DISTANCE AND RESIDENTIAL STUDENTS
THANK YOU TO DISTANCE STUDENTS:
THE REFLECTIONS OF AN MDIV STUDENT Mr. Jason Terhune, ’15
G 10
ive or take the occasional Leap Year, the average Residential Student will be at Nashotah House a little over 1,000 days. In some ways this may seem monumental; in many ways for me it was fleeting. The substance is monumental, but one day you look up and realize that it has flown by. Not left behind or wonting for something better, but a clear sense that it has all gone by so fast. So much learned, imperceptible changes that culminate into a life formed for ministry. A life formed in the daily devotion of prayer in community. If it is beginning to sound melodramatic, it is only because of its substance. There can be no mistake of the indelible mark left on the person who spends three years in the care of those who love them and pray for them continually. Each one ventures through with thoughts and opinions and preconceived notions and certainly some valuable input. Each one leaves set apart as a vessel shaped by the Lord through the continual process of community lived out in obedience to authority and in deep relationship to that same authority. It is a clear reflection of our relationship to the Lord himself.
In many ways they are the ones tending the frontline of ministry. It is with that idea that I offer my most sincere thanks to all those who minister, living daily as Christ has called. I am impressed to see people who offer their vacation time; their break from the hard work of ministry spent here, in order to be better equipped for the future work that I am being called into, yet they are already doing.
So how does this work for the Distance Learners? Can it be the same for them as well? No, it cannot be the same for them. This is not harsh, but it is a reality. It is a ‘hybrid’ program for a reason; it is a modified version of what has taken place here for over 172 years. The difference is not in quality as our adjunct faculty are truly amazing and bring so much to Nashotah. It is truly about circumstance. So while I could sing the praises of a Residential Program, I want to address the tremendous formation that takes place for our growing Distance Program. We are not simply giving these folks the best that we can offer given the situation. The situation is that we have people, many already serving in ministry, who bring so much with them. They are in ministries, answering God’s call daily, living in a very real community where they are in relationships much like those that I am experiencing here.
What I see in a ‘Distance’ learner is someone who is being formed much in the same way I am, through studies, prayer, service and an outright devotion to the ministry in which God has called each of us to participate.
THE MISSIONER
NASHOTAH.EDU
In light of this preface for ‘Distance’ Education, it is important to recognize the value of the proximate portion of this educational ‘hybrid.’ There is much to be said for a week or two weeks of changing your surroundings and setting yourself up for new discovery. There is no doubt the time spent here at the House is formational for the student who cannot live here throughout the year. While they may not have to trudge a half-mile through the snow in sub-zero temperatures to pray Morning Prayer, they have joined us from a life that has its own challenges, its own formational components and have left that security of proximity to be a part of a community that quickly engages them and brings them into the life of formational prayer and service that sets apart people crafted by God for ministry.
Mr. Jason Terhune is a senior Master of Divinity student at Nashotah House Theological Seminary. A Postulant for Holy Orders from the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, he is married to Rebecca and they have three sons. As they continue to enjoy life at the House, they look forward to God’s calling for their future ministry.