They increased the requirements on the theology and doctrine sections, so even my answers from before that were good had to be re-done because they had to be double the length. I had about 22 pages (single spaced) of theology stuff. Which means that when it was "properly formatted" to be turned in, I had a flipping book! The sad part is that most of my answers were closer to 600 words than 1000, which is the parameters that were set forth for us!
My goal for myself was NOT to be waiting until the last minute to get everything done. The "Called and Disciplined Life" section was the one I completed first, and got nothing but positive feedback from my liason when she read through it. That was actually one of the sections they were hardest on me about last time because my answers were so short. The directions are a bit vague, so I gave them 2-4 page total, not 2-4 pages per answer. I fixed it this time and feel really good about it.
The "Practice of Ministry" section was a little bit easier for me this time. I recorded several sermons and chose the one I thing was the best. There's always room for improvement (and of course some of my best ones weren't recorded) but I was pretty happy with it. My bible study was actually really enjoyable to re-work, which was a little bit surprising to me. The "pastoral care situation" was one from CPE, so it was almost an afterthought.
The "Theology and Doctrine" section was the hardest. They increased the requirements on that section, so even my answers from before that were good had to be re-done because they had to be double the length. I had about 23 pages (single spaced) of theology stuff. Which means that when it was "properly formatted" to be turned in, I had a flipping book! The sad part is that most of my answers were closer to 600 words than 1000, which is the parameters that were set forth for us! This was the last of the "big" writing that I got done. My goal was to get it done by the end of October. I actually finished on November 1st, but seeing as I had two days without the use of my computer, I'd count that as a win. It was still two weeks before everything was due!
I was pretty relieved to simply be done with the writing early, but I knew I wanted to give myself some time to get everything finished up and finalized so that all my i's would be dotted and my t's would be crossed and I could really exhale when it was all finished.
After the initial relief of "Whew! I'm done with two weeks to spare" (which wasn't exactly true) I was faced with going back to double and triple check everything. One thing I almost forgot was that I had a paper that had to be notarized! Oops! Thankfully that was a quick and easy fix! After that, the hardest part was waiting on the feedback from my board liaison so I could either make changes or print it all out and be done with it! I finally came to a point where I hadn't heard from her and knew I wanted to get everything in, so I decided to go with my gut and just use what I had. Despite everything it got done and I feel really good about it.
So what am I doing with myself for the rest of the year? Well, I'm going to wind myself down a bit. This week is kind of busy, but will conclude with Charge Conference on Saturday. After that, it's Thanksgiving week so that means family time! I've also got plans for a massage, a really nice date night with my Hubby, lots of Christmas craftiness, and a few hot dates wit Harry Potter and my other literary loves who have been rather neglected lately.
No comments:
Post a Comment