“If you do two things in your time at seminary, you will have done much to ensure the possibility of sustaining a lifetime of effective ministry: establish an understanding of your own identity and widen your Christian worldview.”

Our students hear this from me at the beginning of their seminary journey. It seems simple, but I hope they are listening. I hope they understand that these are essential goals of graduate theological education and the contextual ministry experience.

In this lecture, which introduces parts of our spiritual formation process, I explain that the foundation of that formation is repetitive self-examination. First, we understand ourselves—then we can begin to understand others. In understanding others, we can expand our Christian worldview.

The peril in not finding and owning our true identities and expanding our perspectives is that local churches (and other ministry organizations) are more than willing to assign something for us.

Institutions, steeped in tradition, dogma, and religiosity, can demand conformity and rigidly limit new leaders’ actualization of their gifts, skills, and call to ministry. For someone who has not done the work, this seems an easy road to travel, but, inevitably, the road becomes impassable.

The Road to True Identity
Christian ministry is always about relationships—always. We thrive in these relationships when we are willing to see who we are, that which requires work, and by being bold enough to participate in the spiritual formation process.

Christian spiritual formation is not mysterious; it is simply our movement toward Christ-likeness. Nothing expands one’s perspective like using God-given gifts to serve those who need the kind of things we see Christ offering in the Gospel (e.g., Luke 4.18-19).

There are many tools for finding our true identities.

• There is no substitute for listening to God’s voice, which we all hear in different ways. Reading and meditating on Scripture, prayer, and journaling can all amplify God’s voice.
• There are a variety of psychological and developmental assessment instruments available which, when interpreted properly, can provide cross-sectional views of our uniquely created selves. In many cases, my students respond that God’s voice was clearly heard through interpretation of their assessments.

• Telling our stories and examining closely how the pieces of our lives fit into the larger mosaic of all God’s people gives others the opportunity to speak into our lives through listening and sharing their stories. Including our relationship with him, God works through an endless variety of relationships to help us realize who we are.
• Mentors help us see that we can never be defined by our greatest achievements or greatest failures. They move us toward knowing that our true identity comes from what we do consistently well: those things for which we have been uniquely created. Conversely, they can show us our identity is also rooted in how we tend to our vulnerabilities: those things that detract from and destroy who God made us to be.

When asked, most adults would rate their college years as their top community experience—especially if they lived on campus. According to Randy Frazee, author of The Connecting Church and teaching pastor at Willow Creek in South Barrington, IL, a person is never more intimately connected with others by place and purpose than in college.

Yet, when we go on to graduate theological studies, our blithe, companion-rich college years are nowhere to be found. We have jobs. We do ministry. We go to our children’s soccer games. We have Greek to learn. We have yards to mow, groceries to buy, and bills to pay. Obligations often keep us from fully connecting.

But being disconnected from community can be spiritually dangerous. In a recent interview with Ministry Mentor, Frazee explains how and why you must keep community in the foreground of your life—not in the margins.

MM: How do you define community?
Randy Frazee: I start with the concept we see in Acts 2:42-44, where “all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.” In order to share community, I believe there are three things we must have in common: purpose, place, and possessions.

In my second year of seminary, I began an internship under Dr. Sue Edwards, an assistant professor at the school. Officially, she was (and still is) my mentor. We began to meet weekly to talk about life and to pray.

Dr Sue asked me this fall to assist her with speaking at several women’s retreats, and in my research for the events, I picked up Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, by Philip Yancey and a missionary surgeon, Dr. Paul Brand. Brand closely considers the apostle Paul’s use of the human body as a metaphor for the church (1 Corinthians 12:12).

Brand’s reflections gave me new appreciation for how the human body works. Consider the white blood cell. When the body is injured, white blood cells rush to the damaged area and begin repairs. When sickness or infection enters the body, a white blood cell stretches itself over the invading organism and absorbs the danger into itself.