d. min essay

as i posted earlier i am in the process of apply to new orleans seminary to work on a doctor of ministry degree. as a part of the application process i have to write an autobiographical essay which consists of:

  • a brief statement of conversion and call – 1 page
  • a brief description and evaluation of ministry experience – 2-3 pages
  • discussion of philosophy of ministry – 2-4 pages
  • a brief analysis of personality and leadership style 2-3 pages
  • a discussion of 3 influential books (apart from the Bible) read in the past three years – 2-3 pages
  • goals for personal and professional development – 1 page

so i’m working on this essay this week. i’m enthralled by the idea of electronic collaboration within then church and so my hope is to try and make this a collaborative effort. the only way i know to do that at this point is to set the file up as a google document and encourage people to help me edit it (once it’s written because right now there isn’t much that is written). you can view the document here. if you are interested in having access to edit the document please just email me at my name @gmail.com and i’ll add you to the editors. also if you think of another way that the essay could be even more collaborative please send that to me. i’m up for trying pretty much anything.

btw, since the document has to be done in the style of ole’ kate and i don’t know how to do such a thing in google documents, i will merely be using google docs to type out the meat of the essay and then transfering it to micro$oft word or open office for the actual formatting. this means the google document is a very incomplete document.

MAJORLY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE
this essay is being written to a faith based institution and therefore i’ll be using the language of the evangelical subculture. hopefully i don’t usually talk like this but i understand what they are asking for and i am very afraid that they will not understand what i am trying to convey unless i describe it within evangelical language. thanks to a few youth laughing at me i have worked at trying to avoid such blatantly “churchy” language. i’ll have to use some of that language within this essay. once, i’m in the program they’ll know who i am and understand what i am trying to say. for now i need to speak in the language they will understand.

porch-traits

i was looking at the solomon’s porch weekly email newsletter and saw this in it:

PORCH-TRAITS – the artists of the porch are excited to announce a great new project (with an incredibly cheesy name). we are endeavoring to make a portrait of everyone who considers solomon’s porch their home. the portraits will be displayed in our building. this will be an important contribution from the artists as we look to structure our identity in the coming year. we hope everyone here signs up! if you are a portraitee or portraitor please sign up at http://porchart.blogspot.com. all you need to do is write your name and “portraitee” or “portraitor” in the comments section of the post.

what a great idea! i think that it not only does a great job of infusing art & beauty into the church but is a wonderful reminder of the fact that a church is it’s people rather than it’s building. this one has been added to my google notebook idea file and will be “borrowed” later on.