Who I am and what I’m about: The beginning of a new blog adventure

My name is Sunny, and I’m an associate minister at a medium-sized Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregation in rural, Tennessee. Myself and my co-pastor, Dee, are the only female ministers in town- actually, dare I say- county? Our congregation is great- willing to try new things, reach out to the community and love God with their whole hearts. We are honored to be their ministers.

Being a female, mainline protestant can pose its challenges in the rural south- and sometimes I will blog about that. When I moved to town four summers ago, some of the other pastors in the local ministerial association wouldn’t even look me in the eye, and now I am their president for the second year running. This doesn’t mean they are willing to share their pulpits with me (although I did preach the community Easter Sunrise service last year- and it was not held at our church)- but it does mean they know I will do the work.

I graduated from Vanderbilt Divinity School in May of 2004 and consider myself to be a part of the “VDS Diaspora”- which means my friends and I are spread all over the country now, but we remain a close-knit community. I write another private blog that helps me keep up with them across the miles.

Today I embark on this blog because I want to undertake more theological musings. I want to ponder publicly. The life of a minister is a weird one to live in and you might enjoy hearing about some of the craziness. I want to challenge myself to write more- and maybe some day publish some of that work. Here you will find my sermons and newsletter articles, as well as some of my musings on the topics suggested by the revgalblogpals blog ring. I hope to join that group after I have been posting here for the requisite three months. I hope to work out all of the great theological questions of our time in this blog as well- is that too lofty a goal?

So join me as I ponder life in the world and in the church. My ongoing struggle is to be a better person in the world. I love to preach, but I know I am preaching as much to myself as to anyone else- we all need to hear the good news and to be challenged to be a better part of God’s beloved community. Some days I get frustrated with the church but all in all I love the church, I love Jesus and I love my job- and I’m not afraid to talk about that.

One last note- I’m getting married in ten days. What a time to start a new adventure!