As my family, co-workers, and many close friends know, I started a graduate certificate course of study last fall at BSK Theological Seminary (formerly The Baptist Seminary of Kentucky). I’m grateful for this opportunity and for the support of my studies by both my work church and home church. Through the course of this academic year and next, I will earn levels I and II of the seminary’s Exploring Ministry Certificate — representing six mostly foundational and introductory courses in the broader Masters of Divinity program. What I do after Spring 2026 has yet to be determined; I’m keeping my heart and mind open to what might come next.
My first semester last fall was challenging and delightful. I started out with just a single course — History of Christianity. I knew the subject matter would keep me incentivized toward re-establishing a regular routine of study; it has, after all, been more than a decade since I’ve been in school. I studied hard and was beyond excited to have received a 100 as my final grade in my first-ever graduate-level course!
In my second semester now, I’ve moved on to two courses — Introduction to Pastoral Care & Counseling and Spiritual Formation — which are proving both challenging and rewarding, each in their own way. I had once thought the Pastoral Care course would present the most challenge, but I’ve actually found a greater challenge in Spiritual Formation. It’s asking me to dig in and think more deeply than the course description might have led one to believe. But I’m grateful, and I’m excited for the opportunities I’ll have this semester for intentional, spiritual introspection and spiritual reflection.
One of our first assignments was to craft a “Spiritual Autobiography,” exploring a person, a place, and an event that has been spiritually formative in my life. It was not an easy task, and I wrestled for a few days on each of the questions. Even now, I’m not entirely sure these specific choices are the best examples; they are certainly not the only examples on which I could have reflected.
I thought I’d share here, inviting others to this small peek into my spiritual formation and a bit of my course work. I hope you, too, can explore and ponder similar thoughts. Spend time asking yourself:
- Who is a person who has been spiritually formative in your life?
- What is a place that has been spiritually formative in your life?
- What is an event that has been spiritually formative in your life?
My answers to those questions…
Prompt One: A Person Who Has Been Spiritually Formative in My Life
I first met Khalil (not his real name) through mutual friends in my late 20s. Raised in [redacted], Khalil is both a Muslim and a gay man, and he was closeted to mostly everyone except for a small group of friends in Charlotte. I had never been friends with a Muslim before. I knew little about Islam, but certainly held ignorance, prejudices, and stereotypes about who Muslims are and what they believe.
With Khalil, I gained a greater understanding for the many faith stories we shared. I learned of his admiration for Jesus and Mary, Gabriel, John the Baptist, and Old Testament prophets, most of all Abraham through whom we shared claim as a forefather of our faiths. (As we became closer, we’d start to call each other “brother,” an acknowledgement of our kinship through Abraham.) We also shared “church hurt,” or whatever its equivalent phrase might be for Muslims, in the ways the story of Lot and Sodom had been used to make us feel unworthy and ashamed. In our visit together to his mosque for the last Iftar of Ramadan, I saw God reflected in faces that didn’t look like mine, in a language that didn’t sound like mine, and in an entirely different style of worship from which I had ever been accustomed. When Charlotte Pride hosted our annual interfaith service at my home church (where Khalil had worshiped with me many times before), I was honored to invite Khalil to offer the call to worship.
My relationship with Khalil taught me about Islam, yes, but also about God and how God works to affirm the inherent value and worth of all people through friendship and interfaith dialogue.
Prompt Two: A Place That Has Been Spiritually Formative in My Life
I grew up in an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church just outside of Winston-Salem, NC — the kind of Baptist church so conservative the Southern Baptist Convention seems wildly liberal in comparison. In hindsight, I can be grateful for the ways Grapevine Baptist Church provided a foundation for my young faith while recognizing the ways it harmed me — how its hate fractured the stability of my faith in my early teenage years as I came to better understand my sexuality. Those cracks began to heal as I turned 16 years old and started attending Wake Forest Baptist Church, where I would learn how to love God, myself, and other people in a safe, affirming, and loving environment.
At Wake Forest, I was encouraged to approach God as one of God’s beloved children, loved fully without reservation. I was given the chance to simply be a “normal” teen — attending Sunday school, worship, youth group, and church camp — without the burden of fiery judgment and shame. I was offered the opportunity to lead in worship, through prayer and scripture reading, and later helping prepare Wait Chapel for each week’s service. I learned exciting and edifying scriptural and historical insights from our senior pastor. I experienced compassionate pastoral care from our associate, a lesbian whose partner was the co-facilitator of the local LGBTQ youth support group and who first introduced me to the church.
Though plentiful, one of my most memorable (and repeated) experiences was the opportunity to be in near solitude as I worked to prepare the chapel for worship each week while the organist practiced. Practically alone in a sanctuary built to seat more than 2,000 people, the sounds of the organ’s hymns melded with the love and affirmation I felt, drawing me closer to and constantly in awe of God.
Prompt Three: An Event That Has Been Spiritually Formative in My Life
I entered my early 30s adrift after a period of hardship, including near homelessness as the result of un- and under-employment, began to turn for the better. The immense challenges of this time brought me closer to the church I slowly started to call home: St. John’s Baptist. I started attending in 2012, but it took me years to feel fully at-ease there, owing to my childhood experiences of church hurt and rejection.
St. John’s showed itself to be the kind of church I needed — inviting me into the full embrace of community long before I officially joined. This period of hardship opened old wounds, causing me to reckon again with the hurt I’d experienced as a child and early teen. I turned to our senior pastor, Dennis. I felt as though my childhood baptism had been more the result of coercion rather than an act truly understood and sought after. Moreover, the church-family acceptance I thought would result was followed only by pain. I asked Dennis if he’d re-baptize me. His response was nearly immediate, “It would be a privilege … to plan your baptism with you.” No “re-” necessary.
On January 7, 2018, for the first real time, I was baptized and received into the membership of a church I knew would call me one of their own. I have grown spiritually, maturing in my understanding of our faith and doctrines, our traditions, and our shared responsibility to each other and to the world. The past seven years have brought me peace and a yearning for increased closeness with God, as the small, quiet calling to ministry I’d once heard as a child is whispering again — growing louder with each passing day, month, and year.
What lies ahead…
We’re nearly halfway through the spring semester, my second at BSK. In addition to this “Spiritual Autobiography” in the Spiritual Formation course, I also found excitement and curiosity in a book review for my Pastoral Care course; given the social and political culture of our time, I walked away with an expanded understanding of a model for community-based pastoral care after reading Donald Chinula’s Building King’s Beloved Community: Foundations for Pastoral Care and Counseling with the Oppressed.
Come May, I’ll have earned the first Exploring Ministry Certificate. Between now and then, I’m excited for these upcoming projects and opportunities to:
- Finish my readings in my Pastoral Care course, and to engage in some practice pastoral care sessions.
- Visit a service at the local Greek Orthodox cathedral and reflect on my experience there.
- Complete a short research project on a spiritual formation practice/discipline different from my own tradition; I’ve chosen Orthodox iconography (to complement/enrich my spiritual visit assignment).
- Continue regularly engaging in spiritual reflection and prayer during chapel with other members of the BSK community.
In 2025-2026, I’m hoping to take these courses:
- Introduction to Theological Education
- Liturgy and Social Ethics
- Communication for Church and World
