It’s not mine, but responsible

During my seminary education a current changed in my denomination when ministers were encouraged to embrace an ownership of ministry differently.  The term, “my ministry” became the norm and continues to this day.  I think this current was meant to remind ministers, and those preparing for ministry, of their personal accountability and ethics as professionals even when systems did not or did not exist to do so.  I understand the intention.  During this same time my denomination was moving away from the idea of “pastor/scholar” to “corporate professional.”  Another term, “public theologian” has surfaced as a way of describing the vocation of ministry.

I’ve understood it differently.  I participate in the ministry of the Church.  Sometimes it resembles the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, sometimes it resembles the ancient beliefs of tradition’s “Christianity,” sometimes it is interested in Empire building and sometimes it embraces the kindom of God in our midst.  I was ordained into Christian ministry of the Church universal.  My ordination vows require me to accept that on any given day I represent the entire history of Christianity: the good, the bad, and the apathetic to persons I know and to the stranger sitting next to me on the plane.  I am responsible for the way I inhabit and “put on” that responsibility to represent Christianity, but ministry is not “mine.”  Ordained Ministry is a lifestyle that cannot be owned.  Participating in ministry is relational and risky.  I was reminded of this again from the editor and publisher of the Christian Century who recently wrote about his experience of retirement.

Sunday Morning Blues
John M Buchanan | Aug 9, 2013 | The Christian Century

One thing I have learned from this experience is something I should have learned long ago: ministry is not my personal possession. Ministry belongs to the church, the congregation I served for a while, the denomination of which it is a part—and to the whole church, holy, catholic, apostolic. In the painful process of letting go I am learning to let the church continue to be the church, performing a ministry that began before it allowed me to serve and continuing after I left.

, 08/09/2013. Category: DOC Thoughts, Michael D.

Anxious

I mused yesterday about being non-anxious.  I noted the anxiety in my denomination as well as our culture.  This morning I ran across three articles in the New York Times, I catch up on Saturday mornings, that point to the anxiety of the patriarchy in our Nation.  Really interesting reading when you read them back to back.

Money, Sex, and Gravitas
Paul Krugman | The New York Times | Aug 1, 2013

Yet there are not one but two sexist campaigns under way against Ms. Yellen. One is a whisper campaign whose sexism is implicit, while the other involves raw misogyny. And both campaigns manage to combine sexism with very bad economic analysis.  Click here to read more.

The Girls of Summer
Gail Collins | The New York Times | Aug 2, 2013

In normal times, back when Congress got things done and disco was extremely popular, the transportation bill was easy to pass. Everybody likes roads and bridges. This year, THUD was a labor of love in the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Barbara Mikulski is chairwoman, Patty Murray is the leader of the transportation subcommittee and Susan Collins is the top-ranking Republican. I am not going to point out that they are all women. Just that they worked well together and were considerate of everyone’s feelings.

Enter the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. “For reasons I don’t fully understand, Senator McConnell decided he needed to draw a line in the sand,” said Collins.  “I’ve never seen him work harder to kill a bill,” said Collins. “And this is my 17th year here.”  Click here to read more.

The Neocon Revival
David Brooks | The New York Times | August 1, 2013

The kind of conservatism that Irving Kristol embodied was cheerful and at peace with modern America. The political heroes for this kind of conservatism, Kristol wrote, “tend to be T.R., F.D.R. and Ronald Reagan. Such Republican and conservative worthies as Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater are politely overlooked.”

These conservatives, Kristol continued, reject the idea that the United States is on the road to serfdom. They “do not feel that kind of alarm or anxiety about the growth of the state in the past century, seeing it as natural, indeed inevitable. … People have always preferred strong government to weak government, though they certainly have no liking for anything that smacks of intrusive government.”  Click here to read more.

, 08/03/2013. Category: Culture, DOC Thoughts, Michael D.
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