Living
Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Volume 12, Number 1
Pentecost 2007
Hispanic-Latino Theology and Ministry
diakonia
by
Mike and Carol Bennett
.
. . equipping the saints for diakonia;
building up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12)
Diakonia is a two-year
process of spiritual formation and theological education for baptized members
of the Lutheran Church. This process occurs in three basic ways:
By
thorough grounding in the classic seminary disciplines of practical,
systematic, historical, and Biblical theology;
By
identifying particular skills and aptitudes in ministry, and encouraging their
use in the local parish;
By providing spiritual
growth through worship, retreats, and a supportive community of fellow
students, mentors, and instructors.
These
tools help equip God’s people for service in parish and neighborhood
ministries. The primary theme and focus of the diakonia
experience is the word of Jesus in scripture (e.g. Mark 10:43: “Let the one who
would be great among you be your servant [Greek: diakonos].”)
See
the website for diakonia in the Metro Chicago
Synod for detailed information: www.mcselca.org/diakonia.
This
article describes diakonia another way, by
telling one diakonia graduate’s experience
from first exposure to nearly two years after graduation. My wife Carol’s comments are added at the
end.
My
introduction to diakonia was a workshop
at the 2003 Metro Chicago Synod Assembly.
I heard from two or three diakonia
graduates, and first learned some of the reasons that diakonia
students have enrolled, and benefits they have obtained from the program.
I
took home a brochure and learned the following:
The diakonia program is a part-time,
two year course of study for lay people, with twelve courses spread over the
two years. Each course is comprised of
five three-hour weekly sessions. A
typical course requires from two to five hours of weekly course preparation in
addition to class time, so the total time invested over two years ranges from
300 to 500 hours.
Classes
meet in the evening or on Saturday morning at several sites. The number of sites near Chicago has expanded
to seven in the Metro Chicago and Northern Illinois synods, and one new site
has opened in the Greater Milwaukee synod.
At this writing
92 students are enrolled at these eight sites.
Besides
these three synods, there are established diakonia
programs in Metro New York (where diakonia
originated) and New Jersey, with new programs added this year in the
Southeastern Pennsylvania and Florida/Bahamas synods. Flexibility is provided
by arranging courses so that either Year A or Year B can be taken first;
neither year is pre-requisite for the other.
A typical diakonia class has both first
year and second year students.
After
a few days, I gave the brochure to my wife Carol with the comment, “Am I
nuts? I think I want to do this.” Later, Carol returned the brochure saying,
“I’m nuts too. I want to do it with
you.” We enrolled and eagerly awaited September, when we’d have a study date every Friday
night and a few other nights as well, and would drive together from Lake Forest
to River Forest for a three-hour class every Saturday morning.
What
attracted two people with too little spare time to go back to school part-time
for two years, intending to commit 500 hours plus commuting time? There are many. I saw in diakonia
a way to fill the many gaps left by a lifetime of undirected reading. I’m always reading something, and often it’s
about the Christian faith. (I’ll call
these topics “theology” here.) I read
what interests me at the time, so my readings have been heavy in some areas and
light or non-existent in others. Diakonia provided an opportunity to spend two years
studying a variety of theological subjects designed by people who know what
they’re doing, with courses taught by capable instructors, thus “filling in the
holes” from my previous reading.
I’ve
heard the program described as “Seminary Lite.” I understand that to be a fairly accurate
description, as the diakonia student skims the
surface of every seminary topic except Hebrew, Greek, and preaching. The short description of diakonia’s
twelve courses is as follows; see the notes for my pre-diakonia
reactions:
Year
A
Introduction to the New Testament
(Note 1)
Church History – The First 400 Years
(Note 2)
Practical Ministry I: Biblical Images of the Life of the Church (diakonia, koinonia, leitiurgia, kerygma) (Note 3)
Lutheran Creeds and Confessions (Note
1)
Practical Ministry II: Visitation (the sick, the homebound, the
grieving) (Note 4)
The Daily Life of a Christian (Note
2)
Year
B
Introduction to the Old Testament
(Note 1)
Christian
Doctrine (Note 1? Note 2?)
Lutheran Faith in the American Context (Note
2)
Practical Ministry III: To Communicate the Gospel (Note 4)
Christian Worship (Note 2)
Themes and Issues in Christian Ethics
(Note 2)
Note 1. I know a fair amount in this area, but I’d
love to know more.
Note 2. This is one of the “holes” I need to fill,
and I’m looking forward to it!
Note 3. Huh?
Note 4. Uh-oh, do I really have to do this? If they
think I need it, then I’ll swallow hard and go with the program.
Before
long Carol and I were off to our first Saturday morning class at Grace Church
River Forest. Here are comments about my
experiences, beginning with individual courses:
Year
A
Introduction
to the New Testament
New
Testament was taught by a Lutheran parish pastor with a bonus qualification of
a PhD in New Testament, with a specialty in St. Paul. He was enthusiastic about
his topic and taught it very well, which is a comment that applies to every
instructor in every one of our twelve courses.
With or without obvious additional qualifications, it’s gratifying to
see what enthusiasm and knowledge a well-qualified Lutheran pastor can bring to
teaching.
The
course readings were primarily from two sources. One was a well-regarded New Testament text
written by Richard Harris. In addition,
each student was assigned to read the New Testament during the course. The
Harris text was written in plain English, so a reasonably literate student with
no competence in a language other than English can, with reasonable effort,
read and understand the text. To my great relief, this was true of every
text for every course. A few chapters of
the Harris text weren’t assigned during the course, and I enjoyed rounding out
my New Testament learning by reading those chapters later.
Assignments
primarily consisted of reading, writing, and class participation, with no
examination given. Class participation
was an unanticipated pleasant surprise to me.
I’d expected to learn from the readings, the instructors and the work
itself, and had assumed the other students would be motivated and serious. But I hadn’t anticipated learning so much
from classmates and class discussions. In each course, I learned from my fellow
students’ questions, answers, insights and ponderings, as well as the diverse
life experiences they brought.
Diakonia groups were
delightfully diverse. They were black,
white and Hispanic, male and female, heterosexual and homosexual, old and
young, highly educated (a university dean) and not so, likeable and annoying,
healthy and frail, Democrat and Republican, cradle Lutherans and converts,
possible seminary candidates or not, affluent and financially struggling,
well-spoken and awkward, high church and low church, opinionated and uncertain,
liberal and conservative. I learned from
some of my classmates all of the time and from all of my classmates some of the
time. This was one of the truly pleasant
surprises of diakonia for me.
In New Testament I was very gratified to learn
more about the background of the Canon, the authors, the intended audiences and
emphases of the books, and conditions in the times and places in which the
readers and writers lived.
Church
History – The First 400 Years
Early
Church History was an area in which I recognized my ignorance and was
interested in learning. The time between
Acts and the Reformation has been, for me, an uneventful time interrupted by a
few ecumenical councils and populated by some saints. Five weeks of systematic
reading and lecture (there being little class discussion in this course) began to
close the ignorance gap.
Our
instructor was a Luth-eran parish pastor, and the
text was a standard for the period, written by Justo Gonzales. This course featured an open-book, open notes
final examination, the only examination given in any of our courses. The note taking was furious and detailed as
the instructor filled whiteboards with dates, events, and names. This wasn’t as
much pure fun as some of our courses, but the format was effective, and we
learned the material.
Though
the course ended with the First Council of Constantinople, the Gonzales text
continued to just before the Reformation.
Reading the chapters that were outside the scope of the class closed
that gap for me, and gave me a heightened appreciation for the term “dark
ages.”
Practical
Ministry I: Biblical Images of the Life
of the Church (diakonia,
koinonia, leitiurgia, kerygma)
This
course provided a change of pace from the first two, with their emphasis on
facts and history. This course dealt
with the life and ministry of the church and its members, and involved less
reading but more introspection and discussion. A major basis for discussion was
Luther’s “The Freedom of a Christian,” with emphasis on its two
propositions:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord
of all, subject to none, and
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful
servant of all, subject to all.
The
instructor was a Lutheran parish pastor who has a longstanding interest in diakonia and serves on the diakonia
board.
Lutheran
Creeds and Confessions
Returning
to textbooks, we studied the Book of Concord, key Lutheran doctrines, and the
times and events surrounding the Reformation and shaping the Lutheran
Confessions. Our instructor was a
retired Lutheran parish pastor. Many
comments made elsewhere apply to this course.
Practical
Ministry II: Visitation
(the sick, the homebound, the
grieving)
I
frankly dreaded this course. Taught by a
Lutheran pastor whose call is to a hospice, it involved a little reading, a lot
of thinking and discussion, simulated visiting exercises within small class
groups, and a real visit to one who is sick, home-bound, or grieving, followed
by a detailed report of the visit. The
visitation course was surely one of the most beneficial and practical courses
in the program. The insights learned are
valuable, and will become even moreso as my peers and I age. I am now capable of bringing comfort to one
in need by a visit as appropriate.
The
Daily Life of a Christian
This
course was taught by a Lutheran parish pastor and dealt with Christian
discipleship in daily life. Readings
included Bonhoeffer ’s Life Together and a small book titled What You
Do Best in the Body of Christ.
This
course included introspective activities, including evaluations of my own
aptitudes, personal style, and what I care about most intensely. This evaluation helped students decide where
to focus limited time and energy, as most of us have more interests and
opportunities than we can handle. This
useful exercise helped me decide to focus on Christian education and Sunday
School teaching as well as helping promote and support new diakonia
sites, without guilt for treating other volunteer activities as “less
important” simply because I’ve left them for somebody else to do.
Year
B
For
our second year of diakonia, a new site had
been opened, at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Luke on Belmont Avenue
in Chicago. Hoping the drive might be
easier when it snowed, and wanting to contribute our two bodies and our bit of
devotional and snack experience to this smaller group of new students, Carol
and I transferred to the new site.
Introduction
to the Old Testament
Old
Testament was taught by a Lutheran parish pastor. The text was Harris and Platzner’s
The Old Testament – an Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.
Material
covered included the formation, canonization and translation of the Old
Testament, culture and religions of the ancient Near East, the God of Israel,
and the origins, authorship, key topics and themes of the major sections of the
Old Testament. My own benefits from the
course included a systematic understanding of scholarly methods for analyzing
ancient texts (“criticism”) and the challenge involved in writing a paper on
the topic, “If I presume that the Pentateuch is a composite work that evolved
slowly over time, how does that affect my view of the
work’s authenticity and religious authority?”
Christian
Doctrine
Christian
Doctrine was taught by a Lutheran parish pastor who was working toward a PhD in
Systematic Theology. The primary text was Introduction to Christian Theology
by Bradley Hanson, supplemented by articles and excerpts from other books.
Topics included faith and theology, God, the reasonableness of belief,
creation, providence and the problem of evil, the Person of Jesus Christ,
Christ’s work, the Church, the Holy Spirit and salvation, Sacraments,
comparative religions, and eschatology.
This course was easily the most rigorous; it was was
both stimulating and challenging.
While
struggling with a difficult theological topic, our PhD candidate instructor
observed that one who teaches theology or Scripture to others must spend time
every day reading Scripture devotionally.
As the press of secular and churchly duties often leaves me “too busy”
for devotional Bible reading, I repeatedly recall this advice and move daily
devotional reading back up on my personal priority list.
Lutheran
Faith in the American Context
Taught
by a Lutheran parish pastor, this course placed our Lutheran tradition in the
context of the U.S. history, Christian denominations of the U.S and the world,
and major non-Christian world religions.
It also dealt with Lutheran immigrant groups who have brought their
forms of Lutheran Christianity to the U.S., the political and religious
situations they left behind in Europe, and some forces that have shaped
Lutheran traditions on this side of the Atlantic.
This
course was at the light end of the scale for reading load and intellectual
demands, which provided some good downtime for brains exhausted by Christian
Doctrine.
I
learned enough about major non-Christian faiths to understand them a bit
better. Just as interestingly to me
personally, I learned enough about the varying backgrounds of Lutheran
immigrants, the traditions they brought with them, and how their Lutheran churches have fared
since immigration, to finally stop asking, “If he’s Lutheran, how can he
believe X?” or “If that’s a Lutheran body why are they so wrong about Y?”
Practical
Ministry III: To Communicate the Gospel
I
mentioned that diakonia is supposed to be like
a peek into seminary, but without Greek, Hebrew or preaching. In our case, they lied about the
preaching. Our course on communicating
the Gospel was taught by a Lutheran parish pastor who patiently and carefully
taught us about sharing the Gospel. She
taught us through a bit of lecturing, a bit of reading, lots of practice, and
lots of good feedback from classmates and instructor.
Step
by step over the five weeks of the course, each student prepared a sermon that
was delivered at the last session.
Because we had come to know and trust our classmates through three
courses, the experience was easier than it would have been earlier in the year.
The sermon preparation process was so well-defined that it wasn’t
intimidating. We learned skills
including exegesis, story-telling, and clear public speaking which are very
transferable to preparation of Sunday School lessons,
Bible studies, and group devotions. This
was the second course that I had approached with some dread, and the second
favorable surprise.
Christian
Worship
Christian
Worship was taught by a Lutheran parish pastor who is a recognized scholar in
the field of Christian worship, having written books and taught at the
university and seminary level. The
learning was almost entirely from reading and lecture. Material covered included the content and
historic development of western Christian liturgical worship, contrasts with
the revival style of worship that has influenced modern U.S. Christian worship
and has dominated in some parts of Christian tradition in the U.S., scriptural
roots of the western liturgy, distinctions between and significance of the
ordinary and proper parts of the liturgy, and recent developments in western Christian
liturgy. As one whose attraction to the
Lutheran Church included its liturgical practices as well as its doctrines, I
enjoyed and appreciated this course very much.
Themes
and Issues in Christian Ethics
Taught
by a Lutheran pastor on call to the ELCA Division of Church in Society, we
considered ethical topics in Luther’s catechisms and elsewhere in the Lutheran
Confessions, and considered problems such as the relationship of Christ to
culture, war, sexual ethics, education, and economic justice. We examined several ELCA Task Force Studies
and Social Statements, the processes used to develop them, and their
implications for the ELCA’s public stance on social and political issues.
Understanding the development of ELCA Task Force Studies and Social Statements
was helpful to me as I prepared to be a voting member of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, with its deliberations and actions
following the multi-year Sexuality Study.
After
Graduation
As
a result of diakonia, I am better equipped to
do the things to which my aptitudes, personal style, and concerns have led me.
The courses in New and Old Testaments, Church History, Christian Doctrine,
Lutheran Creeds and Confessions, and Communicating the Gospel have contributed
to my Sunday School teaching. The course on Visitation has prepared me for
doing visitation with some confidence when the need arises. Christian Worship has improved my ability and
confidence when serving as Assisting Minister.
The first Practical Ministry course and the Daily Life of a Christian
have re-emphasized for me the importance of daily discipline and prayer. The theology instructor’s advice has
repeatedly reminded me to read my Bible devotionally.
As
a graduate, I’m completely sold on the diakonia
program. I have volunteered to help get diakonia started in the Greater Milwaukee
Synod. The first year of Milwaukee
classes is now underway, with 19 students.
I serve as site coordinator for this group, taking care of administrative
matters and communication with faculty and students.
How
Will the Church “Use Us?”
This
question has been asked in various forms.
The Metro New York Synod, where it all started, has established a Synodical Deacon program with the approval of the
ELCA. This program establishes a role
for deacons that is only recognized within that
synod. The Metro Chicago Synod is in the
process of establishing such a program.
Participation is an individual matter involving the candidate, his or
her pastor, and the synod bishop. There
is no presumption that all diakonia graduates
will become deacons; few have done so in New York.
Some
students enroll in diakonia intending to
consider seminary. According to a recent diakonia
newsletter, five former Metro Chicago diakonia
students are now enrolled in seminary.
Most
diakonia graduates have found that whatever
they were doing in God’s service before the diakonia
program is being done more usefully after its completion, and that is the major
benefit from diakonia. I hope the Church will “use us” well, and
that diakonia will expand to prepare more lay
people. I hope that those reading this
article will consider enrolling or recommending the program.
Comments
from Carol Bennett
The
diakonia experience was a rare opportunity to
study and ask questions without the pressure to perform well to earn a good
grade or bonus. The courses were an
opportunity to learn how much there is to know, filling in some significant
gaps with important foundational instruction.
The workload was serious; you get out of these courses what you put into
them. For me, it took some serious
calendar management. For the two years
of diakonia I had to say no to some very
enjoyable activities in order to protect my study time and class time.
The
instructors understood how to present the material for the lay person within
condensed course schedules. Whatever the subject matter, it was a delight to
sit in a room with others studying the different aspects of our faith, from the
academic to the theological to the practical.
We had the opportunity to struggle with our faith – to write about what
we did not understand as well as what we did understand.
The
overall benefit of the program for me has been that I am more confident in
putting God first in my life, because I have a better understanding of what
that means. I also felt strongly the
benefit of continuing to study, whether in a small group ministry, a Sunday
morning Bible study, devotional reading and reflection, or through other means. Study is a regular part of my routine and my
faith is stronger for it. As with any
worthwhile activity, answers lead to more questions and learning leads to a
thirst for more study.
Mike and Carol
Bennett are active members
of St. James
Lutheran Church, Lake Forest.