Solving Problems

There's a certain satisfaction that attends facing problems. In fact, I like problems. The reason is simple. Problems have solutions. That's how you can differentiate a problem from a predicament. Problems can be solved, predicaments can't. The best you can do with a predicament is live through it as faithfully as possible. Problems require that we roll up our sleeves and get to work trying solutions. That can lead to satisfying and rewarding work.

Problems also evoke creativity, courage, and a sense of adventure from us. Among the challenges facing the Presbyterian Church and other denominations today, some are predicaments. And we must simply try to live through the predicaments as gracefully and faithfully as we can. But some of the challenges we face are genuine problems. We can do something about these. And, sometimes, the ripples caused by our solutions can actually solve other problems.

Take for example the problem of crushing student indebtedness. It is not just a problem for undergraduate colleges.

We have all seen situations in which a promising seminary student graduates ready, theologically educated, prepared, and called to enter ministry but finds it difficult to accept a particular position in a congregation—especially if the congregation is a new church development or redevelopment, or a smaller church. We have even seen situations in which a seminary graduate had to return to a previous occupation so he or she could pay off educational loans.

At a time when our church needs risk-taking, energetic, entrepreneurial congregational leaders, we need to do everything we can to help seminary graduates embrace adventurous leadership and try new things, some of which may not succeed on the first try. We need the equivalent of spirit we see among the daring young people who will try and try and try again to launch a new tech business. And to support them, to make it possible for them to take risks and eventually succeed, we need the equivalent of venture capital for the church's future.

There are probably a dozen or more things we could try through congregations and judicatories and seminaries. But today, in advance of the announcement tomorrow our new strategic plan, I want to tell you about one thing we are going to do at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

We plan to make student indebtedness for theological education a thing of the past. We plan to do this so that we can liberate our graduates from seminary debt so they are free to go wherever God calls them when they graduate, whether that be to a congregational ministry, service as a marriage and family therapist, or some other vocation as a servant and leader for the church.

This does not solve every problem facing our church. But this is one thing we believe we can do. Then graduates from Louisville Seminary can strike out into the modern-day equivalent of the frontier to plant new congregations, or take on the challenge of helping struggling congregations find a new lease on life, or do any of a hundred things none of us have yet imagined. Our graduates will be free to take more risks.

Obviously, we will need to provide them with the educational foundation and introduce them to the kinds of ministry formation and professional development that will support their efforts. And we will do this too. But to address only the educational challenges while ignoring the financial ones is simply inadequate for the future of ministry in our church.

Who knows what other problems we might eventually solve while riding the waves from this one solution.

We will be able to build a class of students at Louisville Seminary based on their promise for ministry, and to ensure that our student body reflects the complex, rich diversity of communities in which they will serve in ministry after graduation. We will build a class of students consisting of persons with particular promise for leadership, who are ready to engage others in the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. The potential effect of bringing such students together in one place is breathtaking. But the potential effect of sending them forth is even more so!

There is at least one other benefit our church may derive from tackling this problem. Maybe we will remember the confidence we had as a people of God who looked westward generations ago and imagined churches in every new community that popped up. It was an audacious confidence. And, today, we need nothing less.