by Dr. U » October 28th, 2007, 11:12 pm
Hi Galion:
I take the blame! It's my fault we got here from the ordination of women!
A week ago I asked whether, before worrying about ordination - or not - of female priests, we should seriously ask if the formal office of priests is required by the NT. A deeper issue yet I see as a divide between "laity" and "clergy", or the "spiritual" and "secular", or between "ministry" and "ordinary life" that has a lot more to do with pagan Greek philosophy than with what Jesus taught us or what's in the writings of his apostles. There is a important place for church structure, accountability, and other issues, but the way it all-too-easily begins to work out, is to make the majority spectators, whereas I believe Christ wants to empower all of us in ministry to others.
If I'm in discussion with Christian university students about "full-time ministry" (as the phrasing goes in American English), I encourage them to experiment with God's possible calling rather than first seek a title. First, they need to have a healthy, on-going relationship with Christ, studying the Bible, praying, including learning how to listen to God. Then, as God may impress needs on their heart, to DO something! Try talking to an atheist neighbor about Jesus! Help serve meals to homeless people and talk to them about God afterward! Try leading a Bible study or class with kids or teenagers or people in your neighborhood, perhaps starting with only one or two or three people! Pray for a sick person for healing! Real ministry begins with little steps of faith like those, and, if that's God's direction for someone, His blessing on it will be apparent, and recognition will come from others in its own time, with or without the title of "Reverend". (That's not to negate the importance of serious study to hone certain gifts like teaching either, and it may be appropriate to receive formal ordination as part of the recognition -but effective ministering of God's grace to others should be there first.)
Reading RusMeister's latest posts, I see that he and I really agree in many essentials. I'm confident that we have important items we would still disagree about, which is OK with me, and it doesn't mean that I'm not always trying to learn. (I trust he isn't either.) Here's a quote from his last post:
"The Church is made up of people who can be wrong. Orthodoxy, that which has been handed down from generation to generation from the beginning is not. You have to distinguish between men who are sinners and that which has been confirmed by the Church over time."
I think C.S. Lewis meant something similar by titling his most famous apologetic book Mere Christianity. That's also about what's been handed down from generation to generation from the beginning, the beliefs and relationship with Christ that one finds among all Christians. When RusM referred in an earlier post to the "visible church" as being the witness of Christ, it sounded to me like he meant primarily a continuity of institution, but he qualified that, very well. I should clarify as well that when I spoke of the "invisible church", I didn't mean that the people are invisible - many have had great effects on their people and on culture, and most or all are members of one Christian church or another, not loners unconnected to other Christians, (which is not healthy Christianity).
I also did NOT mean that the Holy Spirit isn't present within a Christian institution or denomination merely b/c it is an institution or structure. I'm no anarchist. I meant that each of us needs to cultivate our relationship with God in Christ, and not catch ourselves ONLY relying on an institution orl program or history. I plan to learn more about this brother, but RusM's illustration of St. John of Kronstad warning the Orthodox Church probably is an example of what I meant about someone holding to eternal truths speaking out against his own Christian church when it became captivated by the spirit of its age.
I'm convinced that we cannot deduce from the NT every detail of what we need to live a fruitful Christian life, and it was no mistake by God: the missing piece is an on-going relationship with God in each confusing situation we find ourselves in, to give us special grace and wisdom to discern how to live out Scripture at that moment, in addition to church tradition and reason.
Back to ordination of women:
I myself find the NT teaching on women in leadership....still somewhat confusing. There is the promise that your "sons and daughters will prophesy" in Acts 2, and various women identified as leaders, such as Priscilla. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was present at Pentecost, and thus was one of the people testifying in another language to the crowds, perhaps in the Temple Courts. At a time when Jewish men thanked God liturgically (albeit not scripturally) that they were not women, Jesus did not silence women, women were among his disciples, and He gave the news of his Resurrection to women first to tell others. His 12 apostles were men, although it is debated if that was to fulfill the parallels to a new Israel (e.g., 12 sons, more-or-less, of Jacob), or represented a mandate of transmitted authority. There are other passages, especially in some letters of Paul (or authorized by him), that seem to limit women as not being pastors/priests/senior leaders. There is exegetical debate about all this among respected Christian scholars.
However, as mentioned in an earlier post, I personally know examples of women serving effectively as leaders of whole networks of churches in places previously without Christian witness. William and Catherine Booth and the Salvation Army; their convert Aimee Semple McPherson and the growth of the Foursquare Gospel Church that she later founded; and its' offshoots (including the Calvary Chapel movement) are all fascinating cases to ponder, that have significantly affected many millions of people for Christ. I myself have NO question that God gifts and blesses women for Christian ministry, titled or not.
So, while there may remain valid exegetical debate about certain offices or titles in the church, I just really affirm everyone, male and female, to seek God about when and where and how to begin bringing the Kingdom of God around them, rather than fighting for a title first to do so, or doing nothing "because they're not a priest/pastor/whatever". There's more than enough to do, everywhere!
Have a blessed week, all!