Jordan Stone – How Crossings can help seminary students
My name is Jordan Stone. I am going to school. I’m currently in seminary through Luther Seminary in St. Paul. I found out about the Crossings Conference from my supervising pastor. He said, I think this would be a really good learning opportunity for you. And I said, okay. And here I am. So he probably found out from his supervisors as well. Jerry Mansfield is actually the guy that ordained him. So he’s been to Crossings previous to this, and I couldn’t tell you exactly who told him about it, but I will take back with me that the gospel and the Gospel’s message and promises are way more expansive than we usually give them credit for. Where Christ is involved and how Christ is involved and how that plays into a message of hope and peace and forgiveness is so much deeper than I think I initially thought or ever gave thought to when preparing a sermon.
(01:04)
So taking that and applying that for the rest of my ministry career will be a good thing. I ended up in seminary because I knew from the age of 18, so right before my freshman year of college that I was called to ministry. And it wasn’t always fine and dandy. I mean, you get a call at a young age and you’re like, God, nobody should ever listen to the words that I’m going to say. I’m young and I don’t know anything. And so I initially had that, but God’s call doesn’t go away, even if you’re young or if you feel like your voice shouldn’t be listened to.
(01:44)
I had people speak into my life, including a pastor that was in charge of prison ministry. He really was a voice that I needed at the time. And so I continued to pursue that. And for a while, I think my thing was, I know I need to help people and I need the gospel to do that, and I need to be in ministry to do that. But I didn’t know it. Was it going to be parish ministry? Was it going to be a chaplain? Or how is this going to look? And it took a lot of discernment to get to where I’m at now. And seminary has been a really helpful process in that as well. I am not claiming this phrase is my own, somebody else has already mentioned it, but we get caught in this seminary bubble of, if you preach it this way, it’s just going to happen.
(02:35)
And Mary Sho did a wonderful job kind of talking about this, but I think that the thing I would share with my classmates is dig a little bit deeper and understand one, what context you’re speaking to. I mean, we’re taught in seminary, who is Jesus talking to? What audience is going on right here? And that’s important, and that’s something that should never go away in biblical exegesis, but it’s also important for the preacher to know, it’s important for us to understand what’s going on in the world and also how Christ’s message fits into that as well, because it’s a message that is everlasting.
