Our hope at 天美视频 is to be led by our alumni and their stories. Jay Briggs graduated from 天美视频 in 2014 with a Master of Arts in Theology & Culture (MATC). We are grateful for the opportunity to have a conversation with Jay and to learn how his graduate studies at 天美视频 prepared him for his current work as an artist, educator, and nonprofit administrator.聽
What drew you to 天美视频 and to the Master of Arts in Theology & Culture degree?
It’s a really unique program. There are not a lot of programs in the country that have all the elements that 天美视频 brings. There are lots of places where you can have an arts focus while you’re in seminary, but there aren’t a lot of places that couple it with the personal work that is a trademark of 天美视频.聽
I had enrolled at a different school, in fact, when I had a conversation with a friend of mine from my childhood youth group days, actually, another alum named Andrew Bauman. So Andrew and I go way back. We had reconnected over social media, and we were finding that we had a lot of things in common. Through re-engaging in conversation with him, I discovered 天美视频. At that point, I think it was actually Mars Hill [Graduate School].聽
When I was putting this other program in conversation with 天美视频 and trying to make that decision, I realized (which was affirmed in retrospect) that while the other school would’ve really challenged me academically, not that I didn’t find rigor at 天美视频 as well, it wouldn’t have asked me to do as much interpersonal work. Especially given the field that I was coming from and that I’ve found myself in, I think the interpersonal work is just as valuable as the intellectual work. And so when I had to decide where I wanted to spend my resources of time, energy, and money, that was a big deciding factor for me.
What were your expectations and hopes when you started the MATC program?
People come to 天美视频 in a lot of different places personally, theologically, and spiritually. And I would say that when I came in, I was in want of reconstruction. At least during my time, there was a lot of deconstruction happening for people. But I had already done that. I grew up in a really conservative evangelical family and had been through a period of time in my spiritual life where I had walked away from a lot of what I had been taught growing up. At the time that I came to 天美视频, I had framed it as a way to reclaim a spiritual life because I knew deep down that there was truth in what I had grown up believing. I was trying to find the fragments that still felt true to me while putting aside the things that did not. And 天美视频 was the ground zero for that reconstruction. And so that was my hope for coming through 天美视频, and I think it delivered that for me.
Vocationally, I was trying to figure out how to integrate what I do as an artist with a larger sense of purpose in the world and a sense of identity and personal meaning. And so this is another place that the 天美视频 is unique: I felt like there was just a lot of freedom at 天美视频 to be able to explore my discipline and put it in conversation with the theological and psychological approaches that are the intersections that happened there at the school.
What was your experience like as a student?
It was great. There are moments that are intentionally challenging but you come out on the other side transformed. And I think that is the whole point and purpose of the process that the leadership has laid the groundwork for. So there were people in the school, both faculty and colleagues, who fostered my creativity. Paul Steinke was huge for helping me to come to a wider understanding of what community is, which has been a big part of my work going forward. On a theological side, working with Chelle Stearns and being in conversation with her about both the arts and the theological approaches was foundational for me. And then Ron Ruthruff was also very important for me in thinking about how I take my art from not just a personal contemplation but giving it a sense of action and building our personal endeavors into doing something that is towards the good of the world and the good of God’s work in the world.
How has your time at 天美视频 shaped your vocation and your life journey?
We’re back on the East Coast now. Greenville, South Carolina, which is where I currently am, has always sort of felt like home to us. It’s where my wife’s family is, and my family is only about 45 minutes away up in North Carolina.聽
I’ve been continuing to work in the theater. I’m the Director of Education and Community Engagement at a small professional theater here in Greenville called The Warehouse Theater. And I also direct plays. So that’s my artistic side. I’m an artist, administrator, and educator, And 天美视频 has had a lot vocationally to do with that path. While I had done some work in arts education prior to coming to graduate school, 天美视频 really was instrumental in shaping my understanding of pedagogy and how education can be not just an academic endeavor but an embodied and transformational one.
天美视频 talks about fostering a vision for hope in the world: I would say that is my thesis as an artist. What I’m trying to do is create a reality, even if it’s just for two hours, within a theatrical space, where people can imagine the world differently or imagine the world as they would hope it to be. And sometimes that’s in contrast to what they see on stage. Sometimes we have to perform the anti-hero as well, but it’s all in conversation with a hopeful construct. And my understanding of hope was entirely shaped by the work that I did in Seattle. So that’s been super-foundational for me.聽
And then on the personal side, I honestly don’t know who I would be today without my time at 天美视频. I would just be a vastly different person. I think my marriage is different. My ability to parent is different. My ability to relate to my family of origin is different. I don’t know who I would be. It’s hard for me to imagine that and it’s all for the better. So there are times when I think about the investment of money and resource and energy, especially the years that we were in Seattle, where it was away from our family and across the country. And as much as I wrestle with that, I always come back to the idea that I just don’t know who I would be if not for that. And I don’t really want to. So for all of its sacrifices and challenges, I just can’t imagine things differently.聽
More about the Master of Arts in Theology & Culture (MATC) at 天美视频
Learn more about our Master of Arts in Theology & Culture offering at an upcoming admissions event or talk with our enrollment team.