00:00:13.940 - 00:02:07.560

mm hmm Boy, mm mhm. Good afternoon and welcome to the service of installation for the reverend bobby K jones to the louis H and Catherine S. Zbinden, Distinguished chair in pastoral ministry and leadership.

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It is with joy and thanksgiving. We celebrate this momentous occasion. Let us pray gracious God, we give you thanks for the gifts of ministry. You have given each of us in this priesthood of believers

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as your church. We live and work as one body and in one spirit In gratitude for the one Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ and with one faith and one baptism that culminate in our one hope

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in you. Oh God thank you for Austin Seminary and for creating it to be a space to equip saints and build up the body of christ. Thank you for the particular gifts of pastors and teachers and

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for calling bobby K jones and the sharing of these gifts here at the seminary. Thank you for the gifts and presence of your Holy Spirit which abides with us in this service and empower us to do your

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will in the world, in jesus name. We pray amen from our eyes most, most the ancient of days or might be victorious by great name. We raise on resting on hasty and silent has might

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nor wanting, nor wasting the role. Trust in my light the justice like mountains high soaring above my cord switch on mountains of Goodness and God to all life. I'll give us do both Riggen. Small

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in all life witnessed the true life long we blossom and flourish like leaves on our tree, then wither and perish but not change our theory. Now we still my well, I'll still my right just as

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large. Oh with the english, right or raise we want. Oh, see his whole my spread . All right, I okay, on behalf of the faculty, the staff and the board of Austin

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Presbyterian Theological Seminary, I am honored to play a role in the installation of the reverend bobby K. Jones into the louis H and Catherine S. Zbinden , Distinguished Chair of pastoral ministry and leadership. This

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chair was endowed in the 2002 by the congregation of First Presbyterian Church in san Antonio texas to honor Lewis's abandons 31 year ministry there and to demonstrate appreciation for his guidance and hope for a new generation of church

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leaders. The chair provides funding to call for 125 year terms, distinguished and experienced pastors to teach in the broad area of ministry, including the church administration , stewardship, worship, preaching, christian education,

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pastoral care and church programming. The first document of the chair was Dr Zbinden himself. He was succeeded by the reverend dr Casey told me. And the reverend dr blair or money Today, we will place

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into this chair, the Reverend Bobby K. Jones , the fourth holder of the chair who came to be with us in the fall of 2019. Had it not been for the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic

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14 months ago, we would have installed Bobby K last year. We're grateful though, for the privilege of installing berg Today, this is a chairing ceremony . I don't know of another seminary in North America

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Presbyterian or otherwise, which celebrates that moment in which a professor gets placed into and down chair. In quite the same way we celebrate that moment when a professor here is fortunate to be funded by an endowed

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faculty chair. We here in Austin Seminary do more than simply announced the occasion. We actually pause to conduct the seminary, a ceremony which we call a chairing ceremony at a chairing. We honor not just

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the faculty member involved, but we also rehearse the memory of the chairs origins so that hopefully we will never forget the donors who gave the jail and their reason for doing so. And finally we bestow upon

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the person newly chaired a chair, a real charity you can sit in and that bears your name. This occasion then is for the purpose, not just an honoring bobby K, but also for remembering why

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this chair came into being what it means to its field of study and what it means to those who gave it. Lewis has abandoned himself, spoke both at his own chairing and then at the chairing of

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his successor, Casey told me about his whole sentence upon his abandoned chair was so important to First presbyterian Church in san Antonio and the generation after generation of students who had come here to study for the minister

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, He has entered now the Communion of the Saints and in my judgment there is not a better person alive to rehearse on this occasion. The values of this abandoned chair than Miss Emily People's Emily People's is

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a child of romance and she counts from the lustrous presbyterian family. Her father, the reverend robert H well was himself among other parishes, an associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Houston and san Antonio excuse

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me, her brother, reverend robert H. Bullock Jr served a number of churches and ultimately became the editor of the presbyterian outlook and her husband, Judge David People's served three terms as a member of the

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board of boston Seminary upon Louis the venoms announcement of his impending retirement in san Antonio. It was Emily Peoples who suggested our first Church san Antonio should offer Lewis should honor Lewis's ministry and she played a greater

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role than anybody else. They're encouraging the development of an endowment in Lewis and kids names for the purpose of bringing to this faculty in perpetuity outstanding models of ministry to teach the pastoral arts. Emily, we

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are so pleased to have you with us today and we invite you now to speak whatever is on your heart, with respect to the values and purpose and always available there. Yeah, thank you so much

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, kid. It's always an honor to talk about louis. He was a dear person to me and to our family When Louis abandoned, announced that he would be retiring from 1st Presbyterian Church the following year

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. It was clear that he felt he had fulfilled his call after 31 years of service at first press , it was hard to imagine a retired Lewis he still had so much to offer. His commitment to

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Biblical preaching and teaching had impacted so many lives. Surely there was another opportunity for him. One sunday during louis final year, bob Shelton, who was president of Austin Seminary, where Lewis had served many

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years as a board member and chair, was our guest preacher in worship. In his sermon, he began by thanking first press for all it had done for the seminary and he mentioned that one of our

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former pastors, dr Arthur Grey jones had finished his career at Austin Seminary when he had completed this call to our church. As I sat there, I don't think I heard much more of bob sermon.

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All I could think about was that this was exactly what Lewis should be doing, going to the seminary to share his rich experiences and his wisdom with young people preparing to be pastures, he had served a

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small church, a medium sized church and then our big steeple church in san Antonio. Over the years , seminary faculties had shifted from places where trained pastors with wide experience in the church taught and could incorporate

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into their various disciplines, their own pastoral experiences, to places where very well educated and faithful people taught but who lacked significant experience as a pastor. I was aware of a position like this, of Pittsburgh

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Seminary and I spoke with one person who had actually served in that position that afternoon, I was consumed with my idea and after a conversation with bob Shelton , he encouraged me to begin thinking about having first

00:13:07.400 - 00:13:22.620

press san Antonio established a Chair in Lewis's honor as a parting gift from the church he loved and who loved him. The Zbinden Chair is a position that can significantly help prepare young pastors for the real world

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of ministry the day to day reality that each day may bring unexpected challenges. The pastor, as an administrator and moderator of the session must be prepared to respond in a pastoral way to the changes that inevitably

00:13:41.150 - 00:13:56.960

are part of the life of the church. Changes that can cause confusion, courage, anxiety, uncertainty division. It's often hard to be a visioning agent of change and also a pastor, especially when factions

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form among members. All members convinced that God is leading them and is on their side, or when people are just comfortable with keeping things the way they have always been stewardship, I am convinced is a

00:14:13.040 - 00:14:26.920

learned discipline and a pastor needs to know how to lead on this. From pastoral encouragement to knowing the basics of how to run an effective stewardship campaign, how to establish a budget, to understand the timing

00:14:26.920 - 00:14:41.690

, training and resources of a capital campaign in the life of the church. We are living in a time when younger people have not learned the discipline of committed, giving much less tithing and money is a

00:14:41.690 - 00:14:54.890

reality for the church to be faithful to its calling to fulfill its call to its own members and equally important, the needs of the larger community in the world. Every church is a part of a larger

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community and it's called to be a witness to that community. The impact of louis on the city of SAn Antonio is beyond measure. We are a different city because of his ecumenical leadership for meeting the needs

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of this city, bringing together christians, jews and catholic communities. Faith. In doing so, he established deep enduring friendships with the leaders of these religious communities, enriching their efforts together for the well being

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of san Antonio san Antonio has the greatest number of people per capita living below the poverty level of any city in the nation. Under his leadership of the congregation and his leadership of the session. Our church

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was instrumental in the founding of at least nine different social service agencies established for meetings the particular needs of various groups of people and the participation of our members was always understood to be a part of the future

00:16:00.060 - 00:16:15.640

of these agencies. One of my favorite stories grew out of a tragedy that caused Lewis to make a very bold new many, many years ago when homelessness was becoming a daily reality, especially in the downtown

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area. We often had people sleeping under our shrubbery on the steps and in the doorways of the Church other than the Salvation Army, there were very few options for these Children of God. One night as

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Lewis was leaving the church, he was confronted by a man and he felt he simply did not have time to help. At that hour. The next morning he found the man dead under a bush on

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the church property. Lewis was so grief stricken. He knew the church had to do something. He got the session to approve using the basement of the church as an overnight shelter with church members agreeing to

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serve as monitors each night. Unfortunately, some churches , some members didn't like the look of lines of homeless men lining up outside the church each night and they complained bitterly to him. But louis knew it

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was his calling and the job of the church. He led to be the needed agents of change for a hurting part of our population. And then from that basement several years later san Antonio metropolitan ministries,

00:17:26.680 - 00:17:42.510

A joint venture between churches in the city was established downtown and from that many years later haven for hope , a huge facility with amazing opportunities for leading people from homelessness and poverty was born all this from a

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man dying under one of our bushes. A reminder that moments of tragedy can be redeemed with leadership by those open to God's leading. Lewis was a master at knowing what he wanted to happen and a master

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of knowing the gifts of his members who could help with those endeavors. The pastor cannot do everything, so his or her job is to know the flock and equipped them for the ministry needed for fulfilling the

00:18:11.620 - 00:18:26.880

vision or to equip others for that purpose. There must be planters and the seeds, those who water and nurture and the patience to watch for God to give the growth. And in this process, Lewis

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helped to enable his own plot to grow in faith and discipleship, pastoral care is taught and internships and this aspect of ministry are required but to have a pastor walk with young people through the unexpected problems that

00:18:42.630 - 00:18:59.860

could arise is invaluable. A senior pastor, Lewis had an associate who's young wife died after a courageous battle with cancer, leaving three very young Children. He had another young associate whose two year old daughter

00:19:00.240 - 00:19:15.300

accompanying him on an errand, fell into a super diving tank at a store and ground louis. His best friend's wife died during surgery due to a failure by an anesthesiologist, louis, his wife had breast

00:19:15.300 - 00:19:29.720

cancer twice he dealt with a senseless murder of a lifelong member, a wife and mother of two young girls. In each of these cases, he was forced to deal with his own breed as he sought

00:19:29.720 - 00:19:42.110

to be a comfort to those in mourning, to be a source of strength for them and for a crossing the great congregation who also dealt with collective sadness . There's no way to teach in the abstract the

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manner of dealing with all the realities of life that may happen in the congregation, but to have the benefit of the wisdom of one who has known so many must surely better prepare students for that part of

00:19:56.480 - 00:20:10.060

ministry. In the life of the pastor, the best laid plans often need to be set aside. Holy Week is surely one of the busiest and most intense weeks in the life of the church. I'll

00:20:10.060 - 00:20:23.440

never know how Lewis thought through the Holy Week of my mother's death in 1980. She died during surgery on Maundy thursday and Lewis had been at the hospital with us most of the day. He did the

00:20:23.440 - 00:20:38.880

service at night, the friday news service, and then on saturday drove an eight hour round trip to do the burial service for her in a family cemetery , Did four Easter services the next morning, and

00:20:38.880 - 00:20:53.530

then her memorial service. On Monday. It is a reminder that people never die at convenient times. But these are the times when many need their pastors the most this past year is a reminder that things

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happen in the life of the nation and therefore the church that no one can be prepared for. If they cannot be ignored. There is nothing to do but hunker down and go through being prepared to lead

00:21:07.740 - 00:21:19.980

, to adjust, to take risks. The call to ministry must go on. The life of the church must go on. And it is a gift for this seminary to have someone with the experiences of

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a lifetime in ministry to help prepare a pasture for the reality of the unknowns for the experience pastor to be able to say, I remember a time when or these are some options for handling that kind of

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situation. To have someone share mistakes they made and to discuss what they learned from those mistakes. This is invaluable for a student, but most valuable of all is to be able to to say after a

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lifetime of service. It was all worth it. I was prepared for it. And blessings abound from the past world leadership of this abandoned chair. I would hope that pastors would be better prepared emotionally spiritually

00:22:07.380 - 00:22:22.090

and practically For the challenges and joys of serving God's people and God's church in the 21st century, we are living in a post christian world and the challenges are great. We cannot afford for our pastures to

00:22:22.090 - 00:22:36.950

burn out or to give up because they were not prepared for the calling and it is a calling of sacrifice. All of us are called to live lives of sacrifice and service and our pastures can lead by

00:22:36.950 - 00:22:53.490

example and established in establishing his chair. First president Antonio wanted to honor luis for his service to God and his church. Those who feel this chair are helping to assure the preparation and well being of pastors

00:22:53.500 - 00:23:19.460

called to serve the body of christ with energy, intelligence, imagination and love. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The reverend bobby K. Jones is the fourth holder of the louis H and Catherine s have

00:23:19.460 - 00:23:34.500

been the distinguished chair, asked for the ministry and the leadership And ordained minister of the United Methodist Church . Reverend Jones retired in 2018 from her appointment at Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin, where she had

00:23:34.500 - 00:23:52.490

served for six years. She was district superintendent from 2008 2012, Preceded by 10 years in Austin and Corpus Christi United Methodist Congregations. She served as senior pastor of ST john's United Methodist Church in Austin,

00:23:53.140 - 00:24:11.180

Co pastor of Grace, United Methodist Church in Corpus Christi. Senior associate pastor, the First United Methodist Church in Austin. An associate past with Memorial United Methodist Church. Austin, A Graduate of Boston Seminary

00:24:11.280 - 00:24:26.330

and the University of Texas Plan two Honors Program. Reverend Jones has been actively involved in all facets of her seminary alma mater since her graduation in 1980, she has been an adjunct faculty member. Addition is

00:24:26.330 - 00:24:42.830

serving on the alumni association board and the seminary board of trustees, And she was named Distinguished Alumnus. In 2004, reverend jones ministry has extended to several state and local organizations such as the texas Freedom Network

00:24:42.840 - 00:25:03.580

, Common Good Community Development, Free Store Austin and the Ecclesiastes Project, in all of which she was a founding member alongside with Campfire Organization of central texas . Imagine a malaria and interfaith action pro texas in

00:25:03.580 - 00:25:18.080

short, reverend jones as he immediately qualified as the fourth holder Eliza bending chair. But what is more compelling about her is her generosity and grace as a human being, spend any time with bobby K.

00:25:18.080 - 00:25:33.620

And you will soon be touched by her warmth of spirit, her empathy for others and your keen sense of humor. Conversations with bobby K are meaningful and substantive, but they're also fun. She has a

00:25:33.620 - 00:25:48.880

unique ability to cut through the fog but to do so in ways that affirm others for who they are . She attends to students to their passions and take seriously her role in preparing them for the Church of

00:25:48.880 - 00:26:06.460

the future. And in the midst of it all , she invites students and colleagues to take part in God's generous hospitality, showing in jesus christ at heart , I think that is how she embodies the virtues

00:26:06.660 - 00:26:33.180

of the Zbinden chair. What became We are thankful for your presence in Austin Seminary and look forward to the words and bring them to us today. Right . Mhm. Mhm. President Board of All,

00:26:33.190 - 00:26:56.730

Dean Jensen, honored guests. Order, trustees, faculty, colleagues, seminary, community, my family , friends. Thank you for this honor and for your presence along with our seminaries mission statement. This

00:26:56.730 - 00:27:23.030

a pendant chair has an additional and particular purpose to provide guidance and help for the new generation of church leaders and what's read for the greatest impact. Leaders must identify their greatest gifts and apply them to an

00:27:23.040 - 00:28:03.220

institution's most pressing challenges which challenges well, congregations consider most pressing in the coming months and years returning to pre covid normal finding a new way forward addressing accumulated grief loss, the compounding impact of the racial trauma

00:28:03.230 - 00:28:26.640

, economic disparity, political polarization that feels ubiquitous in our communities and our world. We know some percentage in every generation of church leaders leaves pastoral ministry within the first five years. Well, while what we

00:28:26.640 - 00:28:52.450

do here does not provide graduates with answers for every situation I believe with all my heart, what we do equips them to engage their congregations in the search for what is next 40 years ago, I was

00:28:52.450 - 00:29:11.990

a student here. This is my notebook from introduction to the church's ministry and the role of the christian minister, bob Shelton was my professor and I am in Shelton Chapel today and like many clergy colleagues and

00:29:11.990 - 00:29:34.580

most of my former students, I'm speaking into a near indeed sanctuary. Our students are entering ministry in an unimaginable season. What's next is not the church I was or named into, which is not the

00:29:34.580 - 00:29:51.090

church I grew up in, which was not the church into which my mother was baptized. What's next is not the american, great awakening and reformation, the Inquisition in the Middle Ages or any other age

00:29:51.100 - 00:30:25.130

in the life Brass church. What we are have been must be even we Methodists reformed in always reforming which even for presbyterians is not easy in anything change . But yes, yes, yet this is our

00:30:25.130 - 00:30:48.360

moment to serve the present age nine as this abandon professors performing I am here for I am sad forever everywhere. A metaphor. At the beginning of this month, husband David and I were staying overnight in

00:30:48.360 - 00:31:07.900

a hotel, pausing and our drive home to Austin to participate over zoom in the seminary, Trudeau um Service Easter Eve, holy saturday, about three minutes before I was to read my portion. The hotel

00:31:07.900 - 00:31:30.800

fire alarm erupted. Now one imagines, but not fully prepares for this emergency. What must you grab to evacuate? And where is it? I was grabbing purse phone, wallet, frantically zoom chatting with

00:31:30.800 - 00:31:48.650

the chapel beetles to alert them to my impending disappearance . And what might we do about that literally heading out the door? We were told there was no danger and we did not have to evacuate. However

00:31:48.660 - 00:32:07.740

, friends, a fire alarm was still sounding loud and constant. I sat back down, grabbed my headphones, took a deep in Quincy laugh and hope and pray. That sound would stop before matt finished

00:32:07.740 - 00:32:30.620

reading the scripture. It did two seconds before matt , stop reading the scripture too. Seconds. That is some real life ministry metaphor. Real. One minute you stand behind the table, feeling grateful for

00:32:30.620 - 00:32:47.710

the worship committee, taking responsibility for preparing Communion the next you lived the cloth to discover before God and everyone the bread still in plastic and held with a nice tight twist. Huh? One minute you are

00:32:47.710 - 00:33:07.940

finalizing a crucial presentation for tonight's all church meeting and the next. And occasional church visitor is at your office store in crisis. One minute You were planning candlelight Christmas Eve with ministry leaders and the next you

00:33:07.940 - 00:33:32.210

hit the call that a 16 year old has died in the crash seconds. What we do here does not provide graduates with answers for every situation. My angelou wrote forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't

00:33:32.210 - 00:33:57.920

know before you learned it. Well, here is something I know now my colleagues and I of preparing students for a church we have never experienced 14 months ago. We wondered when will things get back to

00:33:57.920 - 00:34:14.550

normal and then, well, things go back to normal. And then what if things don't go back the way they were? And now I read it in the Alban Weekly? Well, this new future

00:34:15.140 - 00:34:49.510

. Okay, I know the church will be different . We don't know what it will look like. I don't look like this anymore. Oh, and I don't see like this anymore either. I told

00:34:49.510 - 00:35:06.390

students yesterday, I thought the church would look very different over my 40 years in ministry. Yet, as Eddie, Glaude Jr reminded us that I X . Hope awards this week, there is so much

00:35:06.390 - 00:35:31.550

to do. We have so far to go to be in the world as agents of transformation. I will bless you genesis 12, so that you will be blessing. That alarm got quiet on easter theme

00:35:34.540 - 00:36:00.190

. But our students, as evidenced by this morning's senior sermon, our students can smell the smoke. What we do here does not provide graduates with answers for every situation. What we do here provides competence

00:36:00.530 - 00:36:23.480

, confidence, curiosity, capacity and courage to engage the 1,000,000 moments of real life and ministry teaching, carrying preaching, leading joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. Mountaintop and valley low, feeling blessed and

00:36:23.480 - 00:37:02.050

being cursed, sometimes hearing and sometimes saddling the alarm gathering only what is needed for the next thankful step president, horrible dane Jensen. I pledged myself together and yes, guidance and hope for the next generation

00:37:04.930 - 00:37:50.720

and surely they are hope for us all. Yeah , yeah. Department right. On behalf of the board of Trustees of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, I now declared that bobby K jones is placed in the

00:37:50.720 - 00:38:13.380

louis H and Catherine S. Zbinden, distinguished chair in pastoral ministry and leadership. Now, bobby kelly , please take a seat in your chair, mm . Medicaid here in the virtual presence of your colleagues

00:38:14.320 - 00:38:30.560

, your students, your family, and all others in this service to love you and we wish you well. I charge you to demonstrate what it means to be a pastor. In other words, I

00:38:30.570 - 00:38:45.470

charge you to be yourself. You know of course that the demonstration of being a pastor is not about how beautifully we sing or how eloquently we pray in public. Instead it's about how able we are to

00:38:45.470 - 00:39:01.900

encounter God in places like this and then out there in the world in which we are sent to search for God's face. In every other face, we see the faces of colleagues, the faces of fellow

00:39:01.900 - 00:39:23.910

staff members, the faces of students, the faces of parishioners, the faces of people sleeping under a bush at night, charging to search in every other face. You see search for God's face. That's

00:39:23.910 - 00:39:39.840

a tall order, is it? Especially in these times when in the world and certainly in the church , there is a definite course inning taking place. There is a definite spirit of contention out there.

00:39:42.220 - 00:40:02.700

It isn't easy in such a context to search for God's face and the often distorted faces that we see all around us or brown taylor magnificent priests and preacher Spent 20 some odd years in parish ministry and then

00:40:02.700 - 00:40:20.590

she left the parish. It hurts when we lose pastures like that. We can't afford to lose pastors like that. Why don't you leave the parents? She wrote about it in one of her books,

00:40:21.710 - 00:40:37.930

she talked about all the conflicts in the church is frankly the conflicts that scare some of our students and to perhaps thinking of doing something else. She talked in that book about the difference between ink and blood

00:40:38.610 - 00:40:55.250

and about what happens when people try to solve their conflicts with one another by hurling bottle versus at each other. Until in her own words, defending the dried ink on the page becomes more vital than defending

00:40:55.260 - 00:41:14.300

the neighbor. As a general rule, she wrote , I would say that human beings never behaved more badly toward one another. That when they believe they are protecting God. If I'm not careful, she

00:41:14.300 - 00:41:30.540

continues, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to

00:41:30.540 - 00:41:45.220

them. If I'm not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place. Since shutting the book to

00:41:45.220 - 00:42:02.640

go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape. Neither ah nor anyone else she writes knows how these stories will turn out, Since at this point they involve

00:42:02.640 - 00:42:20.640

more blood than eight. The whole purpose of the bible, it seems to me, she says, is to convince people to set the written words down in order to become living words in the world for

00:42:20.640 - 00:42:44.400

God's sake. Or mean, she confirms this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full self course of faith. It's not a right idea, bobby K until it's a right relationship. It's not

00:42:44.400 - 00:43:09.460

right doctrine until it's right practice. It's not worship until the ink becomes blood until we aren't just experts in the written word, but our living words in the world for God's sake. So I'm charging to

00:43:09.460 - 00:43:35.620

search in every face you see here for God's space and then teach those spaces to make that necessary transition that incarnation of transition from England 21 If you do that, God will do what only God can do

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. God will take all of your gifts given here and consecrate them and multiply them for the sake of the Gospel and for the sake of the church. So many day. Amen. Okay, let us

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pray eternal God believing that you are in our midst , we have come today to recognize with gratitude and pray for bobby K and all who are set apart by you to teach and serve in this seminary.

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We give things for those. You have used to form bobby Kay's faith, family and friends. Pastors and professors passed and celebrate that as a young person , she answered your call to ordained ministry, devoting

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her life to look after your concerns above all and co work in your kingdom building with everyone who serves the church. You have entrusted bobby K with the message of your power, Grace, justice and love

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. You have given her insight. Born of decades of cultivating and leading communities of faith throughout her ministry . Your spirit has inspired and sustained her even when she has found herself in desert places. You have

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taught her when to speak words of comfort to those who are lost in grief and when to speak words of challenge to those who wander because they imagine they are dying. Help her to train her students to

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be wise and patient and discernment so that they can serve with humility and boldness, proclaiming your good news , whether they must whisper or shout, give bobby K continued joy, imagination, humor, creativity,

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clarity and compassion help her to always see your original blessing in everyone that she needs. That by her example, a new generation of faithful leaders will recognize that when we welcome the most vulnerable, we welcome

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you help her to embody your strength and vulnerability generously sharing from her experience. That so that she equips her students with both the theological knowledge and practical skills . They will need to sustain themselves in ministry.

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May she encourage them to be so rooted in love for you that they too are able to tend to the sacred and the mundane moments of faith practiced in community, leading with enthusiasm and the certainty that this

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church and their own wild and precious lives always belong to you. Bless Bobbi K and all who give themselves to the work of teaching. May they serve you in nurturing the spiritual growth of all who are

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entrusted to their care, enable those gathered here to be vessels of your grace as we seek to be teachers and learners together. All this we offer in praise and thanksgiving in christ name. We pray and

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then I will come to you in the silo. I will lift you from all your fire. You will hear my voice like ling as my choice be stood. I know you're here. Do not be

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afraid. I had with, I had called you each my name. Come and follow me. I will bring you home my home, you and you are my I am hope for all. So I

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am eyes for all along to see and the shadows of the night. I will be all night come and rested me would be afraid I am with I have called you each my knee, follow me.

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I will bring you you now I am strength for me, what I want to do another try but I will see more and yeah. Uh huh. And now we go forth from this place and whatever

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place you are inhabiting. We go from here with a good word, a thin addiction. Oh God of Grace renew, our hope, deepen our faith , increase our love for you and each other in

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the name of God creator, christ and holy spirit