In the first hour of the ministry formations class, we watched a DVD related to the Presbyterian church’s breaking the silence program. When something bad happens in the church, as far as inappropriate conduct goes, then the ways of dealing with it are covered by these guidelines.
It’s confronting stuff: the moral failure of people is easy enough to deal with when it’s no-one that you know, and you’re just relating to it from a TV-headlines perspective, but the DVD (we were watching a nearly-finished version) presented it as something of a TV drama, but one where he viewer can empathise with the characters. Something must be done, but exactly what needs to be done? And who should know about it? I’m looking forward to reading up on this further.
In the second hour, we heard some more about real-life situations where these rules had to be brought in, and then I had to give a talk / presentation on Ezekiel 1-3. I thought it would be a good time to bring in a brief pulp fiction reference; Samuel L Jackson quotes Ezekiel 25:17 (more accurately, some imagined verse with elements of 25:17 thrown in) so memorably, but it was a tough crowd: only one person had even seen the movie.
Ah well. I guess you can’t expect too many people at bible college to be Tarantino fans (and in fact, I’m planning on giving his next film – Grindhouse – a miss)
The third hour was spent on a personality test: we were separated into groups based on the results of the test, and had to work out the strengths and weaknesses of our particular leanings. Unsurprisingly, I ended up being more a traditionalist, with a tendency towards thinking things through, rather than jumping straight into action.
Refreshingly, none of the personality types were made to feel like there was something wrong with them: I can remember other similar exercises where I walked away unhappy.
And from there, I went back home to pack boxes: this probably explains why my recall on the personality test leaves something to be desired.