I was raised in a large, Southern Baptist Church in the midlands of South Carolina. I earned my Masters of Divinity from Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, a mainline seminary affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) . I am currently serving as the Associate Pastor of a progressive congregation in Northeast Louisiana that is affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists. Now, I am enrolled as a three-weeks-a-year student at San Francisco Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- in short, the more progressive wing of Presbyterianism in this country.

I have been formed by the each of these places in different ways. Being Baptist taught me the value of autonomous individuals and congregations, responsible for discerning their own theology and practices (although this has certainly led to unhealthy extremes in some cases). One of the most valuable lessons I learned from the Disciples was weekly communion. Some folks call the Disciples, "Jesus-people" or "Unitarians to the 2nd person of the Trinity."

I am curious to see how I am formed amongst Presbyterians at SFTS. To that end, I wasn't surprised that the third essay in my coursepack is chapter one of John Calvin's The
Institutes of the Christian Relgion, "The Knowledge of God the Creator." If you're going to a Presbyterian school, I guess reading Calvin comes with the package.