{"id":2598,"date":"2021-12-14T14:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T20:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2022-02-10T10:31:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T16:31:12","slug":"full-circle-by-curtis-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/full-circle-by-curtis-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Circle by Curtis King"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">Full Circle<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">Curtis King (&#8217;15)<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A friend and I used to joke, \u201cGlad it wasn\u2019t a snake!\u201d when either of us was looking for something that was much closer than we realized. Upon reflection, I saw that the same could be said of the one\u2019s calling, or at least direction on the next phase of life\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2603 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/files\/2021\/12\/IMG_0465-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"380\" height=\"253\" \/>Prior to enrolling in ACU\u2019s Graduate School of Theology\u2019s Master of Arts in Christian Ministry\u2019s program, I lived in Atlanta, Georgia, where I served as the community relations director of the Kenny Leon\u2019s True Colors Theatre Company. I was engaged in ministry program leadership at the Simpson Street Church of Christ and wanted to deepen my theological knowledge. My GST entrance essay reflected the fact that I wanted to curate ministry information and resources that could be passed on to local leaders and teachers, who, for various reasons, would not enroll in formal studies. I was blessed to have such an opportunity as the coordinator, and later, the associate director of the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry which was established at ACU to equip church leaders and interested members with tools and resources to support the work of local congregations.<\/p>\n<p>While in the GST, I found the classes formidable and enlightening. Looking back, I can imagine some of my friends rolling their eyes at the thought that someone would mention church history in my presence. It was one of my favorite areas of study and every time the subject arose, I had plenty to say! In Supervised Research in Missions, Instructor Kent Smith assigned us to design a mission project that focused on serving a local cause. I decided to design a program that would facilitate more comprehensive access to information on resources relevant to returning citizens, formerly incarcerated persons reentering the greater community following their release. I got an \u201cA\u201d for the assignment and moved on to the next class. However, the ideas and possibilities generated by the assignment never left me.<\/p>\n<p>About three years later, I met with the director of the Abilene District Parole Office, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice chaplain serving West Texas, the director of ACU\u2019s Marriage and Family Institute, and a formerly incarcerated friend.\u00a0 I shared my vision. That meeting turned out to be part of the beginning of the Big Country Reentry Coalition, an organization whose mission is \u201cto facilitate and support the successful return of formerly incarcerated individuals to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2602 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/files\/2021\/12\/IMG_0342-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>I recently returned to Atlanta. Influenced greatly by my years of witnessing the positive effects of arts experiences and my newfound appreciation for working alongside returning citizens, I co-founded the Reentry Arts Connection \u201cto connect people impacted by the justice system to the healing and life-changing power of the arts.\u201d I was excited that the next phase of my journey had begun!<\/p>\n<p>As I was preparing to write this blog, I decided to revisit the entrance essay that I submitted to the GST back in 2012 and made an unexpected discovery. There it was in black and white (emphasis added):<\/p>\n<p>I serve as the drama minister, working closely with the music minister to create and execute arts-based programs for the congregation&#8230;<em>Unofficially<\/em>, I work with individuals with varying issues such as substance-abuse, incarceration, unemployment and homelessness &#8212; sometimes simply providing encouragement for positive efforts and at other times assisting with the location of resources.<\/p>\n<p>Well, I guess it\u2019s <em>official<\/em> now \u2013 it seems I travelled nearly a thousand miles and back to see what was right in front of me the whole time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Glad it wasn\u2019t a snake!<\/p>\n\n\t\t<div class='author-shortcodes'>\n\t\t\t<div class='author-inner'>\n\t\t\t\t<div class='author-image'>\n\t\t\t<img src='https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/files\/et_temp\/Curtis-King-2019-Photo-scaled-475678_60x60.jpg' alt='' \/>\n\t\t\t<div class='author-overlay'><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<div class='author-info'>\n\t\t\tCurtis Graduated with his Master of Arts in Christian Ministry in May of 2015 and is currently working on his Doctor of Ministry. He is Co-founder and CEO of The Reentry Arts Connection, Inc. and you can learn more about their work <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reentryartsconnection.org\/\">here<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Full Circle Curtis King (&#8217;15) &nbsp; A friend and I used to joke, \u201cGlad it wasn\u2019t a snake!\u201d when either of us was looking for something that was much closer than we realized. Upon reflection, I saw that the same could be said of the one\u2019s calling, or at least direction on the next phase [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8214,"featured_media":2603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,574],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Full Circle by Curtis King - ACU Graduate School of Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/acugst\/full-circle-by-curtis-king\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Full Circle by Curtis King - ACU Graduate School of Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Full Circle Curtis King (&#8217;15) &nbsp; A friend and I used to joke, \u201cGlad it wasn\u2019t a snake!\u201d when either of us was looking for something that was much closer than we realized. 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