DMin or Demon or DocMin

This year I complete all my course work for my Doctorate in Ministry in Parish Revitalization at McCormick.  I should have graduated this May but took a year off for health reasons.    Now I am catching up so by the end of the summer I will have finished four classes (one week in Indianapolis and the others in Chicago)  I have been blessed to serve the faith community of Bethel in San Leandro who is accompanying and supporting me on the journey and the subject of my thesis.

Now this thesis is just 40 pages.   So far I have 60+ books on my shelf on parish revitalization.    This is not a Doctorate that requires a 300 page doctoral thesis.  That is why I picked McCormick.   My colleague the Rev. Dr. Barbara received her DMin this may with a thesis just about 300 pages!! Her thesis was about responding to fundamentalism. 

When this thesis is being reviewed and challenged it has to bring up something new that another pastor or church can use with respect to parish revitalization.   Sort of reinventing the wheel with different words.
The challenge for me is to write the #!%?* thing.   I sit in front of a book and read and take notes and then I get to the computer and sentences don't come out.   I've tried outlining, picking only three things that I'll write about and then nothing.  So I think that the DMin and become my "demon."   My thesis is about a process of Visioning using provocative questions (see past posts).  This process is one that Bethel just completed the first phase and has more work to do.  I could talk about this for hours and I am excited about the potential for change and a new vision for Bethel.   But write it down!  So this morning, I've decided to tackle my "demons" and write a different way suggested by the Rev. Dr. Barbara through her husband the Rev. Dr. Mark.  So far it has been helpful it involves going through my 60 books again and categorizing my notes (If only I had done this two years ago!) Although the process for this morning seems doable and I am hopeful,  I know that my propensity to be a bit of a procastinator plus throw in a bit of laziness, distractions of good books and television, naps, responsibilities of work and famly, I don't anticipate finishing this thesis until the end of time but the school for some reason wants it done before I graduate!!  Oh well, back to the books!  Pray for my demons!