Hey there, gang. I am sorry that I have been unable to play online as much of late. I have been struggling with my iunternet access at home. I am hopeful that Leo and I will work out something that allows us both cable and a cable modem. Jane, let Bruce know that he will be getting a call! Really!
So much is going on. Trish and I are off to her parent's house for Turkey Day. This is good. I will meet upwards to 50 kin. Wow. That thar is a bunch! My mother uis driving down from DC to join us. I will drive out to Richmond to see Dad and Judy the Friday following. I am hoping that Trish may join me, but that is unlikely. You see, the wedding stuff is under way. We have three appointments on Tuesday of that week. I assume that we will have more by the time all is said and done. Yeesh. It is stressful.
estoy famoso
I am famous. You need Quicktime (?) to listen, but get it while it is hot! It is your's for free!
And finally I get to Cathy's questions. Whew!
So, as if you didn't have anything better to do than email me, I pose you a
couple of questions. First off, can you explain to me the process of becoming a
"professional" minister in the Baptist church? I follow your doings with
enthusiasm and a certain amount of ignorance. You say you can perform weddings
etc. now--is this it? are you There, as it were? I'm only familiar with the
Catholic process, which seems to have very concrete stages over a set period of
time (and that's joining holy orders rather than becoming a diocesan priest,
I've no idea how THAT works either.) When you've got time, I'd love to have a
rough idea of what you have to do, what you've done, and what's yet to come in
your work with the church.
I can only speak to the process in the ABC-USA. It is not unlike other processes, but we have our peculiarities. This is the ideal:
I feel called or someone convinces me this ministry thing is worth looking at or whatever. It varies from case to case.
Hopefully I am already praying, but this would be a good place to begin the "oh shitte" prayers. Look at the Psalms. There are a bunch.
I approach my pastors. We talk about this stuff. At this point, I might begin seminary if it looks like I really do have a call and I am not just hearing voices. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference.
Somewhere during school, I may get an internship. This way I have a formal relationship with a congregation as a minister. It is a good idea. This is what I have been doing at North Shore. I have been a teacher and a preacher and stuff. It is cool.
Then the voting thing happens. I wrote about this before.
Now I am going to Midwest Ministry resources for my psyche evaluation and writing a bunch of essays about my journey for my first meeting at the regional level. This is the level where the hard questions begin from pastors at other churches. It should be interesting. Then there is a "Watch Care Committee" established. I assume this means that people at church will be making sure I am being "formed" rightly...whatever that nmeans. At a minimum of six months later I can go before the regional folk again. That is a longer interview with the subject being nothing but theology. Yay. If it works well there, my church will be sent a letter (w/in a week) to say that all is well and the congregation has their stamp of approval for my ordination. Then we have a service (All are invited! Really!) where the mojo is laid upon me...and, tah dah! I am Reverend. Wow. Now that there is something to be fearful of on many levels.
Second question is a philosophical one brought to mind from your sermon--it
really should be posed over coffee, late at night, with a bag of cookies on the
table. Your discussion of belonging to Christ--Trish belongs to Christ, not to
you, and vice versa, and your friend's dilemma of being Called in different
directions--brought me to the question of then what are we to each other, if we
don't truly belong to one another? Didn't god give us to one another as well?
(This leads to the question, "Is Tripp really God's Gift to women?" but we'll
leave that for now...) Seriously, though, if our bond with God is the only one
that really counts in the crunch, and if God gives us temporary gifts--"Sure,
you can have Sally for a while, but if I need her, you have to give her
back!"--that seems like a strange set-up to me. Does God truly call people to
do things which force them to leave behind their fellow man? Or is that really
a call from God and not just an earthly (and understandable) desire to change
one's life in a radical way?
This is probably a really good question that you have asked. I wonder how many others read it in that way. IN some sense, we can rightly say that God is the One Who Says "Psych!" God does have an ultimate call upon all of us. I am not speaking about death or anything like it. That gets us all. God is in there somewhere, but that is not the "dust" that I want to speak of. I am talking in terms of identity and property. Who owns you? In the Christian context, we are made new (God's Created) through our Baptism. We are grafted onto the vine which is Israel. We no longer even belong to ourselves. All of our relationships reflect this reality. My firends are God's first. They are not mine. Yet they are more fully mine because of God, because of that redemption. All relationships are reconciled through Christ. They are made new through the cross, by Christ's sanctifying death and resurection.
That raises lots of questions about those from other faiths or no faith tradition at all. So, here is the quick and dirty answer. Christians believe that all is made new through Christ. It has all be done, and is continuing to be done. This is the Kingdom of God revealed through a glass dimly. This is the hope for the End Time (eschaton). So, in some way, we have a propritary claim upon the cosmos. No, this ain't PC. But it is the Christian world view. What the world does with this relationship is where salvation may or may not enter. Do you engage in this relationship, your "new createdness?" We may be blind to it. As a Christian, I must endeavor to see Christ in all the world. I must treat the world as such. There is a Good News to proclaim.
I wonder how you hear the word "salvation." I also wonder how you think about this propriatary theology. It is arrogant in one way. It is redemptive in another.
It is important that we stop thinking of Christianity as a set of beliefs and mores and instead realize that it is the ultimate reality of Creation. Yes, that is from a Christian perspective, but that is where I come from. So, I am Christian to the exclusion of all other traditions. That is hard to hear in America. The gut response is then "You don't think I'm saved! You think I am going to Hell!" Um...no. That is not it at all. I am to love you like God does. The rest is up to the relationship we have with one another through Christ and God's work in you. If that means that you are Jewish and remain so, then so be it. It has absolutely nothing to do with where we spend eternity. We do not decide that. God does. And we are better off that I don't decide that. I will love you and respect you as God's created. That is what God has asked of me. I may never be able to say that Hinduism and Christianity are saying the same thing, but I am not asked to. All God asks of me is to love you.
Um...does this help? I have probably botched it all, but there we go.
