Today I participated in my required boundaries training before I go to my field site next year, and before I can get ordained.  I was thinking of a great deal of things as a result of it, but I went on a tangent thought that clouded most everything as a result of a very brief discussion on social networking.  Here’s an excerpt of an e-mail I sent as a processing brain dump:

Just because one discerns a calling into ministry doesn’t mean they cease to be human.  It doesn’t mean they cease to have the same struggles, the same frustrations, the same challenges, the same personality as they did before, and as the people in their congregation do.

The progression of communication and technology gives us as Christians — moreso as Christian leaders — such a wonderful gift.  In some ways, it is the fulfillment of the Reformer’s visions (I’m including Luther, Zwingli and Calvin — and all the others) in democratizing the church, in allowing for the priesthood of all believers.  How do we live our faith in a way that honors both our contextual location, our calling, and our relationship to the Creator?  How do we participate in this world where we find ourselves?  How do we relate to others and honor and respect all humankind?  How do we look at church?  How do we understand church?

Communication is a boundary issue — no doubt about it.  One must exercise confidentiality, non-anxiety, etc in all their undertakings as a minister.  But one does not cease to be their own person.  I’m not afraid of what professors or call committees or parishioners or future employers or past employers or anyone can find on my Facebook or my Twitter.  I’m not afraid of the pictures I’m tagged in.  I don’t feel that its inappropriate for me to make references to alcohol, or speak frustration at assignments or exams, or voice my opposition to structural defects within the organization.  I’m not afraid that its a public venue.  I know its a public venue, and I know that all of those people can find it, read it, shape their opinion of me, and even challenge me on it.  That’s the point! Its not a boundary issue — its an opportunity to live authentically.  Its a new level of accountability that didn’t exist before.

I’m not afraid that people will see those things and think that I’m less than I am, or that they will bring shame to the office I currently — and in the future — hold.  I see this new era as an asset, as a demonstration to those who feel “less than” themselves, for them to see that all of us are created in God’s image, are called good, and are wrestling with the same issues that confront our human condition.

If humanity is a boundary issue… then we’re all in the wrong business…

I’m sure these are all things I’ll write on later.  But for now, I just wanted to get some record.  (Especially for those call committees who will see this and think twice about my name on their list now…)