Dear Family and Friends,
I would like to invite all of you to a worship service of installation and commissioning here at the church on Sunday, September 28th at 4pm. Even though I have been serving as your pastor for almost a month, I don’t officially carry that title. According to the Presbyterian lingo, I am your pastor-elect until installation.
A friend recently quipped, “Installation? What do they think you are? A refrigerator?” Although the way Presbyterians do things sometimes can be confusing, there are good reasons that we install both pastors and elders. We are all called to be disciples of Jesus Christ, and we are also called to particular ministries. Whether in the home, school, church, or on the shop floor, our witness to Christ occurs in a particular place. This may seem obvious to some, but when we forget this fact we are no longer doing ministry. Serving God means that we serve one another. Can one be a shepherd without a flock, a teacher without students, or a leader without those to lead?
The reformer John Calvin once noted that the pastor should be bound to a particular church. According to Calvin, pastors should not be “dashing about aimlessly without an assignment.” Pastors who are not involved in the real lives of real people are, in my humble opinion, a real danger to the church. As Calvin notes, disconnected pastors become “more concerned about their own advantage than the upbuilding of the church.”
Somewhere in here is a lesson for all of us. We all are accountable to God, yet we need to be accountable to each other. Our life in Christ is not an escape from the world, but rather it is a calling to the world. Our faith is strengthened by facing the fire. Trials have come, according to Peter, “so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1Pet 1:7).
May God bless you in the all the places that you have been “installed.”
Grace & Peace,
James
Monday, September 1, 2003
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Ordination
Dear Friends,
By the time you read this, my ordination will be complete. On Tuesday, June 24, the Presbytery of PaloDuro in Seymour, Texas examined my faith and my fitness for ministry. Then, on June 28 in Carrollton, Ohio, a group of elders and ministers laid hands on me and prayed for the Holy Spirit to use me. This day has been the end of a long journey for me and my family. However, it is also the beginning of a new adventure that we are excited to share with you in Vernon.
Will I suddenly become a different person? Hardly. I will still be the bumbling, tongue-tied pastor thatI’ve always been. I remain imperfect, always needing God’s grace. However, something will be different. Through ordination, the Church dedicates me to the particular ministry of Word and Sacrament. I will have the particular responsibility to baptize God’s children, to speak God’s Word when no one else will, and to break the bread at the Lord’s table. Like the bread and wine dedicated at Communion, the Church asks God to take something ordinary, me, and use it for God’s purposes.
Given this understanding of ordination, all Christians are in a sense ordained. We have been baptized. As Christ identified with our humanity in John’s baptism, we identify with Jesus in his death and resurrection. Paul writes, “We were therefore buried with himthrough baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory ofthe Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom 6:4). In baptism, all Christians are formally dedicated to God. Through Christ, we are consecrated--made holy. God takes something ordinary, us, and uses us for God’s purposes. Paul understood that Christians need to be “living sacrifices” (Rom 12:1). That calling is higher and prior to my calling to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. It is a calling that we all share as brothers and sisters in Christ.
As we begin a new ministry together, let us remember our mutual ordination. Let us remember our lives as a sacrifice to God. Finally, let us remember the Savior who called us and saved us. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
James
By the time you read this, my ordination will be complete. On Tuesday, June 24, the Presbytery of PaloDuro in Seymour, Texas examined my faith and my fitness for ministry. Then, on June 28 in Carrollton, Ohio, a group of elders and ministers laid hands on me and prayed for the Holy Spirit to use me. This day has been the end of a long journey for me and my family. However, it is also the beginning of a new adventure that we are excited to share with you in Vernon.
Will I suddenly become a different person? Hardly. I will still be the bumbling, tongue-tied pastor thatI’ve always been. I remain imperfect, always needing God’s grace. However, something will be different. Through ordination, the Church dedicates me to the particular ministry of Word and Sacrament. I will have the particular responsibility to baptize God’s children, to speak God’s Word when no one else will, and to break the bread at the Lord’s table. Like the bread and wine dedicated at Communion, the Church asks God to take something ordinary, me, and use it for God’s purposes.
Given this understanding of ordination, all Christians are in a sense ordained. We have been baptized. As Christ identified with our humanity in John’s baptism, we identify with Jesus in his death and resurrection. Paul writes, “We were therefore buried with himthrough baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory ofthe Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom 6:4). In baptism, all Christians are formally dedicated to God. Through Christ, we are consecrated--made holy. God takes something ordinary, us, and uses us for God’s purposes. Paul understood that Christians need to be “living sacrifices” (Rom 12:1). That calling is higher and prior to my calling to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. It is a calling that we all share as brothers and sisters in Christ.
As we begin a new ministry together, let us remember our mutual ordination. Let us remember our lives as a sacrifice to God. Finally, let us remember the Savior who called us and saved us. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
James
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)