I signed up for the written portion of the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination (FCICE) this week.
Preparing for it has been… messing with me a bit. Not because it's hard (it is), but because of what it's showing me.
I spent over 10 years studying theology. BA, MA. And I gave 15+ years of my life to church leadership. I did the whole thing… church planting, taught in seminary, keynote stuff, missions in three countries. I'm not new to that world.
And now I'm stepping into a system that plays by very different rules, and as I do, a few things keep hitting me:
Precision. I was taught we can trust the text. That it's reliable. True.
In court, nobody gets that kind of trust upfront. A testimony is just… a testimony. One piece. It gets tested. Pushed. Picked apart. And honestly, that feels more real to me right now.
One meaning. I was taught there's a single voice, and we're trying to get to it.
In court, meaning happens in the open. People argue, compare, disagree, and land somewhere that makes sense to a group of peers who have no stake in it.
Not perfect. Not divine. Just… reasonable. And I'm starting to wonder if that "single voice" idea was doing more work than we admitted.
Authority. I was taught some things don't get questioned.
In court, everything does. Witnesses, stories, assumptions, interpretations of case law... You don't get to hide behind "you just have to accept this." If it can't be examined, it doesn't carry weight.
Culture. This one is wild (also my favorite and worth a whole separate article that I promise I will write!!).
To even have a shot at this level, you need to understand everything. Street slang, legal language, psychology, random cultural references… You need to be able to follow a gang member and an expert witness without missing a beat. In two languages (and in Spanish, that means you need to be familiar with 10+ countries, their slang, polysemies, and cultures).
It's a different kind of rigor, and I love it. But it's also exposing how low the bar can be in spaces where certainty is the currency… and there is no voir dire.
So yeah… I said yes. I signed up, and I was crazy enough to give myself two weeks to prep for the first portion—the written (that's faith right there!)
If things go well, maybe we're celebrating in 2027.
For now, just pray for me (I'm tackling both State and Federal court certs... not recommended but...why not!), send me your weird English idioms (I'm good in Spanish 😄), and if you're curious, I'll share bits of this process as I walk from the pulpit to the courtroom.
We are adjourned.