When the church says no

Posted on November 13th, 2007

I faced an ordination council today. I spent three and a half hours addressing my salvation experience, call to ministry, preparation for ministry, view of ordination, and doctrinal statements. I answered questions from how Jesus fulfills the three roles of prophet, priest, and king to whether or not Jonah really spent three days inside the belly of a fish to whether or not I doubted or questioned the salvation experience I had when I was eight years old.

About an hour into it, I had a pretty strong sense of how it was going to go. After the council deliberated in their executive session, they called me back in for the verdict:

• They sensed clearly my call to ministry
• They sensed clearly that I am gifted for ministry
• They sensed clearly that I exhibit godliness

But

• They were concerned that I did not defend my doctrinal statements from Scripture

Therefore

• The council recommended that I not be ordained at this time.

So question:

• Joe Churchmember has essentially just been told that I am not currently fit for ministry. How do I minister to him and his family? How to I continue to pick out the order of service and seek to construct the education ministry of the church when a council of like-minded pastors thinks I am doctrinally undeveloped and/or immature for ministry?

It is all fresh – the council only ended about three hours ago, so I am sure I talk out of deep-seated emotions that a more rational and calm state of mind will soothe. But I am concerned for my ability to be an effective minister in this church. We’ll have to see how the church responds in the coming days.

Tags: Ministry
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Bibliology

Posted on November 12th, 2007

I’m facing a council tomorrow whose purpose is to determine my fitness for ordination. As part of that, I’m working through a number of theological issues that haven’t been dusted off since seminary, trying to figure out what my position is and how I will state it.

Take bibliology, for example. Bibliology is the branch of theology that deals with scripture. I minister at an independent Baptist church, one that is conservative in theology. Part of that theology takes a standard line in conservative, fundamentalist evangelical lingo: the Word of God/Scripture/Bible is inerrant in the original manuscripts.

Now, I can’t tell you the history of the belief in inerrancy. I’m sure I studied it at some point, and I’m positive that one of my dictionaries, systematic theologies, or tomes on Scripture can inform me if I so desire. But I do understand why inerrancy is such a big deal to so many people. Inerrancy gives a foundation for faith. It says that, as much as the Bible we have matches what was originally written whenever the first manuscript of Zephaniah was composed, it is God’s Word with no mixture of error of any kind, and we can then say that (insofar as it matches the original) it speaks utter and complete Truth – on matter as varied as faith, science, philosophy, and psychology, to name a few. The original manuscripts, then, become the base foundation for anything and everything someone believes. And if you take away inerrancy, then it jeopardizes the entire faith system that was built on that foundation.

Inerrancy is a big faith issue in the circles in which I minister.

And I have a problem in that I don’t believe in inerrancy; at least not the kind of inerrancy that I was taught in college and seminary. I don’t believe that basing our faith on a set of non-existent documents (those original autographs inerrantists love to tout) is a God-honoring placement of our faith.

I choose instead to put my faith in God. I choose to believe that God has used the process by which we have received the Scriptures that we use today in order to identify, communicate, and preserve His word. Rather than basing my faith on saying that God whispered in David’s ear the words to Psalm 23, I would argue that God chose Psalm 23 to communicate something about Himself, whatever the process that was used to place Psalm 23 in the Bible that I use on a regular basis. It may be that God whispered in David’s ear. Or that David sat in a zombie state while the Spirit moved His hand to write out the Hebrew letters of Psalm 23. Or that God used a group of temple priests to examine some of the writings of the illustrious King David and revealed to them the great value of a particular song of David’s that eventually got placed as the 23rd song in a collection of hymns useful for Israelite worship.

The point isn’t HOW God chose the psalm, but rather THAT God chose the psalm of David that begins, “The LORD is my shepherd.” God chose it and uses it to communicate to His people something about Himself, or to comfort them, or to bring them peace, or to lead them to salvation. It’s not in the how. It’s in the that.

Tags: Church & Theology, Ministry, Scripture
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Discovery

Posted on September 25th, 2007

Since my second semester of college, I have pursued a certain path. That semester, an adjunct professor talked to me after a class called Introduction to Christian Ministry and highly encouraged me to keep up with my studies, let nothing stop me, and one day complete a Ph.D. He thought I was intellectually capable and had a lot to offer to the world of academia (and beyond) all that from a couple of hours a week in an introductory ministry course.

Ever since then, that has been my path. Well, I will say that I am pretty sure I was already on that path before he said that, but he certainly did nothing to dissuade me from putting that “Dr.” in front of my name. I idolized my college professors. Not necessarily any one of them particularly, but the group of them who were in the building that taught in my Biblical Studies major. They worked hard to stay abreast of their respective academic interests, they cared deeply for their students, and they spent their Sundays as church deacons, interim pastors, Sunday school teachers, or on church staff part-time at little and not-so-little churches around our county and beyond.

And I wanted to do all of that, too.

Seminary was a disappointment for me. Mostly because my undergraduate professors did such a good job of imparting the kind of education one goes to seminary to gain. I could have gone to a school that offered advanced standing for those with biblical studies undergraduate degrees. I could have gone to one that offered a wide variety of electives and specialties. But I didn’t. I went to a small school with two tracks: the track designed for a pastor, and the track that took the pastor track and removed the preaching and language components.

So I was bitter and frustrated most of the way through seminary. It didn’t really dawn on me until I was in a Greek exegesis course in seminary (after 18 hours of Greek as an undergrad – there wasn’t much new here for me), and I discovered how much I truly dislike Greek exegesis. I understood the need for it. I understood WHAT to do and even HOW to do it. I just did not understand why I should do it.

It’s only taken another four years for me to realize that the same goes for a Ph.D. I understand the need for it. I understand what and how. I even understand why – at least for other people. It’s just not for me. And I have finally been able to let go of striving for it. It’s wonderful to be free of the burden of the next degree, the next step toward finally achieving what I was “destined” to achieve.

Tags: Church & Theology, Life in general, Ministry
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No longer my own

Posted on July 8th, 2007

A prayer from a list of prayers on the web site of Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, available here.

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering;
Let me be employed for you or laid aside by you,
Exalted for you or brought low for you;
Let me be full, let me be empty;
Let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You are mine and I am Yours.
So be it.

And the Covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

- A prayer of the Methodist Church

Tags: Life, Ministry, Worship
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Grace in Ministry

Posted on June 6th, 2007

Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind but now I see.

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed

Though many dangers toils and snares, I have already come
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home

The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures

It is one of our favorite hymns. A song that probably everyone knows. It brings comfort and soothing. It calms our hearts, restores our soul. It is full of the mystery of God working in our lives to restore broken creatures to himself.

God actively extends grace to us. That is fundamental to Christian faith. All of the hope that Christianity offers (whatever our differences may be regarding what that hope actually is in) relies on God’s extension of grace to us. Apart from that, we are lost, unforgiven, dead, without hope whatsoever.

So in a faith that places so much reliance on grace, how do we go about practicing that grace ourselves? How do we extend God’s grace, forgiveness, and restoration to a lost and dying world around us? When is that grace extended? Is it in this life or only in the next?

Sanctification is an ongoing work, according to the theology that I have grown up in. So even the saved are not yet perfect in this life. We seek to perfection. We still lie, cheat, steal, lust, and murder – in our hearts if not in fact, something that our Lord equates with the actual act. So as imperfect strivers to perfection, ever in need of God’s grace, what does grace look like in our lives?

Jesus went to dinners with “sinners” and “rabble rousers” and “drunkards.” Why do some seek to require pastors to always remain above even the possible image of reproach? Can pastors not work with the least of our society?

Why are some sins considered unforgivable? For example, in my tradition, it has been common to forbid those who have been divorced from ever serving in a leadership position in the church? Why? Is there no hope of forgiveness and restoration in this life? Certainly there are consequences to sinful action, but is one of those consequences a loss of any kind of place in ministry?

Every culture has their untouchables. Those undesirables who are looked upon with utter disgust. Perhaps its the divorced. Or the homeless. Or the homosexual. Or the (former) convict. Or the drunkard. There are those people we would rather, like Jonah, see God never extend grace to. The Assyrians were a brutal people. They were ruthless in battle. They looked after their own and did not care who stood in their path – they were taking what they wanted. They did unspeakable acts in pursuit of their ends. Certainly they were not worthy of God’s grace, and Jonah knew this.

Who are the untouchables, the unforgivable in our reach? Who would we rather show the exit door than an empty seat in the sanctuary if they were to walk in? Is anyone beyond God’s grace? Is anyone beyond redemption and hope?

If anyone is, how dare any of us think that we are not?

Tags: Church & Theology, Ethics, Ministry
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