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Reluctant Pastor Describes 'Long Spiritual Struggle'
KANE, PA (May 25, 2006) - Rebecca "Becky" Erickson didn't want to go to seminary. She
told God he was "mixed up" in calling her. She didn't have the education, having
never attended college. Besides, she says, "I was too old."
The pastor of Emmanuel Mission Church was in her mid-50s when she finally
entered the seminary. She was wrong about being too old, but wasn't wrong about
much else in her studies. During The North Park Theological Seminary
commencement on Sunday, the now 60-year-old Erickson was awarded the Ahnfeldt
Medallion, which is given to the graduating student with the highest grade point
average, hers being a nearly perfect 3.89.
"It was an exciting moment," Erickson says. "It was a high moment." Making
the moment even better was the other women students thanking her and saying, "We
women need women heroes."
 Erickson didn't feel
heroic. She had fought years with God about going to seminary and credits her
high GPA to being "terrified all the time."
Erickson was in her forties when she began a "long spiritual struggle." She
started a journal she called 40 Days in the Wilderness and believed she would
have a clear direction by the end. The process stretched longer and longer.
Finally, on the day Erickson knew God had called her to seminary, she says, "I
was just overwhelmed with tears."
When Erickson, who had taught Sunday school for years, told her pastor of the
call, "He laughed, and said, "I was wondering when you were going to hear God
calling you."
Still she put off going to seminary, opting first to take online courses
through Moody Bible College and then getting her lay minister's license through
the Evangelical Covenant Church. Erickson says that, like many other seminary
students, she became sure of her call to attend North Park while hearing Dr.
John Weborg speak. "I was just so blessed and so enthralled with all I was
hearing."
Moving to seminary meant leaving her husband, Jon, for months at a time.
Erickson says she struggled with loneliness at times, not having peers and being
away from family. She didn't realize she was developing new ties, however.
Her apartment became a sanctuary for homesick seminary students and the North
Park University foreign undergraduates she tutored. Unlike the haphazardly
furnished student apartments, "My apartment looked like home," Erickson says.
"They would say can I just come over and sit in your home for a while."
When students from Sweden held a party at the end of the year, they told
Erickson in no uncertain terms they expected her to attend. Several students
escorted her to the apartment. "Everybody had to have their picture taken with
me," she recalls. "I looked around and then realized this is my family."
Despite being away from her husband, the two shared a Chicago ministry
experience. He participated in a session of the Seminary Consortium for Urban
Pastoral Education (SCUPE), during which students spend several weeks at
different inner-city ministries. "I told him it was such a foreign experience,
there was no way I could tell him about it over the phone. So I told him to join
me."
Inner-city ministry is similar to the work she now does in her Appalachian
community, Erickson says. People in both areas struggle with extreme poverty,
feelings of being isolated from the rest of society, and similar family issues.
Erickson says the education she received at the seminary was invaluable. "I
didn't know how desperately I needed the education," she adds. "I've learned so
much that has been so really helpful."
Erickson eventually spent two and a half years at the seminary before
returning home to complete her course work online. She credits her husband's
constant encouragement for helping her finish.
In the end, however, she says, "This is God's story."
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