Tomorrow I start my new job as Communications Director at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. They are an ELCA mega-church located just south of the Twin Cities in Apple Valley, Minnesota.
I first learned of the opportunity after interviewing (and not receiving a job offer) for a similar position at another Twin City area Lutheran mega-church. This was way back in July. The job posting was still being worked on and they were not interviewing candidates yet. It wasn't until late October when I finally received a copy of the job posting and was selected for an interview.
My first two interviews went well and I thought I clicked well with the senior pastor and other staff that I met. The third round was a project, a brochure to raise funds and awareness of a campaign to build a new pipe organ. Shortly thereafter I was called back in for what I thought would be a third interview, but instead I was completely surprised by being offered the job!
Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to the new job. I'll be doing a little of everything: marketing, communications, web design, promotions and operations. As you might imagine, they are a pretty big church to even need a Communications Director, but here's some other numbers: six full-time pastors, six services a week serving an average attendance of 2,000, nearly 9,000 baptized members, 6,000 of which are confirmed. While those are certainly not modest numbers, they also represent numbers in decline. You also may have noticed a very large disparity between the average number of worshipers and the number of members. These numbers are one of the major reasons why they wanted someone with my skills in their employ, and I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work!
For those who have been following the story, I started officially looking for a full time job in the Twin Cities Metro a year ago in January 2010. Over a 115 cover letters and additional online applications, 20 interviews and several networking events later, I am glad to be done with the process.While it is indeed very poetic that both the job hunt and the new job would each begin at the start of their respective calendar year, it made for a very nerve wracking 2010!
While it was my intent to be blogging regularly throughout the fall, I'm glad you were all spared some of those gory day-to-day details. There were many moments when I was overcome by fear and a lack of self confidence. For every interview I had, I did a ton of research and preparation and spent the hours afterward writing thank you notes. As hard as many of the interviews were, the next day was always the hardest. After all that build-up of expectation and adrenaline, there was always an inevitable crash that would last a day or so. During that time I had to both squash my ohmygodIhopeIdidwell anxiety and also pick myself up and go back to the well of writing new cover letters. I will certainly not miss spending my evenings job hunting.
I wish everyone a great new year and thank you all for your support and prayers during this difficult time. Here's to new beginnings!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Friday, December 24, 2010
Two months and a few days later...
Yeah...we've been doing a pretty bad job of keeping up this blog. But in our defense, we've been pretty busy. Rebecca classes and working at the seminary library keep her pretty busy, and it would be foolish of me to tell her after hours of studying and writing papers to tell her she has to write more stuff.
As for me, there was a drought of job openings in early fall, but things picked up in October and November. Applying to jobs, going on interviews and working remotely for BCF kept my plate pretty full. At one point, I had three jobs I was going on interviews for at the same time. Fortunately, one of them turned into a job offer that I accepted! More on that in a later post.
Tonight is Christmas Eve and we are back on the east coast in Delaware with my folks for Christmas. More posts to come this week and in the new year!
Merry Christmas!
As for me, there was a drought of job openings in early fall, but things picked up in October and November. Applying to jobs, going on interviews and working remotely for BCF kept my plate pretty full. At one point, I had three jobs I was going on interviews for at the same time. Fortunately, one of them turned into a job offer that I accepted! More on that in a later post.
Tonight is Christmas Eve and we are back on the east coast in Delaware with my folks for Christmas. More posts to come this week and in the new year!
Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Reading Days
Today is the first day of "Reading Days," which basically means that I have two days off from classes. It's already over half way through the semester, which seems impossible, but that's what the calendar says. I have a bunch of projects that I hope to finish during the next couple of days -- the primary one is writing my CPE essay.
What is CPE? It's Clinical Pastoral Education. It's a requirement of becoming a pastor in the ELCA. My hope is to spend this upcoming summer working and learning in a hospital or (typically) heathcare setting about how to do pastoral care/chaplaincy. It's supposed to be pretty intense and formative in becoming a pastor. Kind of like group therapy. And the application process also requires lots of stuff -- writing an autobiographical essay, job history, and other stuff. So I've been putting it off. But no more!
The other classes here at Luther have been going pretty well. I wasn't sure how easy the transition from full-time working person/very part-time student to full-time student/very part-time worker would go, but I've been surprised that I feel like I have a bit of free time. I'm taking five credits this semester. (Luther is also slightly unusual in how they measure classes -- a typical class is one credit rather than three credits found in most graduate programs.) I have Greek everyday, which is good because I have to keep up with the homework and vocabulary. So far it's been good, but I suspect it will be getting harder as we continue to add more cases, tenses, moods, and other things I can't remember. I just finished up my Ecumenical Hymnody class in which I learned more about the various hymnody found in the hymnal and the history of hymnody in general. And then my last three classes are Early and Medieval Church History, Worship, and Foundations of Pastoral Care. Lots of reading in the church history class -- including a big term paper which I am also hoping to get started on.
I'm looking forward to the break so that I breath a little after the intensity of midterms and an entire weekend workshop. Hooray for reading days!
What is CPE? It's Clinical Pastoral Education. It's a requirement of becoming a pastor in the ELCA. My hope is to spend this upcoming summer working and learning in a hospital or (typically) heathcare setting about how to do pastoral care/chaplaincy. It's supposed to be pretty intense and formative in becoming a pastor. Kind of like group therapy. And the application process also requires lots of stuff -- writing an autobiographical essay, job history, and other stuff. So I've been putting it off. But no more!
The other classes here at Luther have been going pretty well. I wasn't sure how easy the transition from full-time working person/very part-time student to full-time student/very part-time worker would go, but I've been surprised that I feel like I have a bit of free time. I'm taking five credits this semester. (Luther is also slightly unusual in how they measure classes -- a typical class is one credit rather than three credits found in most graduate programs.) I have Greek everyday, which is good because I have to keep up with the homework and vocabulary. So far it's been good, but I suspect it will be getting harder as we continue to add more cases, tenses, moods, and other things I can't remember. I just finished up my Ecumenical Hymnody class in which I learned more about the various hymnody found in the hymnal and the history of hymnody in general. And then my last three classes are Early and Medieval Church History, Worship, and Foundations of Pastoral Care. Lots of reading in the church history class -- including a big term paper which I am also hoping to get started on.
I'm looking forward to the break so that I breath a little after the intensity of midterms and an entire weekend workshop. Hooray for reading days!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Meeting people is easy...remembering names is hard.
Meeting new people here has been a little more difficult than we imagined, but should get easier as the semester continues. Aside from Rebecca's first week orientation, there have not been very many seminary or community-wide social gatherings. Although there are a lot of people here living on a small campus, everyone seems pretty wrapped up in whatever they are wrapped up in. The people are much more varied than one might think too, there are "kids" right out of college and older adults starting second careers. There are Minnesotans-for-life and people like us who have moved from other states...even other countries! There are people just starting out, people returning from internship, married couples who are both in school and married couples with babies and small children. It's quite a mix!
There are also not a lot of common areas, so the idea of seeing seminarians hanging around socializing with nothing to do is a sight I have not seen much of yet. Rebecca has made a few friends among her classmates though and Trip has met people playing Ultimate Frisbee with an open group that plays several times a week and a brass group that meets once a week. There is a soccer team too (The "Heretics") but we are way too lacking in soccer skills to join. Rebecca wants to start a kickball team in the spring.
Trip has also made a point to meet Rebecca for chapel at least once a week and have lunch together in the campus cafeteria, where we try to sit down with a new group of people every week. Luckily, it is not as cliquey as the high school cafeteria and we've met some very cool people so far.
We hope to keep meeting new people, but realize that once Trip has a 9-5 job, his hanging out on campus during the day will come to an end. And he will get a job. Oh yes. He will.
There are also not a lot of common areas, so the idea of seeing seminarians hanging around socializing with nothing to do is a sight I have not seen much of yet. Rebecca has made a few friends among her classmates though and Trip has met people playing Ultimate Frisbee with an open group that plays several times a week and a brass group that meets once a week. There is a soccer team too (The "Heretics") but we are way too lacking in soccer skills to join. Rebecca wants to start a kickball team in the spring.
Trip has also made a point to meet Rebecca for chapel at least once a week and have lunch together in the campus cafeteria, where we try to sit down with a new group of people every week. Luckily, it is not as cliquey as the high school cafeteria and we've met some very cool people so far.
We hope to keep meeting new people, but realize that once Trip has a 9-5 job, his hanging out on campus during the day will come to an end. And he will get a job. Oh yes. He will.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
New routines
Wow, one month ago we left Baltimore. In some ways it seems like we've been here longer, but mostly it feels like we just got here.
Rebecca spends 17 hours a week in class, goes to Chapel every day at 11 am, and works 8 hours a week in the Seminary's library (her tasks are menial but they are not used to students showing up with Master's degrees in Library Sciences either). She has Greek every morning at 8 am, and while it will probably be her hardest and most demanding class this semester, she is doing very well so far! So far, most of her homework has centered on reading. Lots of reading. Fortunately, Rebecca is a speedy reader so her workload has been manageable so far.
Trip currently spends about 30 hours a week working remotely for his old/current employer, the Baltimore Community Foundation. He feels very lucky and grateful that he was able to continue on with them during this interim period, but knows he still needs to find full-time work in the Twin Cities Metro area soon. BCF has posted the description for his job, and it is only a matter of time before they find a replacement. If you know anyone in Minnesota who could use a graphic designer, writer, marketing/PR professional or web designer, please let us know!
We continue to pray that Trip will find a good job and thank everyone who has been praying with us!
On to a new week and the new challenges it will bring.
Rebecca spends 17 hours a week in class, goes to Chapel every day at 11 am, and works 8 hours a week in the Seminary's library (her tasks are menial but they are not used to students showing up with Master's degrees in Library Sciences either). She has Greek every morning at 8 am, and while it will probably be her hardest and most demanding class this semester, she is doing very well so far! So far, most of her homework has centered on reading. Lots of reading. Fortunately, Rebecca is a speedy reader so her workload has been manageable so far.
Trip currently spends about 30 hours a week working remotely for his old/current employer, the Baltimore Community Foundation. He feels very lucky and grateful that he was able to continue on with them during this interim period, but knows he still needs to find full-time work in the Twin Cities Metro area soon. BCF has posted the description for his job, and it is only a matter of time before they find a replacement. If you know anyone in Minnesota who could use a graphic designer, writer, marketing/PR professional or web designer, please let us know!
We continue to pray that Trip will find a good job and thank everyone who has been praying with us!
On to a new week and the new challenges it will bring.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The story so far...
We are starting this blog because it is a particularly difficult time in our lives and thought this would be a good way to keep everybody up to date with our new lives and how things are going.
About a month ago we left our jobs in Baltimore--Trip worked as a graphic designer at a nonprofit foundation and Rebecca was a manager at the large downtown Central library--to head west toward our destination of St. Paul, Minnesota and the illustrious Luther Seminary. Driving there took two days. We took both of our cars, alternating turns driving between the two of us and our wonderful friend Mike, who had been gracious enough to come with us. The rest of our stuff including all our furniture and clothes met us a few days after we arrived in a ABF U-Pack truck which we packed ourselves and had picked up and delivered to us.
We had decided to live on campus in a one bedroom apartment, a downsize from our Maryland apartment which had a main bedroom and a smaller guest bedroom/office. It made a lot of logistical sense: we could move in at any time, it was right on campus and so convenient for Rebecca and above all else it was CHEAP! Fitting in to our new apartment was challenging, and many things simply had to go in storage. Today we are mostly settled in and 99% of the boxes are unpacked and the place actually looks like a home! (We'll have some pictures up soon)
Getting here is really not telling the whole story though. So let's back up for a second. What led us here, and why we decided to go through all of this is because Rebecca decided she wanted to change careers, leaving the library behind to become a Lutheran pastor.
Of course, it was not quite that simple. In fact, it took about two years of discerning, careful thought and prayer to lead us to the decision to pursue Rebecca's call and to journey to the Midwest. There are other Lutheran seminaries after all, and one really close to Baltimore in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In fact, we knew other people who commuted from Baltimore to Gettysburg to attend seminary. But Luther is the largest of the ten ELCA seminaries, offers the most resources and happens to be in the neighborhood of where Rebecca's sister lives. For Trip's career it also made sense to relocate to a large metropolitan area like the Twin Cities (more on Trip's job search in a later post).
The process of becoming a Lutheran pastor, and in Rebecca's case, earning her Master of Divinity (M. Div) is a somewhat complex and intensive process. Typically, it can also mean a lot of moving and relocating. The first two years of seminary are regular classes on the campus of your choice (potential move #1). The third year is an internship, which can be anywhere in the country (potential move #2). The fourth year is back on campus (potential move #3) where you began, or another one if you desire. Finally, after you graduate the new pastor is ready for their first official call (read: job), which you guessed it, is potential move #4.
Our hope is with Trip's very focused career path and with so many Lutheran churches in Minnesota nearby, we may not have to move very much over the next five years. One big move, to avoid lots of smaller ones.
We'll see how it goes. As you know, we make plans...God laughs.
About a month ago we left our jobs in Baltimore--Trip worked as a graphic designer at a nonprofit foundation and Rebecca was a manager at the large downtown Central library--to head west toward our destination of St. Paul, Minnesota and the illustrious Luther Seminary. Driving there took two days. We took both of our cars, alternating turns driving between the two of us and our wonderful friend Mike, who had been gracious enough to come with us. The rest of our stuff including all our furniture and clothes met us a few days after we arrived in a ABF U-Pack truck which we packed ourselves and had picked up and delivered to us.
We had decided to live on campus in a one bedroom apartment, a downsize from our Maryland apartment which had a main bedroom and a smaller guest bedroom/office. It made a lot of logistical sense: we could move in at any time, it was right on campus and so convenient for Rebecca and above all else it was CHEAP! Fitting in to our new apartment was challenging, and many things simply had to go in storage. Today we are mostly settled in and 99% of the boxes are unpacked and the place actually looks like a home! (We'll have some pictures up soon)
Getting here is really not telling the whole story though. So let's back up for a second. What led us here, and why we decided to go through all of this is because Rebecca decided she wanted to change careers, leaving the library behind to become a Lutheran pastor.
Of course, it was not quite that simple. In fact, it took about two years of discerning, careful thought and prayer to lead us to the decision to pursue Rebecca's call and to journey to the Midwest. There are other Lutheran seminaries after all, and one really close to Baltimore in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In fact, we knew other people who commuted from Baltimore to Gettysburg to attend seminary. But Luther is the largest of the ten ELCA seminaries, offers the most resources and happens to be in the neighborhood of where Rebecca's sister lives. For Trip's career it also made sense to relocate to a large metropolitan area like the Twin Cities (more on Trip's job search in a later post).
The process of becoming a Lutheran pastor, and in Rebecca's case, earning her Master of Divinity (M. Div) is a somewhat complex and intensive process. Typically, it can also mean a lot of moving and relocating. The first two years of seminary are regular classes on the campus of your choice (potential move #1). The third year is an internship, which can be anywhere in the country (potential move #2). The fourth year is back on campus (potential move #3) where you began, or another one if you desire. Finally, after you graduate the new pastor is ready for their first official call (read: job), which you guessed it, is potential move #4.
Our hope is with Trip's very focused career path and with so many Lutheran churches in Minnesota nearby, we may not have to move very much over the next five years. One big move, to avoid lots of smaller ones.
We'll see how it goes. As you know, we make plans...God laughs.
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