Here's a question posed by John as he commented on my last post:
Does the pastoral vocational method empower or inhibit an individual from engaging in their calling in the footsteps of Jesus, the greatest "full time" minister ever?
I think that's a fair question and I would even expand it to include church praxis. Do our methods of gathering, programming, and doing church help or hinder our growth and spiritual formation. And do the demands and expectations of pastoral (full-time) ministry fit easily within the context of developing a greater intimacy with the Father?
In response to both of these questions and/or similar questions, I would say that it depends. Perhaps it depends mainly on one's approach to church and spiritual health. If there's a focus on externals, behavior, appearances, rules, etc...then true intimacy with God will be difficult to experience. Those in the body become too dependant upon the "pastoral" leadership and open themselves to manipulation and blind followership.
I believe that a spiritual leader who understands their role in the Body and continually points people to the Father, Son, and Spirit...and who does not see the institution as an end in and of itself...that individual could function as a healthy leader, teacher, and catalyst for spiritual transformation.
4 comments:
chris - some thoughts - though i am not a fan of the calling being presented in a manner that implies that some are in full-time service and some are not - and though i am not a fan of the calling being presented in a manner that implies that some are clergy and some are laity - i continue to remain open that some are specifically led to take on traditional responsibilities in our inherited approaches to participation in body life.
my heart is to see us come more fully into step with God's heart for the people of Jesus. my heart is to see us get beyond the ego mania we have been too often stuck in. my heart is to see us more substantially incarnate Jesus into our host empire.
it would be very advantageous to have more men and women who will lead the way in modeling and spurring serious Love formation and transformation. i don't need to even wonder if such a calling is for me - i know that it is for all of us.
now - for me to pursue taking on leadership responsibilities in a conventional group - i would likely need a burning bush to convince me that such was God's direction for me.
thanks for continuing to process openly.
Chris,
I've certainly struggled over the years with many of the ideas you've mentioned in the last few posts. "Calling" is such a subjective concept despite the fact that it seems an objective reality in churches and Christian college campuses across the country.
For me the question comes down to "what is my role?" or "what is my part to play in the Body?" Sometimes the answer to these questions leads you down a path that requires vocational change, sometimes not. For instance, I am a pastor. As far as I can tell, I'll always be a pastor. That certainly doesn't mean that I'll always receive a paycheck from a local body to do this as a vocation. I will be no more or less a pastor if I do not receive payment for living out this role. It is simply a role that God has given me. Currently, this local community allows me to focus all of my time living it out. Someday my circumstances will most likely change (some days I pray to God that my circumstances will change quickly! ☺ ).
Chris, you are not abandoning your calling by working at Starbucks (or wherever you land). You will be abandoning your God given role if you do nothing with the gifts and talents that you've been blessed with. That doesn't mean you need to conform to any specific model of being the Church. That certainly doesn't mean you need to lead worship or work with students in a programmatic way. You need to find ways of living out your giftedness in your current context.
The model that your community of faith chooses to utilize as their expression of being the Church (house church, mega, traditional, emerging, monastic, whatever) is irrelevant. How you utilize that model as a community and how you personally function within it is important. The fact that we often lack the creativity to understand how to carry out our role is a major hindrance. Most of the time we are too set in current norms to grasp that there might be new (or maybe just forgotten) ways to live out our function in the Body. These are great topics of discussion man.
Peace...
I really appreciate you guys interacting with me on here. Rob, I've wondered what a modern-day burning bush might be...and have been watching for one!
John, your thoughts are helpful because one should understand a calling, role, purpose, or whatever you want to call it...apart from career or vocation.
I'm still pushing for clarity but trying to trust in the process.
John, great thoughts! Over the past six months I have been so obsessed that I am no longer on staff at a church and how miserable I am, I was not seeing the opportunities I had in front of me to live out 'my calling' per say. I can honestly say for many of my early years in ministry it seemed to be right. I was consumed by this aching passion to reach this generation of kids. I wasn't worried about anything in the many forms of church except for loving kids and seeing God change their lives. Somewhere I got it all messed up, not sure where it all began, maybe at a youth conference or leadership summit where the church propaganda came at me in such a way that I became aware of how messed up the church really is, and then that led to something else, and now it seems I am at the end of that road trying to find something stable to stand on. The burning bush for me back then was knowing that God was speaking to me saying, 'cmon I want to use you stupid.' I knew exactly when it was. In the midst of all this, I can't seem to hear God in any type of clarity.
Tom
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