Guest blog by Molly Smerko
“They didn’t teach us this in seminary,” I read as I aimlessly scrolled through Facebook one day last week. This is a common lament I have seen among pastors and current seminarians. This is objectively true — there certainly is no Global Pandemic 101 course of which I am aware. Yet, I wonder if this statement is helpful.
I am revealing my youth as I write this, but I was in kindergarten when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened. I have no recollection of the day’s events, other than the snapshot of a memory of the fifth graders reading to our class later that year to talk about that fateful day. I am on the tail end of the latest birthday possible to be considered a millennial. While older millennials often reference 9/11 as the fateful event that defined their adolescence, I rack my brain for what central event defined the adolescence of my peers. I was a little girl when the United States went to war with Iraq, blissfully unaware of the unfettered violence and Islamophobia that ravaged our nation. My adolescence saw the Great Recession of 2008 and countless school shootings, with the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting standing in my mind the sharpest. I imagine that with each of these devastating events, a pastor or seminarian somewhere thought, “They didn’t teach us this in seminary.”
While I am an avid reader, there is no tome that stands apart as having the answers to the various crises described above. “But the Bible!” one might object. I find great comfort in the promises of Scripture, but I’ve long abandoned the notion that the Bible is akin to a self-help manual, where you can find the answer to your problem with the ease of turning to a topical index.
So, where does that leave us? Half-lament, half-joke, it is true that there is no seminary course that addresses “how to respond to a global pandemic.” Yet I find this statement vastly unhelpful. In a time of crisis, it is easy to adapt a scarcity mentality. It is all too easy to bring to the forefront of our minds the ways in which we feel ill-equipped, doubts about our vocation and questions of if we are “good enough” ministers to handle ministry in the thick of the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, I choose to lead from a place of abundance, reminded of what seminary has taught me, as I seek to honor the Holy One who has placed this call within me.
So, what has seminary taught me about preparing for ministry in the midst of a global pandemic? Through my coursework – and even more, through the relationships I have built at seminary – I have been taught to approach each situation I find myself in with grace and faith. My biblical studies courses have taken me on a journey with God and God’s people through the wilderness and beyond, as I know that the One who was faithful then is ever-faithful now. My studies in pastoral care and church internships have taught me the power of a calm, non-anxious presence. My foray into homiletics reminds me of the great privilege and responsibility we have to preach a good word of hope, healing and liberation to our people. I would be remiss if I failed to mention that seminary’s most important lessons have often occurred outside of the classroom. I think about my outside-of-class conversations with professors who have modeled both keen insight and pastoral sensitivity as they made space for my big questions about God, Scripture and the church. I think about cool fall nights spent huddled under blankets on the quad with my friends, losing track of time as we talk about our dreams and desires for our ministries beyond this place. Although I still have one more year left of my M.Div. studies, I am confident that my studies and relationships at seminary have prepared me better than I realized for “such a time as this.”
It is okay to feel sad, anxious, and scared, but we can’t dwell in that place forever. I hope you will hold in your heart these words from the book of Hebrews: “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who has promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). Hold fast, dear ones! You’re stronger than you think you are and better equipped than you may have realized. Lead your people in grace and faith, accept this very grace for yourself and know that the One who has promised is indeed faithful.
MOLLY SMERKO is a student at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. She calls Raleigh home and is under care of the Presbytery of New Hope. You can read more of her writing on her website.
