7 Seminarians from St. Stephen, Williamsburg

This was published more than a month ago, in the supplement to the Lutheran magazine that went to subscribers living in Virginia. (Those of you who read this long ago can skip it!) I'm only now getting around to putting it on the blog. It's a real "YAY US!" piece.

St. Stephen, Williamsburg, is well-represented in seminary classes and related activities this fall by six women and one man who have ties to the congregation - perhaps an ELCA record. A mother and daughter are longtime members of the congregation, while five are College of William and Mary graduates who walked across the street to worship at St. Stephen while they were at school. The seven seminarians:

• Haley Poynter is a May graduate of Roanoke College and member of St. Stephen. She enters the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg, where her mother, Kate Schroeder, is already enrolled.

• Kate Schroeder, a former nurse and a St. Stephen member, is a senior at Gettysburg.

• Mike Powell has been traveling in Asia doing research on the church in China. He is on internship from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, working in Jerusalem this fall.

• Kate Proctor, from St. John, Abingdon, completed a year at the Lutheran Seminary
at Philadelphia. She has worked in children's ministry at Holy Communion, Portsmouth, and in clinical pastoral education at a veterans' center in Johnson City, Tenn. She is doing field education at Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Pennsylvania.

• Leslie Scanlon, a member of First, Norfolk, has entered Philadelphia Seminary.

• Deanna Scheffel, from Our Saviour, Warrenton, is in her first year at Lutheran Southern Seminary.

• Brett Wilson of Christ the King, Richmond, is starting at Philadelphia Seminary.

Kim Beckmann, ELCA director for ministry leadership-candidacy and deployment, said several congregations "located in the backyard of seminaries" have produced eight or nine minis¬terial candidates. The Williamsburg seven may have a record for a congregation "not across the street from a seminary," she added.

By any measure, St. Stephen is "way above average," Beckmann said. In 2004, the ELCA average was one ordination candidate for every 884 confirmed/communing members. St. Ste¬phen had 444 confirmed/communing members at last report.

The students credited the influence and encouragement of the Rev. Andy Ballentine and the support of the congregation for the Lutheran Student Association at William and Mary. Ballentine has "embraced and taught a theology in which God is active and moving in the world and we as Christians are invited into that process," Proctor said. The congregation has sought volunteers as "adopted parents." They have committed space in the church for LSA and have invited students to join the choir and act as lectors, assisting ministers and worship leaders.

Through his role as a discernment advocate for Project Connect, Ballentine has often led conversations among young adults about the work God is calling them to do.

Scanlon said the number of seminarians "could happen anywhere, it is simply a result of people with gifts for the ordained ministry hav¬ing their gifts affirmed and being encouraged to discern their call from God. Congregations must resist the urge to put every active youth in a pastor box and instead affirm their unique gifts and aid them in discerning how God is calling them to live out their vocational call," she said.

Schroeder said seminary isn't for everybody. It would be "a difficult and unproductive experience for someone for whom God is calling to do something else."

Because William and Mary is a small liberal arts college focused on service, Scheffel said its students "might have a slight predisposition to go into ministry of some form." Conversations about vocation by Ballentine and the church community start "at a very young age about your life circumstances and who God is calling you to be within these contexts," she said.

Powell spent much time in the college room at the church, accessible 24 hours a day. The church community "was more than anything a safe place," he said. "I remember seeing the steeple as 1 ran from class to class and being reminded of God and a community that cared." At St. Stephen, away from the pres¬sures and schedules of college, "I loved being in a place where people understood life and love in the same way that I did," he said.

Wilson said Ballentine gave her "the tools and lessons to open my mind and heart a little bit to the Spirit and to slow down and see where I would/could be led." She called St. Stephen "a dynamic group of people who are affirming of each other while pushing each other forward in our faith."

Poynter said much of her faith formation from childhood took place at St. Stephen, which is "devoted to building a Christ¬centered community and looking out for one another."