Seminary Week 3

I forgot to do my ‘Week 3 Update’. At least until now.

So, here’s what happened last week: nothing! I didn’t have class. Memphis Theological Seminary was closed last Thursday due to 4-6 inches of snow in the Memphis area. But you can read more about that here.

Even though I didn’t have class, I did have plenty of work to turn in Thursday. I had to write a one to two page ‘Reading Response’ paper for Intro to Pastoral Care. I wrote a 4 page critical book review of Revolt of the Scribes for Faith & Hope in the Interbiblical Period. And I wrote my weekly Formation for Ministry paper.

The focus last week’s Formation paper was marginalized groups. Part of our assignment for the semester is to befriend someone who is marginalized in some way. Last week our paper focused on how we have or would formulate that relationship. When I first read this assignment I immediately tried to figure out what poor person I would befriend. As I thought about it, though I realized I already know people who are marginalized. I decided to take a little different tack on writing this paper.

I wrote my paper about a good friend of mine. I chose to change his name, but those of you who are regular readers will likely know who I’m talking about.

First a disclaimer of sorts. I expect some of you will not agree with me. I’m okay with that. All I ask is that if you choose to comment, please be respectful.

Scott Coats

Formation for Ministry

February 10, 2011

I first met John 21 years ago. We met at Camp Sumatanga in North Alabama in the summer of 1990. We both were there as first time counselors at a junior high camp. We became fast friends almost immediately. That week we spent many hours talking, cutting up, and teaching together.

We worked together as junior high counselors for the next 4 years. We spent a week each summer getting to know each other and becoming closer friends. After a couple of years we began to get together outside of camp as well. Even though we saw each other 2 or 3 times a year, we became good friends.

While I lived and worked in Birmingham as a youth minister, John worked in Tuscaloosa (about an hour’s drive from Birmingham) as a youth minister also. During that time we met every couple of months to eat lunch and talk about our lives and our ministries. We shared the good and bad aspects of our ministries and offered support to each other.

After a couple of years, I took a new job and moved to Paducah, KY. We were not able to keep in touch as we had before, but we kept in contact through the internet. Some of our interaction during this time was through a message board for the North Alabama Conference youth ministries. On the message board the topic of homosexuality came up and was discussed at great length. Soon after the topic was broached I got a call from John. He told me he was gay.

It came as a surprise, but not a shock. It did, though, cause me to come to terms with some beliefs and prejudices I had. My view on homosexuality was what I would consider to be a common view in the Christian church. Gays were sinful people who chose to be so. They were unrepentant and therefore condemned. That was before I knew I actually knew a gay person. A person I knew to love God. A person I had actually seen in service of Christ. A person I knew to be a Christian.

My conversations with John over the next few months to a year changed my perception of homosexuals and changed my perception of how they are perceived and treated by the church. I began to see the gay community as a marginalized group; by society somewhat, but to a greater extent by the church.

The church, as a whole, has turned its back on the gay community treating them as a group that is, for lack of a better term, unsalvageable. They are unwelcome in most churches, even to attend worship. Church membership and active participation are unheard of. Regardless of your views on homosexuality as sinful of not, we cannot deny that the gay community has been pushed to the margins by the church. We have in essence cut them off from the love of God. This, to me, is the definition of ‘the least of these.’

One of my hopes for my ministry is to do what I can to bridge the gap between the church and the gay community. I hope to remind the body of Christ that we are to show love to all of God’s people regardless of our biases and preconceived notions of what is or isn’t sinful. God loves us in spite of us. It is our job to do the same.

That is it for my week 3 recap. It looks like the weather in Memphis will be beautiful this week. So week 4 should be much more eventful.