The church: Spirit, and institution

I encourage you to click on the link and read this great post by my blogging friend John Schroeder in California. A few excerpts (quotes from the posts he is linking):

In many peoples’ imaginations the church remains a bundle of programs, committees, policies, teams, ministries, initiatives, budgets, and events. Most people speak of “the church” the same way they refer to “the government”—it’s a hierarchy of leaders managing an organization that they engage but remain apart from.

Today, it seems like God’s people exist to serve the institution in the fulfillment of its mission (which is usually to become a bigger institution). Most of the curricula available to pastors on spiritual gifts and service focus on getting people to serve within their institution. Rarely does a church recruit, equip, and release saints to serve the mission outside its own immediate structure.

But I don’t believe the Spirit of God is laying dormant waiting for the institutional church to compose the right BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) so he can be unleashed the way a pagan god is conjured by an incantation. God is a person, not a force. And his Spirit does not empower programs or inhabit institutions but people who were created in God’s image to be the vessels of his glory.

Read the whole thing.

Speak, and judge righteously on behalf of the poor

(cross-posted at Intellectuelle)

Chapter 31 of Proverbs, "The words of King Lemuel, the oracle, which his mother taught him," begins with an exhortation to kings not to imbibe strong drink lest they "forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted." Such drink ought instead be given to "him to is perishing...him whose life is bitter" that he may "forget his poverty and remember his trouble no more." In other words, as a palliative to the one so ruined, there is nothing left in his life to ruin.

Following this, "Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy." (Prov. 31:8-9, NASB)

Mercy, and justice.

In my recent post on hopelessness, I wrote mainly of an emotional condition. Yet often conditions of circumstantial hopelessness and helplessness accompany the emotional states, and vice-versa. Often the afflicted are unable to speak for themselves, or are afraid that no one will listen. Or their speech falls on deaf ears. Those of us who have been well cared for need to recognize that the saying, "God helps those who help themselves," doesn't apply to those who can't help themselves. Besides, even when we have the means necessary to tend to our own needs, we are still dependent upon others. The only difference between "us" and "them" might be that we have had people provide for us, and they haven't.

We may fancy ourselves independent, even while we lament the individuation of our society. But it is still people that make and run the machines that provide our goods and services, even if we never see them. It is still people who create the machines. (Society has in many ways become less personalized, yet we are no less dependent upon others than people have ever been.)

It's just not true that the one who trusts God and works hard will have all his basic needs met. It's just not true. He (or she) may achieve final glory in Christ, but may perish meanwhile in earthly abjection, or dejection.

Perhaps one of the most effective ways to reach "the culture," and the world-at-large, with the gospel might be to stand up for the helpless and voiceless, by speaking up for unborn babies and those on life-support, for children, for the abused, for the injured and ill, and even those who aren't in power but have something valuable to offer. Those who have voice or power to help--who have power of some sort, even if only to speak to those in power--must use this power to speak for the voiceless, the unfortunate, the afflicted, and the needy, judging rightly where real needs and true justice lie.

This is the opposite of using the unfortunate by ignoring or exploiting them, thereby perverting the rights of the afflicted. Mercy and justice are (or should be), I believe, the heart of the social gospel.

John Adams' defense and the Boston Massacre

Inspired by these words of Cesare, Marchese di Beccaria, an opponent of capital punishment,

If, by supporting the rights of mankind, and of invincible truth, I shall contribute to save from the agonies of death one unfortunate victim of tyranny, or of ignorance, equally fatal, his blessings and years of transport will be sufficient consolation to me for the contempt of all mankind.

Patriot John Adams successfully defended British Captain Thomas Preston and the eight soldiers* who shot and killed five angry Bostonians that icy night of March 5, 1770. Apparently no one else was willing to take the case. At trial, after quoting the Marchese, Adams argued that it was "better that many guilty persons escape unpunished than one innocent person should be punished. The reason is, because it's of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished." He argued that the soldiers had acted in self-defense against the large, riotous crowd. After 2-1/2 hours of deliberation, the jury concurred.

Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

Adams was later to write in his diary:

I have Reason to remember that fatal Night. The Part I took in Defence of Captn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the jury was exactly right.

*six were acquitted and two found guilty of manslaughter

The wonderful world of Dan's Ordination

Nearing the end of my ordination process, I thought I’d take time to reflect on this marvelous experience. Most churches have a fairly extensive process of authorizing people to be their Pastors. They do this for the following reasons:

- Screening Pastoral candidates (separating the “sheep from the goats”)
- Training their Pastors (usually extensive seminary education)
- Equipping people for ministry (supervised ministry experience)
- and Blessing their Ministers (i.e “laying on of hands”)

Each denomination has its own unique process of “Ordaining” or “Consecrating” their ministers. They usually establish their qualifications, and then set some highly bureaucratic process through which their ministers must perform.

Some denominational standards are very interesting. In some churches, seminary education is of little or no importance at all. I remember reading of one church wherein the pastoral candidate was required to simply stand up in a local church and share his/her testimony, and the church (which did the ordaining locally) then voted to ordain that individual right there during a Sunday morning service. The pastoral candidate was totally under the training and supervision of that particular local church and its Pastor.

The Covenant Church offers one of the most extensive processes in ordaining their ministerial candidates. There are several tracks that ministers can take in being credentialed. A minister can go for one of the following:

Lay Minister’s License License for Pastoral Office
Commissioning for Staff Ministry Ordination

The Lay Minister’s License is for those who have a specifically defined ministry in a local church and are under the supervision of an Ordained (usually Senior) Pastor. These people are usually deemed gifted and a blessing from the local church’s perspective and fill some specific need for that church. Little, if any, formal education at a Seminary is required. This license is renewed annually by the conference.

The License for Pastoral Office is for those who are in full-time ministry (often as a solo Pastor or an Associate Pastor) and are working towards their Ordination. This is the License that I have been working under for the past 15 years. The LPO ministers usually need to have a Bachelors Degree in religion studies or 40 credits of Bible & Theology-related undergrad classes AND have five years of full-time ministry experience. They are under the supervision of a nearby Ordained Covenant Pastor.

The Commissioned Staff Minister needs to have at least a Bachelor’s degree in an area that matches his/her area of ministry (i.e. a teacher or chaplain), and needs to go through the Covenant Orientation Process (15 credits), and take a minimum of 4 theology classes at North Park. Most of these ministers are working in the field of children’s or youth ministry, and serve a specific group within their local church.

Those who desire to be ordained are indeed taking on a high calling. This is usually a lifetime commitment to full-time ministry in a Pastoral setting of a Covenant Church. A Master’s degree at North Park Theological Seminary (or at another permissible Seminary) is a firm requirement. The person has to have the standard Master’s of Divinity degree or (in some cases, as was my situation) a Master’s degree with at least 60 academic credits.

My personal credentialing journey has been both incredibly challenging and personally fulfilling. I’ve got to be honest with you - there were a couple of times when I almost dropped out. The workload at the Seminary coupled with constraints at home more than once almost buried me. Even though our Scholarship Committee here at First Covenant Church (THANK YOU!) helped to pay much of the tuition, I still had to pay for most of my expenses (travel, housing, meals) while in Chicago and about half of the tuition, especially when I took ten (10) classes during the last 2 ½ years. The tuition for each 3-credit class is about $1200.

There is a VAST series of interviews that the Ordination candidates most go through.
- First you’ve got the initial interview from the local church and the Conference Board,
- Then you have the interview from the Seminary to begin your seminary training,
- Then the Conference interviews you every 2 or 3 years to monitor the candidate,
- Then the interview from the leadership of one’s local church for final ordination,
- Then the interview from the Mid-West Profiling Office at the Seminary
(this is the most extensive one involving one’s psychiatric profile & mental health),
- Then you have the final interview from the Conference Ministerial board, and
- Finally the interview from the national Department of Ordered Ministry in Chicago
(this is the one I did last week). Whew! That’s a lot of grilling!

Having gone through all that, can you see how careful the Covenant is at screening their ministerial candidates? If one wants to be an Ordained Pastor in the Covenant, you’ve got to be committed! - in one way or another! Obviously, ordination is a lengthy process, but a very fulfilling and educational one. Last weekend as the entire Board of Ministry (including Drs. Jay Phelan, Glenn Palmberg and Curt Peterson) gathered around me to pray their blessing upon me, I was moved to tears. My best friend (and wife), Karen, deserves an enormous debt of gratitude for helping me through this process. In some ways I don’t think I’m the same person that I was ten to fifteen years ago. Thank you for all of your prayers and support and patience in my calling and development as a Pastor! May God be praised for His faithfulness to complete what he started twenty-five years ago when he first called me into ministry and May he continue to call many others to serve him in this wonderful little church called, “The Covenant!”

Bullying in our Schools

This is my Church newsletter article for the month of December. Please feel free to comment, and give your feedback!!!

I know I should probably write a “Christmassy” article for December, but after reading something, I was led in another direction. In response to the problem of violence in our schools the National Institute of Child Health noted that one-third of children (especially boys) between 6^th and 10^th grade are regularly involved with the problem of bullying. Did you know that every day in America 200,000 children stay home because they’re afraid of a bully in school? Also, according to Cheryl Miller, six out of ten kids witness some kind of bullying on a daily basis in school. For some kids, school is terrifying. How can we ever forget that day when 2 teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher in Colorado? Did you know that as they walked the halls of their High School they shouted, “This is for all the people who made fun of us all these years!”

Youth-worker and author, Cheryl K. Miller, wrote an article, Putting an End to Bullying. In it she gives six points to consider in dealing with this issue with your children or grandchildren. This is the best and most succinct article that I have ever read on this subject. I have underlined Cheryl’s main points.

#1. Listen to any verbal and/or non-verbal clues that abuse is happening. Keep in mind that this is NOT something that kids like to talk about because of embarrassment. Therefore, you’ve got to scratch the surface and really listen for clues of bullying. Ask probing questions. Look for any strange reactions when you mention the names of other children that they might know from school or the neighborhood.

#2. Look for patterns of abuse at home. This might sound strange, but oftentimes this problem can start right at home. If your child is being picked on at home by a brother, sister, they usually bring those patterns of passivity or victimization with them in relationships with other children. Teach and model boundaries and self-respect. Physical abuse, name-calling and put-downs should never be tolerated in the home. Give your children respect and space too.

#3. Teach kids how to be friends and how to have healthy friendships. Most children simply don’t know how to have good friendship, and so we need to talk about it. Talk with them about how to respond to certain situations with their peers.

#4. Give them constant support and encouragement at home. Kids (especially those in the middle-school age) are oftentimes faced with a barrage of peer-pressure, cutting remarks and shunning from their peers at school. In order to offset this they need lots and lots and lots of love at home.

#5. Tell you children that sometimes getting outside help is OKAY! There are some situations where everybody needs outside help, especially when a bigger or older person is intimidating, threatening or harassing someone else.

#6. Finally (and this might seem contradictory to the previous point but), don’t try to fight all their battles. Sometimes kids need to learn how to fight their battles. As part of the developmental process, it’s a way of learning how to handle conflict. This calls for great wisdom; to discern whether the child is capable of handling the situation or not.

Kevin Leman wrote, “All of us have an emotional love-bucket that needs to be filled.” Kids need love too, and when their love-bucket gets kicked around too much they can go over the edge. “Bear one another’s burdens (especially our younger ones), and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). May God bless you as you continue to serve Him in our community by caring for our Youth!

So, how was the conference?

It’s good to know I’m not the only one needing time to formulate commentary on GodBlogCon 2007 in Las Vegas, from which I returned three days ago (my return being delayed by a visit with friends after the conference). Even Joe Carter says,

Although I've been back almost a week, I still haven't finished putting together my post on the recent GodBlogCon. Some subjects are trivial and rather easy to write about (i.e., politics). More substantive matters are more difficult and it takes me some time to think about what I want to say. GodBlogCon is one of the most important events of my year so it's taking me awhile to get the words out.

It’s okay, Joe. Right now I’m at this level: “Where am I? Oh, I'm home. Oh I see. I see laundry. Must do laundry. Must do dishes. Must buy food. See Spot run. Must stop kids. From killing. Each other. Sleep... I need sleep.”

Speaking of sleep, I got virtually none the night before I was to speak. Contemplating sharing a podium with the likes of Al Mohler Jr., John Mark Reynolds, Mark D. Roberts, LaShawn Barber, Paul Spears, Joe Carter, and bright young stars like Dustin Steeve, Kevin Wang, and Rhett Smith about did me in. Good grief. My trembling could’ve run several small appliances. But I got over it, wonder of wonders (there is a merciful God) and you can hear the result here.

I must say that Sarah (Sarah Flashing, fellow member of Intellectuelle, a group blog for female lay-thinkers) took very good care of me, and together we had great conversation and great fun, even before hitting the Strip. Just kidding. About the Strip, that is. Both our seriousness and mirth were apparently noted by Dr. Reynolds, who remarked that we “are intensely rational, but appear to be enjoying it immensely.” Actually, I should just send you to his summary because he really captures the essence of the conference.

I regret not visiting with more people (two days go by fast!) but am grateful for every conversation I had, and delighted to have been part of this intense think-tank of seriously smart and seriously serious lovers of God who put their all into transmitting the Gospel via the internet. I think we all agree that we must keep doing what we're doing, which is pretty much the encouragement I brought away from the first GodBlogCon in 2005. (Wasn't able to attend last year's.) This year there was less idealism and more realism, which can only be good, but that's not to say that there was no optimism. There certainly was.

Dr. Reynolds, Dustin Steeve, and his assistants from Torrey Honors Institute are to be commended at the city gates and beyond for the integrity and scope of their efforts to make the conference happen. Their accomplishment is truly staggering. And they are still smiling!

After I get some sleep and a few loads of laundry done, I’ll share a few more of my thoughts on the conference.

(cross-posted at Intellectuelle)

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of First Covenant Church! More info will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, here’s some food for thought from my blogging friend John Schroeder at Blogotional: Six Attitudes of Temptation by James Stalker, 1848-1927, professor of Church History in the United Free Church College, Aberdeen. (I encourage you to read the entire post, just click on the title.)

The great tempter of men has two lies with which he plies us at two different stages. Before we have fallen, he tells us that one fall does not matter; it is a trifle; we can easily recover ourselves again. And, after we have fallen, he tells us that it is hopeless: we are given over to sin, and need not attempt to rise.

Both are false.

...Even by one fall there is something lost that can never be recovered again. It is like the breaking of an infinitely precious vessel, which may be mended, but will never again be as if it had not been broken. And, besides, one fall leads to others; it is like going upon very slippery ice on the face of a hill; even in the attempt to rise you are carried away again farther than ever.

Moreover, we give others a hold over us. If we have not sinned alone, to have sinned once involves a tacit pledge that we will sin again; and it is often almost impossible to get out of such a false position. God keep us from believing the devil’s lie, that to fall once does not matter.

But then, if we have fallen, he plies us with the other lie: It is of no use to attempt to rise; you can not overcome your besetting sin. But this is falser still.

To those who feel themselves fallen I come, in Christ’s name, to say, Yes, you may rise.