I loved being a pastor and never took for granted the privilege that was for me. I did not need to do anything else in order to believe God was using my life. I did not apply to Columbia Seminary. I agreed to talk with them because I wanted to support their willingness to talk with women and was certain this conversation would not disturb my life. In our meeting, I questioned their interviewing a pastor about being the president of their seminary. I was taken aback by their response. They continue to believe that the way to train pastors for the church is to call a pastor to be president. I sat up and took notice. They called into question my unwillingness to consider that God might call me away from my beloved pastorate to another task. Was I afraid of what God might be doing? Was I willing to live out of fear? I knew nothing about being the president of a seminary. I was a pastor who sees the importance of this work and who is concerned about the leadership of the church. Columbia Theological Seminary shared this vision. In the end I believed God was calling me to work with them. I had to trust that God would continue to be faithful to me in this new work.

I love working at Columbia Theological Seminary. While this was never my plan, I am privileged to be called to these tasks. I pray God will use me here.

Laura Mendenhall
President, Columbia Theological Seminary

A Season of Renewal and Transformation

by Rev. Magdalena I. Garcia

Five years ago, after a fruitless search for a pastoral position within the Chicago Presbytery, I joined the editorial team at ¡Exito!, the weekly Spanish-language newspaper published by the Chicago Tribune. It seemed ironic that despite a Master of Divinity degree, ordination and service at various levels of the denomination, I was moving away from the church. In fact, my current position was a return to my first career, Spanish journalism, so I had come full circle! Or so it seemed.

When I completed that work as research assistant for a seminary long-range planning committee, I was asked to staff a program for women students, who in the 1970s were flooding into seminaries in unprecedented numbers. After several other program and research assignments, I was asked to become a candidate for the president of Auburn.

Even though Auburn is a very unusual seminary (its major mission is continuing education, research, and support of Presbyterians at its partner school, Union in New York), I was surprised to be asked — and even more surprised to be appointed! I lack most of the usual credentials; I have not attended seminary or studied theology in graduate school, and I am not ordained to the ministry of word and sacrament.

Over the twenty years I have held this position, however, my sense of call has grown strong. Because, as an elder and administrator, I am a major beneficiary of the work of ministers and professional theologians, I care passionately about the quality of the educational and theological work that seminaries accomplish. I am amazed and grateful that so many gifted persons give their lives to ministry and theological teaching, often at considerable sacrifice, and I am determined to help my school and others to support their critically important work. At the same time, I am disappointed and embarrassed that seminaries and churches sometimes fail to set high standards for ministry and theology, and I am determined to hold my own institution and others accountable to our high calling.

Strengthening the schools that shape faithful ministers and vibrant theology for the church wasn't what I planned, but its a mission that matters, and I am glad that God has given me the opportunity to do it.

Barbara G. Wheeler
President, Auburn Theological Seminary

I went to seminary not at all certain that I was called to parish ministry. An intern year with a wonderful congregation (Grace Presbyterian Church, Little Rock, Arkansas) helped me to recognize my gifts in preaching and pastoral care, as well as teaching. Following graduation from seminary, I served two congregations before returning to school to earn a doctorate in theology. Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary then called me to faculty in the field of theology and ministry. Probably my most enjoyable experience there was teaching the course in Presbyterian polity as I came to discover "theology in action" in the way we order our life together as one part of the church of Jesus Christ.

When I left Austin Seminary to return to pastoral ministry as senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Salina, Kansas, I did so to return to the work of preaching and pastoral care. In Salina, I was privileged to walk with people through the best and the worst that life has to offer. I learned once again how important the ministry of the "community volunteer" is and how many Presbyterians see it as part of their vocation to contribute to the "greater good" in their communities. I grew in my own faith as I attempted to help the scriptures come alive each week in preaching and teaching.

Now that I have returned to theological education, I bring with me all the gifts I have received along the way ... and I am indeed in the ministry of Christian Education. Helping to guide a theological seminary as we prepare men and women for leadership in the life of the church is a great privilege. In a sense, we stand at the crossroads of past, present, and future: we seek to pass on the two thousand year-old tradition of Christian faith, to equip people for faithful leadership today, and to imagine what the church will be like in the years to come.

At heart, I believe that I have always been called to be a teacher because I meet God so clearly in the activity of learning and teaching. As I study the scriptures and read the works of thoughtful and faithful writers, as I engage others in conversations that probe the implications of the faith for life today, as I attempt to lead the church in engaging difficult issues and new challenges, I encounter God. And I continue to pray that God will give me a "teachable heart."

Cynthia M. Campbell
President, McCormick Theological Seminary