Claim OwnershipAn Incomplete Field Guide to Ministry
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Welcome to an Incomplete Field Guide to Ministry from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Professors Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware are bringing the discussions from their Ministerial Leadership and Public Church courses out into the wider world. Get in touch: lstcpodcast@gmail.com
25 Episodes
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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 Evange...
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 Bi...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware continue the series on Overwhelm, looking at the intersection of systemic evil and isolation. How does our drive towards competition and individualism impact overwhelm. What do we lose when isolation overshadows mutuality? Our guest today is Emily Moentmann, dual degree student at LSTC (MDiv) and The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration (MSW). Mentioned this episode: The Door, which Emily co-edits with previous p...
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 CrenshawVine Delor...
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...
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 M...
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. ...
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 ca...
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 t...
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 BrockWe'd love to hear from you! Send your questions or feedback to lstcpodcast@gmail.com. Our music is by Keith “Doc” Hampton. Thanks to Frantisek Janak and Michael Liotus for tech...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware discuss mass shootings, preaching, and anti-Asian racism in the United States. What's the role of our words as Christian leaders before and after mass shootings? What historical threads connect to the shooting in Atlanta on March 16? Our guest today is Rev. Charles M. Straight of Faith United Methodist Church in Dolton, Illinois. He is also chair of the People’s Lobby Faith Liberation Movement. Mentioned this episode: Disciplined by...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware continue their multi-week conversation about the pandemic, reflecting particularly on work. How has our labor changed, and not changed, during the pandemic? What does that have to do with our faith or relationships? Our guest today is Will Tanzman, Executive Director at the People's Lobby. He also serves as Council President at First Lutheran Church of the Trinity in the Bridgeport. Mentioned this episode: The Sabbath by Abraha...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware continue their multi-week conversation about the pandemic, looking particularly at relationships. Our guest today is LSTC faculty member Rev. Dr. Benjamin Stewart, who shares his perspective on public church, liturgy, and creation. Mentioned this episode: 2021 Institute of Liturgical Studies Virtual Seminar SeriesDr. Wickware's sermon from February 24th at LSTCArticle IV of the Augsburg ConfessionWe'd love to hear from you! Send your questions...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware continue their multi-week conversation about the pandemic, looking particularly at Healthcare. What inequities does the pandemic reveal? How does medical trauma (re)emerge during a public health crisis? And what does it mean to call people "frontline" workers? Our guest today is LSTC faculty member Dr. Eunyung Lim, who shares her perspective on public church as a New Testament scholar and teacher. Mentioned this episode: Organizing to save Merc...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware begin a multi-week conversation about the pandemic. How do we think about the pandemic from a faith perspective? What does it reveal, and what does it change? Our guest today is none other than Kimberly R. Wagner, who switches chairs so that Dr. Wickware can interview her about trauma, preaching, and her almost-too-relevant research. Mentioned this episode: The Festival of Homiletics, coming up May 17-21, 2021. We'd love to hear from ...
We're back for the spring semester at LSTC! Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware talk about what it means to be a public church, and share examples of communities that live this calling out in particular ways. Dr. Wickware will guide the podcast to accompany his Public Church 1 class this spring. Our guest today is LSTC President, Dr. James Nieman. Mentioned this episode: Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA.Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, one of the founders of Rutb...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware talk Advent, podcasting, and what we've learned so far. We've been accompanying the Ministerial Leadership 1 course by Dr. Wagner during the Fall semester. Season 1 will resume in February to accompany Dr. Wickware's Public Church 1 course. Our guest today is LSTC fourth year Master of Divinity student Kelsey Fauser (she/her/hers), who did her internship at the Bratislava International Church in Bratislava, Slovakia. Serving as both a vicar...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware talk about modeling care and justice, preaching hard messages, and resisting white supremacy. Our first guest today is not a guest! Marvin Wickware takes the guest seat to discuss his research into white supremacy, race relations, and what makes racial reconciliation work succeed and fail. Our second guest is Vicar Carolyn Lawrence, an LSTC student on her final year internship in Upstate New York. Lifted up today: Dear Church:...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware talk Christian education and evangelism at the half-way point in the semester. How can evangelism be accountable? How can Christian education be accessible? What is the goal of either, and what do they have in common? Our first guest today is Rev. Dr. Stephanie Crumpton, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. Lifted up in this conversation: The Chicago Torture Justice Center,Nurturing the Sa...
Our hosts Kimberly Wagner and Marvin Wickware talk, and listen, about the many ways ministerial leaders are called to listen. What are we listening for? What if we don't know how to solve the challenges we're listening to? (Hint: that's ok, and often you can't.) Our first guest today is Rev. Dr. Brooke Petersen, Director of MDiv and MA Programs, Coordinator for Candidacy, and Lecturer at LSTC, as well as a practicing therapist. We're also excited to have LSTC academic senior Melissa Hrdlicka...
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