Tomorrow I start full time as the pastor of Rothesay Vineyard, yet again, and I’m feeling very, very nervous. Why? Here’s a few theories, one or all of which may be true:
1. It’s the first time in four years I’ve been responsible for a church?
2. the last time I was responsible for a church, I was excused from the ministry for “insubordination†(and I’m a little skiddish as a result)?
3. for the last four years, I’ve been free as a bird and unaccountable to anyone?
4. now I have a real job where I can’t just do as I please?
5. I have teenagers who aren’t the perfect little pastor’s kids?
6. I was always called to be an artist, and I’m running away from the terrible insecurity of that profession that has only got me further in debt?
7. last time I became pastor of this church, it split (definition of insanity: doing the same thing while expecting different results)?
8. I feel this church is about to be pushed deeper into the radical grace of God in Jesus and I’m not sure how we’re going to take it or how well I’ll lead it?
9. doug and I won’t be doing this together in the same way… I’ll miss him and I’m afraid of the loneliness and isolation?
10. responsibility for a church is a fearful thing… I SHOULD be nervous?
Any thoughts or prayers?
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
“A kind of northing is what I wish to accomplish, a single-minded trek toward that place where any shutter left open to the zenith at night will record the wheeling of all the sky’s stars as a pattern of perfect, concentric circles. I seek a reduction, a shedding, a sloughing off” (Annie Dillard).
“Both theology and the natural sciences are to be seen as a posteriori activities, which are a response to ‘the given’. In the case of the natural sciences, ‘the given’ is the world of nature; in the case of theology, ‘the given’ is God’s self-revelation in Christ†(Torrance ).
I like this quote and agree with it. I can see, however, that it can be problematic for many people. The problem is this: the ‘given’ of the world is obvious to all. It really cannot be contended. But the ‘given’ of theology being God’s self-revelation in Christ is not a given for everybody. Torrance even continues to admit that one of the problems he had with the German theologian Pannenberg was that, even though he believed theology was a science, he believed that revelation was a “publicly accessible event†“conveyed in history which is accessible to any who care to observe itâ€. I agree with Torrance’s assessment of Pannenberg because God’s self-revelation in Christ is obviously not a publicly accessible event. Many don’t even believe that Jesus the man is a historical event, never mind the Christ being God’s self-revelation.
I’m still studying Torrance to see if he resolves this problem because I think it is a serious one. The natural sciences are recognized universally, and the world of nature is a given accessible to everyone. The science of theology, especially God’s self-revelation in Christ, is not universally recognized and is not accessible to everyone. My question, which I hope Torrance satisfies, has to do with the quality and veracity of theological science versus natural science.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
“Wait with gracious and modest courtesy for the Lord’s initiative” (Cloud of Unknowing).
Watercolor, 5″x7″, available in my eBay store (button to left).
“How odd that it is apparently not God’s purpose to minister day by day to the world by direct revelation. Rather, the surprising fact is that God has chosen to minister to humanity through a scandalously visible community, the church, and to minister to the church through human agency, by calling ordinary, vulnerable, pride-prone persons into the ministry of word and sacrament. However vulnerable it may be to wretched distortions and abuses, curiously enough it seems to be God’s own idea†(Thomas Oden).
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way†(W. H. Murray, mountaineer).
I was reading Chambers again today, and I was struck once again by his bluntness:
“When the disciples came back from their first mission they were filled with joy because the devils were subject to them, and Jesus said—Don’t rejoice in successful service; the great secret of joy is that you are rightly related to me.â€
So it immediately got me thinking about just how persistently we disobey even just this one assertion of Jesus. Don’t rejoice in success! But that seems to be all we do, isn’t it? The church has obviously forgotten this commandment, if we can call it that. We are quick to quote other commandments against sins that are repulsive to us, but what about the sins of ambition, greed and egomania that manifest themselves in empire-building, money-grubbing, Babel-erecting success stories?
Even if we twist the success stories around to sound like they are for the benefit of those we minister to, it is still apparently misguided because that is what the disciples did: we cast out demons, healed people and got people saved in your name! Not impressed. That’s not the point. I never knew you!
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
David Hayward is a pastor artistically stripping to the essential.
