Teaching in the CIM

By Carolyn Helsel

You know you are with special people when you feel your own faith enlivened by their company. That is how I feel leading the on-campus component of the CIM Worship and Preaching course, which I taught this past spring. More than a dozen students travelled to Austin Seminary from all over the country—Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma—and even from as far away as Brazil(!) to attend a weekend retreat where students practice leading in worship in Shelton Chapel.

At the beginning of each Worship and Preaching course, I say a prayer over the names and hope that God guides my decision in grouping them together. Without having met one another in person before, these students have to co-create a worship service together in groups of two or three. The planning takes place online over a period of a few short weeks before they come together in person for the retreat.

A miracle seems to take place when they are together: the relationships they have formed online now bear fruit as they trust one another to try out new and innovative ways of leading worship. The prayers truly are “liturgy,” the work of the people, as these students have written their own prayers or selected favorite prayers from their home church traditions. They put into action the ideas they have been reading about for several weeks about the meaning of worship and ways of crafting liturgy.

The students come from different backgrounds and experiences of leading worship. Some are already regularly leading their small congregations as lay pastors, preaching weekly and leading the service themselves. Some are new to this, never having led in worship before, let alone preached a sermon.

The Certificate in Ministry program is for lay people not interested in a degree program, but who want to get additional theological training. Perhaps they are on their way to becoming a commissioned ruling elder (CRE) in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), or they simply want to learn more but cannot leave their jobs to pursue theological education full-time. Some come already having earned another master’s degree at a seminary—one student this spring had a master’s in sacred music and another, in children’s ministry.

What they all have in common is a deep, abiding faith in the God who called them to this program. They are all stepping out in faith to follow the way of Jesus through a wilderness of something new—some while still working other jobs full-time, some having recently retired, some already working in the church as musicians and feeling a call to also serve as pastors.

Students in the CIM program also bring with them their love and hope for the church. They have been steeped in church ministry for decades, serving in various capacities, weathering the ups and downs of a congregation’s life together, in churches that have pastors or are without a pastor. They have lived their lives as the body of Christ as the Church in the world.

They give me hope that God is continuing to call people to serve the church in all its shapes and sizes. Some of these students are leading congregations of fewer than ten people. And those small churches will be blessed by the leadership of these students.

My faith felt renewed from our time together. Being with these students will continue to bear fruit in my own teaching: I am inspired to teach all my students to preach in ways that deepen faith and draw listeners ever closer to the God who came to be Immanuel, God with us. v parts of the country.”