{"id":44522,"date":"2023-01-31T15:43:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T20:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=44522"},"modified":"2023-03-20T15:56:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T19:56:12","slug":"el-presidente-del-seminario-teologico-de-pittsburgh-explora-el-coraje-y-la-curiosidad-durante-las-fundaciones-presbiterianas-que-dirigen-teologicamente","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/resources\/news\/pittsburgh-theological-seminary-president-explores-courage-and-curiosity-during-the-presbyterian-foundations-leading-theologically\/","title":{"rendered":"El presidente del Seminario Teol\u00f3gico de Pittsburgh explora la valent\u00eda y la curiosidad durante el curso \"Liderar teol\u00f3gicamente\" de la Fundaci\u00f3n Presbiteriana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deep into a conversation on courage and curiosity with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation during Wednesday\u2019s edition of \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d the Rev. Dr. Asa J. Lee, president of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<\/a>, noted this truth about the plight of preachers everywhere: \u201cPeople don\u2019t like it,\u201d Lee said, \u201cwhen we preach the gospel that requires us to do things that we don\u2019t want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the 30-minute conversation here<\/a>. Watch a recording of Lee\u2019s 2021 inauguration and installation here<\/a>. Lee comes in during the 40th<\/sup> minute.<\/p>\n

Hinson-Hasty told Lee that during his inaugural address, which Lee based on Luke\u2019s account<\/a> of Jesus redirecting his disciples\u2019 fishing efforts, \u201cWhat you got me with was when you said, \u2018Who could believe the son of a carpenter would be telling fishermen how to fish better?\u2019 I did not see that coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee is in the midst of leading a cohort of Doctor of Ministry students on coursework on taking risks and being willing to lead change, \u201cwhich our congregations and presbyteries need for revitalization,\u201d Lee told Hinson-Hasty. \u201cCuriosity is a way to build courage, asking the question no one else is willing to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee is looking at three aspects of courage: instinct, capacity and faith. Dog owners know \u201cthat training [dogs] is about their instinct\u201d and helping them overcome that instinct, Lee said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a myth to say courage can\u2019t be taught. Ask any soldier, firefighter or police officer. Their training is designed to build up in them the instinct to take on action.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Christians, \u201ccourage is a faithful act,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe evidence in front of you would suggest not to do the thing. But you still take the action \u2026 For those of us who are Christian, this is absolutely at the heart of what it means to be faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n

One doesn\u2019t have to climb a mountain to demonstrate courage. \u201cCourage is a daily exercise. You build it in small ways,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIt can be having a phone conversation with a loved one that you\u2019ve delayed for a long time. Sometimes the most courageous thing to do is admit to failure. It takes a lot of courage for a parent to have a hard conversation with a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my jam,\u201d Lee told Hinson-Hasty. \u201cWhat we lack in our congregational lives, and perhaps in our political lives, is often the kind of courage that leads us to have conversations that should make us curious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other \u201cc\u201d words also come into play, including \u201cconfrontation\u201d and \u201cconflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes courage to engage and confront not just people, but issues,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIn our congregational life, it\u2019s being able to lead the congregation to have hard conversations with itself. They don\u2019t have to result in conflict; they\u2019re just confronting reality. But we\u2019re scared of both conflict and confrontation, and so we\u2019re not courageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That thought led Hinson-Hasty back to the Genesis account. \u201cI go back to chaos at Creation, he said. \u201cThe chaotic moment is a creative moment. People want to steer clear of them, but that\u2019s where creativity can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skipping ahead in Genesis a bit, Lee said the Cain and Abel story<\/a> is really a God and Cain story. Abel is irrelevant, Lee said, because he dies. What if Cain had confronted God about his feelings over Cain\u2019s offerings \u201cnever quite being up to snuff and Abel\u2019s offerings always being accepted? What\u2019s underneath the narrative is Cain is upset about something, and God invites the conversation: something you want to tell me about? Cain\u2019s response is avoidance. What does he do? It ends up in conflict with his brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of us avoid the kinds of things we should be able to talk about as leaders,\u201d Lee said. \u201cAs leaders, we\u2019re really responsible for doing the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the church needs to propagate the gospel \u2014 and it\u2019s the church\u2019s mission to do so \u2014 courageous leadership means we remind people of the mandate of the gospel on our lives. That is the courageous act,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe mandate is \u2018love your neighbor, feed the hungry and forgive as you have been forgiven.\u2019 Courage means you look people in the face and you say these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what \u201cneighborhood\u201d means, Lee noted Pittsburgh is a city of neighborhoods \u2014 89 of them, \u201cand 90 if you count Mister Rogers\u2019 neighborhood,\u201d he said. In a single parable<\/a>, Jesus redefined what it means to be a neighbor. \u201cWhoever impacts me, whoever engages me, is my neighbor,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThat becomes hard. My neighborhood looks very different.\u201d<\/p>\n

To close the session, Lee offered The Prayer of Good Courage from the Lutheran tradition: \u201cO God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch past editions of \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deep into a conversation on courage and curiosity with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation during Wednesday\u2019s edition of \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d the Rev. Dr. Asa J. Lee, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}