So what's next?
So what's next for the McBays?
So what am I up to? Why a website? What's happening?
Stephen and I have been married almost ten years. We have two things that we share at the foundation of our relationship and our faith. (1) We'll go anywhere and do anything (God tells us to do), (2) the safest place to be is in God's will. Bold principles to live by but, I'd argue, also the best. That's the short answer of how we got here. Now for the longer one...
- Almost 20 years ago, God made it very clear to me, while I was camping in the Australian outback with a group of young Christians, that He had called me to be a teacher. It was confirmed in completely unexpected ways, several times, from people I barely knew and with a caveat that it would not look as I might expect it to look…
- A few years later, after some prayer, God made it very clear that He was calling me to ordination—something I categorically did NOT want to do and had strongly resisted the idea of for years.
- A few years after that, while at seminary, God made it very clear to me that He was calling me to a PhD in biblical studies. I’d always loved biblical studies, but I had disqualified myself from even thinking about taking it further because I didn’t look like a traditional biblical scholar.
I have loved so much of what I have been able to do in and through my ministry at St. Martin's. It's been a huge privilege and I have been incredibly grateful to really get to do so much of what I love and to serve God's kingdom in and through the life of this particular parish. I never imagined for a minute I'd end up in Houston, Texas, at the largest Episcopal church in North America! But it has been a blessing in many different ways.
However, throughout my life and work thus far, I've always found myself somewhere in the overlap between education and the church. (Imagine a venn diagram with "church" in one circle and "theological education" in the other -- I've found myself where they crossover). I've taught high school, seminary, undergrad, overseas (the Far East) and adult Sunday School in sunny Texas. I've preached in a number of those places too. I love teaching. I love preaching. I love research. When I went forward for selection for ordination I was pegged as "potential theological educator" because of those two hats - the ministerial and the academic.
While there have been many strands of prayer and reflection that have gone into my decision to make a change, one core reason is that I really believe God has called me to serve
both the church
and
the academy. Not only do seminaries need lecturers (aka professors) who care about Scripture and can help pastors and teachers who are well-trained and informed in biblical scholarship and interpretation, they also need a safe place to land when challenged by their academic learning. I have spent a lot of time in theological education and my faith was shaken, honed and (ultimately) refined. But this journey was encouraged along by faculty who were trained and educated with the best of them and also had a deep and Spirit-filled life of faith in Jesus. They listened to my questions. They gave me space to wrestle through the difficulties of having my naive faith confronted by biblical criticism. They helped me separate the theological wheat from the irrelevant chaff. And they helped me to still seek Jesus, even in all of that uncertainty.
The church needs pastors who are well-trained and theologically informed -- and the academy needs tutorial staff who have a commitment to both the book-learning and the one about whom the books attempt to speak.
Serving at St. Martin's has given me a wonderful experience of ministry, from pastoral care and walking grieving families through the death of a loved one, to preaching to a nave full of people to launching Riverway as an fresh expression of our Anglican heritage. I want to take this experience, with my heart for teaching and the academy and use it best for God's service.
But in order to take a step forward, sometimes you gotta take a step back!
For various reasons, Stephen and I came to the conclusion God was calling for us to take the risk of creating space in our schedules (and a gap in my regular paycheck) to prepare for this transition. While the world says we should always be jumping from one thing to the next and never taking a breath, we're pretty sure that God calls us to live one day at a time, one moment at a time and to trust Him, even when the stakes seem high.
I am hopeful I will be able to take up an academic position by the end of the year. Wycliffe Hall is currently looking to expand their faculty with a lecturer (aka professor) who can help shape and equip clergy and other missionaries and ministers. Who can teach biblical studies, preaching, and help students apply their biblical learning to the reality of pastoral ministry. To find out more about Wycliffe Hall and help support them in this effort, click here. I believe this would be a really great fit for me and is where God is calling us next!
