Nicole M. Garcia
Pastoral Intern Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Littleton CO July 4, 2017 All I want to be is a pastor. I do not want to be a trailblazer or role model. Been there, done that. I came out at transgender in 2003 and was a leader in the movement in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to adopt the Human Sexuality Social Statement.[1] I was mentored by incredible people in the organization Lutherans Concerned/North America (now doing business as ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation[2]). I was trained on how to tell my story, how to create and present workshops, and how to use Scripture to justify my existence as a transgender Latina of faith. I spent many years travelling around the Denver metro area, Colorado, and countless cities in the United States. I spoke in church basements and church halls. I spoke in auditoriums and sanctuaries. I became a teacher and preacher. After almost a decade of talking about God, I discerned a call to learn more about the study of God, theology, and I knew I had to be ordained into the ELCA to help people nurture their relationship with God—that is how I see my role as a pastor. In previous blog posts, I have explained I am a student through the Luther Seminary Master of Divinity Distributed Learning program (M. Div. DL). I hope to earn an M. Div. in May 2018. I am almost there. I have lived with my mother since 2006, after my step-father died from cancer. Mom and I care for each other. I could not have earned an MA in Counseling from CU Denver in 2014 without my mom’s emotional and financial help. When I moved in, I was paying mom rent, but when I started graduate school, mom said I should pay tuition instead of paying rent. I graduated from CU Denver without taking out a student loan. I opened a private counseling practice in a town north of where I live. The majority of my clients were contemplating who they were as gendered beings. I wrote many letters of recommendations for individuals who wanted to start hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and I wrote a few letters for individuals who wanted to continue their gender transition with some sort of gender confirmation surgery (GCS). I always shake my head when I hear “did you have THE surgery” for there are many different types of surgical procedures individuals may undergo in order to help them alleviate their gender dysphoria. That is a post for a different day and different type of blog. Suffice it to say, I spent three years in private practice where I worked with a wide spectrum of individuals. In order to complete my seminary studies, I closed my private practice on June 30, 2017 so I could work full-time as a pastoral intern at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Littleton CO. Another aspect of my seminary training which has significantly impacted on my development as a pastor was the two years I worked at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Boulder CO. Most seminary programs have different programs related to field education and Luther Seminary is the same. There are to different types of field education at Luther Seminary. One is a class called Christian Public Leadership (CPL) and the other is Internship. M. Div. students at Luther Seminary are required to complete at least one semester of CPL, but can take up to four semesters of CPL. All M. Div. students are required to complete Internship. The differences between CPL and Internship include the number of hours a student is expected to serve at the congregation (5-10 hours per week vs. 40-45 hours per week), the amount of supervision (supervision by pastor only vs. supervision by pastor and the internship committee), and the coursework required (lots of reading and writing for CPL vs. intensive congregational interaction and a project). I took four semesters of CPL at Mount Calvary for CPL and I loved every minute of it. I worked an average of 10 hours per week at Mount Calvary. I had a mentor pastor who trusted me with much more than teaching an occasional Bible study course. My mentor gave the opportunity to preach about every six weeks. I preached on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and even on Good Friday (not all in the same year). It may be no surprise to anyone that pastoral care is my passion so my mentor pastor allowed me to provide pastoral care to many members of the congregation. I walked with many people through difficult times in their lives. I also helped to train five new Stephen Ministers as my final project at Mount Calvary. During the two summers between semesters, I was hired by the congregation to provide pastoral care when the pastor took vacation time. I also preached during the summers. My time at Mount Calvary ended officially on December 31, 2016. I was asked to attend service on January 8, 2017 so I could have a formal farewell from the congregation. My heart was heavy and tears flowed as they prayed over me. My heart soared when I was presented with a very generous scholarship check before I left that day. To say I miss the pastor and people of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church is a tremendous understatement. I am adhering to the standard practice of not contacting members of the congregation for at least a year. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the pastor of Mount Calvary and know the congregation is in good hands. I cannot disrespect the pastor by reaching out to the congregation, but I have to admit, I miss them all dearly. I took a semester off of congregational work to devote myself full-time to the last three required courses I somehow neglected to take. Typically, Lutheran Confessional Writings is taken in the first year of studies. This class is a study of the foundational writings of the ELCA—The Book of Concord.[3] I referred to The Book of Concord for many classes prior to Confessions, but I put off taking the course because one of the requirements is to memorize and recite Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. Memorization was much easier when I was younger and I did not relish the opportunity to memorize and recite as a person of a certain age, but I had run out of time. I had to take Confessions if I wanted to start Internship, so I took the class. The other class I dreaded taking was Hebrew. I believe I quote Bruce Willis in one of his movies when I say I have gotten by on English and bad English. I have tried for my entire life to learn Spanish, but to date, I am monolingual. I barely squeaked through Greek and I did not look forward to Hebrew. I was very fortunate to have a dear friend who is a Hebrew teacher at her synagogue. I met with her weekly and was able to pass Hebrew. I took the class pass/fail, but if I had taken it for a grade, I would have earned an “A.” The third class was Biblical Preaching. I enjoyed the reading and took the first half of the class as an intensive in January (which means I went to campus in St. Paul MN to spend a week in a classroom with my professor and classmates). Preaching was good, but out of the three courses, it was the least demanding. To round out this post, I will just say I started as a Pastoral Intern at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Littleton CO on June 1, 2017. The first Sunday I was there, I was installed and lead a forum on me. I got to tell my story as a transgender Latina of faith. The second Sunday I was the assisting minister, and the third Sunday I preached. The fourth Sunday I got to sit back and watch service. If you are interested, I preach again on July 16th and 23rd. I am just starting to get me feet under me at Holy Trinity. I have made a few pastoral care visits, but I really want to start visiting congregation members in assisted living and care facilities this next week. The most difficult part of ending my service at Mount Calvary and then closing my private counseling office is not being with people in a counseling/pastoral care capacity. I thrive when I sit people and develop a therapeutic/caring relationship. I am sort of lost without those special relationships in my life. I will post again very soon. I need to get into the habit of writing for the sake of writing. I also need to continue to talk about why I just want to be a pastor. Blessings, +Nicole [1] See: http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/SexualitySS.pdf [2] See: https://www.reconcilingworks.org/ [3] Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000
0 Comments
|
Archives
November 2018
Categories |