Today unit #2 of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) started up. I’ve been anticipating its beginning and have looked forward to it. CPE is the training that chaplains receive towards becoming board certified as a chaplain. It involves over 2000 contact hours (classroom and clinical hours) of studying, reflecting, listening, and learning. It is a robust group process.

I’ve heard horror stories of CPE groups. That they were a place to “throw you under the bus” and that supervisors were on a mission to “straighten you out.” That they were a place where pastors “lost their faith” or were forced into a mold of “chaplain” — and made to leave your own individual faith behind.

As I write this, I pictured my CPE group as “Devo” and had a good belly laugh…

We are so different! There’s an Orthodox rabbi, 2 Adventist ministers, 2 United Church of Christ pastors, and yours truly. We are Jewish, Hispanic, African American and your basic Anglo. Our CPE supervisor is from Ethiopia. Our life experiences and perspectives are so different. And we are richer for it.

As I shared my story today, I reflected on some of my life experiences and how they had shaped me into the pastor and chaplain I am today. How I grew up in Ohio and then the segregated South, and then back in Ohio again. How I had completed 3 college degrees. How my parents’ professions shaped my understanding of the practice of medicine. How being one of 7 kids had its own unique influences, as well as being a Buckeye. (Yeah. GO BUCKS!) And how each of the things I had seen, heard and lived through were shaping me and coming together in this practice of “chaplain.”

I have so much to learn, but I am grateful for God’s direction and guidance to bring me this far.

Thanks be to God!