmates, to understand where they are coming from and their reasons for coming to seminary,” he said.
Bong admits that coming back to school after 15 years is not easy, but he is excited about everything he is learning at SFTS.

“I don’t learn just by attending regular Bible studies,” he said, adding that what he enjoys most about seminary are the “in-depth discussions on different aspects of the Christian religion.”
In addition to his part-time class load, ceaseless service for his church and full-time job, Bong is also a husband and father of two.
“It’s difficult and very challenging,” he said, adding that juggling numerous responsibilities makes the challenge exciting.

Bong and his family immigrated to California from the Philippines six years ago. “It wasn’t an easy decision…but by God’s grace I believe I am doing OK,” Bong said.

Bong is adjusting well to life in California with the support of his family and hopes to graduate from SFTS in 2010. His passion for Christian education and desire to humbly serve will undoubtedly only become stronger.

“I am in seminary because I want to learn how to explain theological ideas to regular people,” Bong said. “Not everybody understands the teachings of the Bible in the same way. Most people understand the teachings if you make them simpler. My goal is to become equipped in making the teachings of God simpler and more appealing.”

Reprinted from 2009 Spring Chimes

Natasha Hicks embraces all ethnic groups like they’re her own. Considering she was born and raised on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation in Auburn, Wash., and has ancestral ties to  Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Irish, German, Dutch and Welsh roots, it’s easy to understand her commitment to diversity.

The junior at SFTS Northern California even fondly refers to herself as “chop suey.” And it’s this kaleidoscope of cultures and ethnicities that help drive Natasha’s passion for the church to engage in God’s work throughout the world and for it to represent the diversity of God’s beloved creation.

Natasha has already started her outreach, working part time for Faith Network, an organization in Oakland that builds community support for underserved schools throughout the East Bay.

A few years ago while serving as an intern for Mission at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, she co-taught a seminar based upon an exercise called Conocimientos, which means “body of knowledge.” The opportunity to both lead and participate in this exercise has been formative in Natasha’s journey to SFTS, revealing deeply embedded cultural values that have served as a guide in her discernment process toward seminary.

At the beginning of the class, each participant was invited to share the origins of their name and what it means. Participants also disclosed their birthplace and where their parents and grandparents were born. Some experienced recollections of great joy, but for others it triggered deep sadness or anger. The conversation moved into questions of value, what had and had not been passed from generation to generation.

“It was a moving experience to hear the depth of what people shared and to also have a space to share my own formative experiences,” Natasha recalls.

Natasha’s spirituality has also been shaped by her grandmother. It is believed that her grandmother was left by Chinese immigrant plantation workers in a sugarcane field on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. She was later found and hanai’ed (adoption) by a Hawaiian woman.

“This practice of hanai is one that has been ingrained in my family and a value that I can only hope I pass on to the next generation,” Natasha said.

For Natasha, hanai, is about inclusion, allowing people to feel at home, accepted, loved, valued and nourished no matter what circumstances they find themselves. This cultural value is foundational in Natasha’s understanding and approach toward ministry.

She explored her passion for mission and culture by living in Romania, working alongside a Romanian pastor to develop a youth program. She later served as a youth director in Hawai‘i, while volunteering with a nonprofit that worked with children of incarcerated parents. She also spent time working at World Vision before embarking to the Bay Area to heed calling to pastoral ministry.

Although Natasha has roots in the Assemblies of God church, she has come under the care of PC (USA) following a two-year internship at First Presbyterian in Berkeley under supervisor and SFTS alumna Mary Ellen Azada. She considered four other seminaries, but chose SFTS after visiting campus on a Friday morning and talking with current students and faculty, as well as being immersed in the absolute beauty of the campus.

She was impressed by the sense of community she found at lunch and by the accessibility of faculty that set aside time for her to ask questions, to look at a class syllabus/text, and shared with her their own journeys to SFTS. What further intrigued her was the array of experiences that faculty possess, including being pastors, missionaries, chaplains and spiritual directors.

“As I read the biographies of some of the professors at SFTS, I was encouraged that they bring real, practical ministry experience to the world of academia,” Natasha said.

Another attribute of SFTS that caught Natasha’s attention was the diversity of the student body, represented in age and ethnicity, as well as values and theology.

“I think it is so valuable to hear a wide array of voices while studying, both in leadership and in peer relationships,’’ Natasha said. “I felt like I could find this at SFTS, as well as through its extended connection to the Graduate Theological Union.”

Not least among her decision to come to SFTS was the centrality of Jesus Christ. This was imperative for Natasha, as she feels one cannot build whole leaders for the whole church if the foundation is not built on Jesus Christ.

Reprinted from Fall 2008 Chimes

Jun Myung Joo, known as J.J. to his fellow students at the SFTS Southern California campus, brings extensive diversity in culture, religious history, and language to the program. This third-year student who was born in Korea and immigrated to Paraguay is fluent in Korean, Spanish and English.

J.J. spent his early childhood in Korea, where he was baptized at age 7 at the Yoido Assembly of God Church, one of the largest churches in the world.

At age 10, his family moved to Paraguay where he attended a Korean Methodist church for a year, then transferred to a Korean Presbyterian church, which he attended until he moved, at age 24, to the United States. Living in Maryland, J.J. attended a Southern Baptist church where his uncle served as pastor.

When the urge to attend seminary came, J.J. learned of the Southern California campus of SFTS through a friend from Paraguay.

“My first year at SFTS was a little bit shocking because I came from a very conservative background,” J.J. recalls, adding that becoming more familiar with more progressive and broader theologies has helped him grow theologically and spiritually. “In my first year I was confused, but as I was doing the readings, I realized that theology is not something to learn in just one or two years; it is very deep. Searching for God can be easy, but sometimes it takes time.”

J.J. finds the classes at SFTS very fascinating, particularly the biblical studies classes because they are challenging and have helped shape his understanding of the scriptures and his Christian faith as a whole.

“Before, I thought the Bible was the direct dictation of God, but now I see how the authors were influenced by the philosophy of their times, and they had their own historical-social-political background,” he says.

J.J. has found SFTS to be an ideal place to learn about doing ministry in the United States, as the context in the United States is so different from the contexts and social locations of his childhood in Korea and South America. J.J. feels much more connected to ministry in America and believes SFTS has been integral to helping him develop skills for ministry.

“I really enjoy the professors. They teach us through their ministries as well as their words how to be faithful,” he says. “At SFTS, they don’t just teach leadership and church growth. The professors are very honest, and their only interest is how we can proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in the right way.”

In addition to diverse experiences in seminary, J.J. has expanded his understanding of what church can be like. The church he has been attending in Los Angeles is very different from any church he has been involved in previously. Rather than having many programs and gatherings, they only have worship, relationships and service. The church is very service based. During Christmas instead of having worship in the church, they would hold worship downtown with homeless people and give away clothes and food to those who needed it.

J.J. is still working on discerning God’s call for ministry. He thinks God might be calling him to hospital chaplaincy work. He already completed one unit of CPE and found it very enriching and fulfilling. He also is interested in continuing his studies after he earns his Master of Divinity. He wants to earn a doctorate in biblical studies and thinks he may be called to go back to Paraguay in order to teach.

Reprinted from Spring 2009 Chimes
 
Known as Kobie to friends and classmates, the senior at SFTS’ Southern California campus has been profoundly shaped by her childhood experiences.

One of the reasons Kobie’s faith is rich is because she grew up poor. One of the reasons she fights for inclusion is because she had to experience apartheid in South Africa.

Despite times when she went to bed hungry, Kobie has always felt God’s presence in her life thanks to her grandmother. Kobie learned from her grandmother to pray, to forgive, and to see God in the small things. From an early age, Kobie learned that Christ is revealed to people just like her: the poor, the ostracized and the outcast. The church was the one place she could feel Christ’s love even though her family was from the “wrong side of the tracks.”  

Yet, she discovered the church that welcomed her with open arms, did not welcome everyone. She was taught that apartheid was good and beneficial for all, but she felt something was not right.

“The realization that I lived in an unjust world came piece by piece,” Kobie recalls. “I began to question everything I was taught was real and true. It would shake my very trust in the church and its members.”

She remembers riding home from school on the bus, when some children would shout insults to the Africans walking next to the road. “Growing up poor I had also received such hateful insults, so I identified with the people walking down the road. Everything screamed in me that this must be wrong.”

Kobie began to feel God’s call to ministry while in high school, and earned a B.A. in Theology and a Master’s degree in Greek. But she put God’s call on hold, realizing that although the church opened ordination for women a year earlier, there was no real prospect for a call. Patriarchy, just as segregation, was still very much alive in the Dutch Reformed Church.

Kobie and her husband came to the US in 2001. When her husband received a call to serve Brentwood Presbyterian Church, she enrolled at SFTS so she could answer God’s call to ministry at long last. She appreciates the Presbyterian Church’s history of women’s ordination and social justice work, especially the fight that helped end apartheid in South Africa, and the opportunity to attend SFTS while also working and raising her family.

“What an adventure the SFTS experience has been! Seminary turned out to be more than academic knowledge and ministry skills. Every night students from diverse cultural backgrounds come together to form the unique community that is SFTS. We learn by what is taught in class but also by the dynamic community formed by the diverse student body. One of our professors calls it the ‘unintentional curriculum’: learning from one another. Reflecting back on my time spent at SFTS, I can joyfully share that it has been a blessed time of learning, discovering, discerning, spiritual growth and experiencing community uniquely.”

Reprinted from Fall 2008 Chimes

Although Heather Grantham is just beginning her second year in the M.Div. program on the Northern California campus of SFTS, she has been familiar with the Seminary for longer than that.

Following in the footsteps of her older sister Jennifer (M.Div. ’06), Heather is not the first Grantham to attend SFTS. “I loved the community Jennifer had here. I enjoyed the area and I loved the faculty and staff she became so close with,” Heather said.

Heather is heavily involved in the community on campus, including serving as the vice moderator of the Student Association Council, co-moderator of More Light Presbyterians, chair of the Feminist Perspectives Committee, member of the Academic Concerns Committee, co-chair of this year’s welcome committee, and is one of four students to receive the Paul and Helen Foreman Scholarship.

And as if that is not enough to keep her busy, she is currently working part time as the director of family ministries at Noe Valley Ministry Presbyterian Church, a small church in San Francisco focused on social justice and peace.

Even before coming to SFTS, Heather was extensively involved in the PC(USA), including working for a year at the denominational offices in Louisville as a Young Adult Intern for Women’s Advocacy. This experience taught Heather how connected the PC(USA) is, and gave her a unique perspective about the denomination.

Heather also she served for a year as a Young Adult Volunteer in the Philippines, working with women who have been trafficked and raped. This experience redefined and broadened her understanding of the variety of mission work in which the church engages and how important this kind of mission is in bringing about God’s reign of justice for all people.

“Being in the Philippines and working at the national office taught me about the connectivity of this denomination and how I want to be a part of that––I want to serve the church,” she says.

Since starting seminary, Heather has discovered a deep interest in the Hebrew language and biblical studies, especially related to the Hebrew Bible. She hopes to earn a joint M.A. in biblical studies with a focus on the Hebrew Bible and its place in the ancient Near Eastern context from the Graduate Theological Union.

Heather is a lifelong Presbyterian, who was baptized and confirmed at First Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, Okla., just down the road from Hominy, the small Native American village where she was raised. She is currently an Inquirer for Ministry in the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery.

This past summer, Heather attended the General Assembly in San José with a group sponsored by That All May Freely Serve called New Church (R)evolution. Later she attended the Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference as a Theological Student Worker.
“I see this denomination growing,” she says. “The election of Bruce [Reyes-Chow] brought me hope and showed us what direction the church is headed.”