 |  Becoming more things to more people?
Fall 2000
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They Don't Teach This at Princeton . . .
Tom Wiladsen
October 1, 2000
There I was, sitting in the sanctuary of Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco for the plenary session of a national conference on urban ministry. For the entire nine years I've been in ordained ministry, I've been going to conferences like this one.
Someone always talks about shifting paradigms in the first fifteen minutes. Something about the word "paradigm" and the gravity with which it is pronounced brings out the smart aleck in me.
This particular speaker challenged the gathered paradigm shifters boldly to "Forget everything you learned in seminary!"
"Done!" I shouted, thus befriending the fourth year Princeton student on my right.
For the next three days I kept crossing paths with this student. At the coffee urn, on the walk back to the hotel, at various "break out sessions."
He didn't ask, "Tom, what do you make of these new paradigms?" with wide-eyed expectation. I just commented on what I had seen, simply spur-of-the- moment, down-home-country wisdom of a simple, rather dense preacher.
At the closing jazz buffet, he said, "You should write these down. No one teaches us this stuff at Princeton." So I share some of them here, hoping that perhaps a young minister or two may be spared a faux pas and that non-clergy may gain an insight into our lives, worldviews, and even—gasp—paradigms.
Sound bites and insights
Don't be too proud to take leftovers home from church functions. Especially the pork chops.
The most important attribute of a church secretary: laughing at your jokes. They have spell check now.
Learn the children's names.
When giving a children's sermon, get down on their level. Kneel. Sit. Do something. Do not tower over the children. You're taller than they are, get over it.
Learn at least one entree ...
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