Questions of a Seminarian

Who is God, anyway? How do I put words to my theology? How do I put words to God? How does God reveal himself to us? Who is the God revealed in Scripture? How is God one but three? Who is Christ? Who is the Holy Spirit? If God is so big, how can he be close enough to care about all the little details of my life? What do I believe, really? What is the Church? What is the purpose of the Church? What does the Church mean for the world? How does the Church relate to the world? Why are the things we do in church important? Are they important? Who are all these theologians I'm supposed to be learning about, and what exactly are they trying to say? What exactly is the "emergent church" and the "new monasticism movement"? What do they believe? Why is it different? Is it good? Is it true? How is the Church changing with our culture? How is the Church being called to change? Is the Bible really true? If it isn't, what does that mean for me? What does that mean for the Church? What does that mean for my theology? What does that mean for my image of Jesus? How do I teach children stories that I don't think are really true? If the story of Creation isn't true, how were we created? If I don't believe the Bible is historically true, how do I bring that to the church without getting thrown out? If I don't know that what I base my faith on is actually true, what does that mean for other religions? What do I believe, really? How do I relate to others who don't believe the same as me? How am I being called to live in this world? How am I being called to live in my community? How do I enter into this community when I've only been here two months? Has it really only been two months? How do I be a friend for people who I'm just learning to know and probably will only be here a year or two or three before we all go off to different places again? How are Mennonites supposed to respond to government? What do I think about politics? Who would I vote for? Should I vote? What should be done for our economy? What should I do to promote social justice? How should I pray? How do I listen? How do I live simply and quietly and openly in such a busy world that demands so much of me? Who were the mystics? How did they do it? Who am I? How am I being changed? What am I being called to do? How can I return home having been so changed? How do I share what I'm learning with my church? How do I answer these questions? Do I need answers? When will I ever have time to find answers?

I find it ironic that I leave my home and my job, pay (or go in debt) large amounts of money, spend all of my time listening to lectures, reading textbooks and writing papers, and end up having more questions and feeling more confused than I was before I came here. If anyone else also has questions, or is fortunate enough to have a few answers, please share! I'd love to talk about some of these things further. :)