“Enabling constructive encounters with diversity is a primary pastoral task of congregations and theological institutions.” Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton In our increasingly diverse and interconnected world, leaders will need to […]

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he  will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” ­Matthew  6:24.  “And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” ­Mark 3:25  This has been a very trying couple of  weeks for every U.S. citizen. Seven deaths, seven  lives lost, two regular black citizens and five police offices. Outrage, frustration and  hopelessness have cycled through just about everyone’s minds. People have shed tears for their  lost loved ones and for the lack of progress on race relations in our country. I attended a  memorial service at my seminary, McCormick Theological Seminary, on  July 11 to grieve with  my fellow students and citizens of our wounded nation. Earlier that day I listened to an expatriate  from the Dominican Republic who grew up in Brooklyn and now attends seminary in Cuba  accuse the U.S. of being the primary problem with not just Cuba, but the world and especially for  violence towards those of African descent.   So much anger, so much pain, I have witnessed in the last few days. At the service, we  couldn’t even bring ourselves to sing songs of healing because what good are our songs when  they paper over feelings of a wound that still has not healed. I could barely bring myself to speak  and cried later that night in the solitude of my apartment. I thought I had no more tears to cry and  had moved forward, but it turns out I still had a reservoir of emotion that I had left untapped. I  am wounded, black people are wounded and our nation is wounded.  Yet, black people get wounded by the state and its institutions. We might not be  considered ⅗  human, but instead one could say ⅗  American, not fully woven into the fabric of the  American Dream and not melted into the pot fully. And therein lies the predicament I find  myself in. I am divided and I try to serve two masters and I am not standing. I am black and  American; I love my country yet my country has a strained relationship with people that look  like me. I suffer from the disease of “double­consciousness”, trying to be fully black and fully  American.  […]

McCormick’s tagline, “Cross-Cultural, Urban, Reformed, Ecumenical,” was incredibly compelling to me as I was discerning my own call to ministry. Rooted in the Reformed tradition, in a small denomination with […]

I was accepted in McCormick in 2012. When I was going through the process, I thought I was applying for 2013, because I thought I had passed the deadline for […]

In this week’s McCormick Herald, you can find community announcements, an interview with senior Leslie Deslauriers, and Derek Elmi Burrsma’s great run-down of the Christian Reformed Church’s current initiatives to combat […]

In just 30 short days I will graduate from McCormick. I will put on a robe and a hat and be handed a piece of paper that will say I […]

In this issue of the McCormick Herald you’ll find reflections on privilege, safe space, the Mental Health Advocacy conference, games, puzzles and more!  Our feature story is from Je Myoung Lee, […]

McCormick Theological Seminary and the Center for Innovative Ministry are pleased to announce the winning entries of the 2016 McCormick Prize for Innovation. The annual prize recognizes “impactful use of […]