I'll be the first to admit that I do not have the philosophy that must be universal and that what I have come up with is not perfect or set in stone, but rather a work in progress. But there are some things that I think are, at the root of it all, immovable and rooted in scripture but will look different in every unique context. Part of me screams out (well, currently, I'm internalizing the screaming and only letting a bit of it seep out through these words) in protest about how things are done. I'm quick on the draw with my judgment, but slow on my grace. There is tension that have that says "shouldn't the leadership see things and change them?" and "This is my problem, I just need to adjust my attitude and worship God in any environment."
I am not in a position to storm into an elders meeting or staff meeting and point out the flaws of the worship service and cram my philosophy down their throats but should I do something about it? (in a much nicer and graceful way)
Ultimately, I left looking at myself and having to judge me instead others. "Why isn't the church promoting ______? Don't they know it is vital to ______?" But am I doing any of that? If I'm frustrated with my lack of community in the church, is it the congregation's fault or my own for not owning it and doing something about it? Same thing goes for small groups, bible studies, community outreach, service projects, the works. How much of what I'm promoting am I actually doing?
That's the tough question I hate dealing with. Judging is so much easier.
It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.
-Francis Bacon
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4 loud-mouths:
It would be interesting to hear how you feel this bible school experience has shaped you, how you struggled to keep some ideals together through it etc. Plus what is your "philosophy" of ministry. I've thought often to write one, but not sure where to start.
4:05 AMI actually just looked at my philosophy of pastoral theology paper and am going to rewrite it a bit so that it can be something that I attach to a resume or a questionnaire that church make applicants fill out. As it stands, the document is pretty good but written more like a paper than a philosophy.
9:04 AMBriercrest has challenged a lot of my thinking about church and ministry and caused me to go back to the bible and actually see for myself if the values I held were actually rooted in scripture or in tradition. Being rooted in tradition is not bad, but if you hold to tradition (or in actuality, preference) as if it had the authority of scripture, that can be crippling.
I'll send you a copy of my revised philosophy once I get around to tweaking it. If you want to do your own, I would start with understanding and wrestling with the role of an elder using scripture. You'll have to sort through a proper contextualizing of scripture for the 21st century and deal with women in the position, their qualifications like handling their family well and if rowdy teenagers disqualify them and so on. Then I would move on to a pastor and wrestle with their position and if the dichotomy that the church has given them as "professionals" or "man of God" or if they have a special 'spiritual connection' that laity don't have. Then tackle the church and go back and see if anything is in conflict with each other.
Then make sure that it isn't a document that is immovable but always open to your critique (and others)to make sure that you don't say "We can only do church this way."
One question of caution: Is it possible that the leadership does see these things but have been around long enough to know that change is gradual, takes time and need the people to buy into it first?
2:57 PMThat's another problem that I am starting to realize that I have - I'm looking at things as an (sometimes)over-zealous know-it-all from the outside where I am not able to see wisdom of the elders and pastors in action. I know (in theory anyways) that change in gradual and that it takes time. It is sometimes hard to see when you're not in the know, y'know?
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