The Little Friar

Continuing my reading through Richard Lischer's Open Secrets : God is persons and nothing else.  There is no waxy residue of divinity that is not wrapped up in these three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That's who God is.  God is (est) each of these three persons, but the persons are distinct from one another (non est).  God is both:  alone in majesty and at the same time forever radiating love through each person of the Trinity ... We are only able to love each other because the Father loves the Son through the Holy Spirit.  We want to be with one another as friends, lovers, and neighbors for the same reason.  That's not an argument that would appeal to most theologians, but that's what the Trinity meant for us (p. 81).

Continuing my reading through Richard Lischer's Open Secrets : Like most preachers, I grossly overestimated the importance of my part in the sermon.  When I thought of preaching, I did not consider it to be a congregation's reception of the word of God, but a speaker's command of the Bible's hidden meanings and applications, which were served up in a way to showcase the authority and skill of the preacher.  In those days the gospel lived or died by my personal performance.  My preaching was a small cloud of glory that followed me around and hung like a canopy over the pulpit whenever I occupied it. How ludicrous I must have appeared to my congregation. In my first sermon I explained the meaning of an epiphany, not the Epiphany of God in the person of Jesus -- no, that would have been too obvious -- but the category of epiphanies in general.  To this end, I drew at length on the depressing short stories of James Joyce in Dubliners.  "Each of these stories has ...

Continuing my reading through Richard Lischer's Open Secrets : The congregation and I were insignificant figures in a larger and older pattern.  The church has always identified its potential leaders, indoctrinated them, and then rudely inserted them in some setting or other where they almost never belong.  At seminary we brooded over the mysteries of God for four years only to turn up later as chaplains to covered-dish suppers and car washes with the youth.  One part of the church goes to great expense in order to prepare a theologian for another part of the church that wants a guitar player.  Like misshelved books, we are there waiting to be used, but will anyone ever find us?  As partners in an arranged marriage, my congregation and I might fall madly in love, which, in this creaky old church already seemed unlikely to me, or we could accommodate ourselves to what, if we were honest, each of us knew to be a mismatch (pp. 48-49).

As one whose vocation is in pastoral ministry as well as in the formation of future pastors, I believe there are too few strong theological resources out there to assist in both tasks well.  Therefore, I'm constantly on the lookout for resources for that task.  Richard Lischer's Open Secrets:  A Memoir of Faith and Discovery is one of those books that I believe does both.  So it's a book I return to from time to time.  I recently pulled it off the pile of books that line our home and started rereading it.  I thought, Wouldn't it be great to blog your way through the book .  It only took a few pages before I realized just what a task that would be.  So instead, I thought I'd allow my former preaching prof to speak for himself.  In coming days, then, I'll be posted extended selections from the book, in hopes that it drives pastors to read and learn from a master pastor like Lischer. This won't and can't substitute for reading the book, and ...

In 1995, when I first began to explore my "calling" to ministry, I had to admit that I was extremely distrustful of the process of vocation.  I recall, as part of that process, telling my mentor -- herself a theologian and pastor in the Church -- that self-appointed preachers and prophets are a dime a dozen.  In election years, we hear a lot of wind being blown that this or that candidate are God's answers to whatever pressing issue seems to make the daily headline.  So there's no shortage of people who can claim God's "call". When I bump up against those call narratives in Scripture -- this weekend it's Jeremiah 1.4-10 -- I'm reminded again of the process that was my call to ministry, and how much Jeremiah has shaped what I think the pastoral ministry is. All thanks to one of my college Old Testament profs, Dr Biddle.  In my Old Testament theology class as an undergrad, Dr Biddle introduced me to Jeremiah the prophet.  He recommended Euge...

To a three year old, my maternal great-grandfather, Julius -- after whom I was named -- was a towering man.  Standing about 6'3", he certainly towered over my small stature.  Even now, his memory towers over me. I have no personal memory of this story, but it was one my great-grandmother Sarah, his wife, loved to tell.  Apparently, when I was three years old, standing next to my "papaw" (as I called him when I started to talk), I would mimic his every behavior.  That was significant because my papaw was a lay minister and preacher in the Church.  As we stood on the porch of that small, white clapboard church house, one of the matrons of that congregation was said to remark, "Keep your eyes on that one, he's sickly, but he'll make a preacher".  So my life's identity has been shaped -- probably in ways I have never known how to articulate -- by pastors.  Papaw was one, but there have been so many others who have shaped who I am and whose memor...

I return every year to read Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule , because in it I've found so much focus and reflection for my own pastoral ministry. This weekend, though, I turned to a different text.  It's one I haven't read for at least 16 years.  But George Herbert's Country Parson is filled with so much wisdom, too, that it's a shame I haven't re-read this classic until now.  I'll now have to add it to my list of annual re-reads. George Herbert's Priest to the Temple, or, The Country Parson:  His Character, and Rule of Holy Life  continues to stand as a classic in the theology of ordained ministry.  Particularly striking is his catholic understanding of priestly ministry, his high standards of pastoral responsibility, and the similarity of his spiritual and pastoral counsel to that of Gregory's Pastoral Rule .  Herbert certainly stands in the patristic and medieval tradition of pastoral theology.  While his ideals for the time an...

It's graduation time again.  Seminarians will have written their exams, passed their psychologicals, and be preparing to enter churches in coming months as freshly-minted ministers.  Every now and then I'm asked what books pastors (both those who are entering ministry and those who are seasoned veterans) should read every year.  This is the list of those books I've found to sustain my own identity and work. Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline Jurgen Moltmann's Crucified God Catherine LaCugna's God for Us Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love Helmut Thielicke's A Little Exercise for Young Theologians Alexander Schmemann's For the Life of the World Walter Bruegemann's The Prophetic Imagination Walter Wink's The Powers that Be Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline I've left off Bonhoeffer -- but that's only because I don't aim to replicate my own view of ministry. 

Rachel Held Evan's new book, Searching for Sunday , is causing a veritable tempest in the evangelical teapot.  Because she's saying a few things that seem counter-intuitive in church growth circles.  Church growth has nothing whatever to do with getting a hipper worship band.  People aren't looking for more flashy information about Jesus.  They're looking for Jesus.  Let that sink in for a minute. So here are a few of my observations for those who still want to prop up the church growth movement. 1.  Statistics about church attendance really can't tell you much about a congregation's growth.  I'm not saying that statistics are irrelevant, but what they do tell you probably isn't going to be told by keeping an accounting on some software (such as United Methodist pastors are now required to do).  Here's why. If I had a lot of money, I'd bet a sizable amount that I could shift a congregation's attendance statistics simply by making c...

The Rev Dr Will Willimon From Will Willimon's beautiful little book, Calling & Character:  Virtues of the Ordained Life , two quotes that seem especially relevant this week. The first addresses who pastors are.  In light of so many pastors I meet whose personal habits become destructive of their vocation and ministry, there's this: ... when we take upon ourselves his yoke of obedience, his yoke is easy, his burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).  When is a burden light ?  It is when we find our burdensome lives caught up, elevated, borne aloft by something greater than our lives.  Mission gives meaning. Jesus does not come to us to relieve us of all yokes or burdens; rather, he comes offering us a yoke worth wearing, a burden worth bearing.  It is a great gift not to have to make your life mean something, to have your life given significance by the Lord whose cross, when taken up, takes us up as well. Then, in light of conversations I've ha...

1.  Speak less; listen more.  God has a lot to say.  Particularly to those of us who lead, but often lead so hard that we drown out that voice. 2.  Spend less time in front of a mirror and more time being a mirror to others.  God is seen in all our faces.  Even -- and maybe most especially! -- in the faces of our enemies. 3.  If you have doubts about whether God loves you, consider Good Friday.  Bloody, beaten, bruised, and dying with the load of sin, God loves Jesus no less than a father loves his son.  That is the love with which God loves us. 4.  Every one of us has been the victim of oppression.  And every one of us has been the perpetrator of oppression.  We are all capable of being both Shakespeare and Hitler.  God grieves for both sides of us.  God loves all his enemies. 5.  God gave us each unique gifts and talents.  Spend time learning from everyone you meet, and you will lear...

The Rev Dr Will Willimon Retired UMC Bishop Prof at Duke Divinity This extended quote was shared from a friend, and is taken from the February 4, 2013, edition of The Christian Century .  The emphases are mine: My admiration is unbounded for clergy who persist in proclaiming the gospel in the face of the resistance that the world throws at them.  But I found too many clergy who allowed congregational caregiving and maintenance to trump more important acts of ministry, like truth telling and mission leadership.  These tired pastors dash about offering parishioners undisciplined compassion rather than sharp biblical truth.   One pastor led a self-study of her congregation and found that 80 percent of them thought the minister's primary job was to "care for me and my family."  Debilitation is predictable for a kleros with no higher purpose for ministry than servitude to the voracious personal needs of the laos. Most people in mainline churches mee...

Shepherding God's Flock:  Biblical Leadership in the New Testament and Beyond is a collection of essays intended to "take a step back and to consider what the Scriptures teach about leadership".  The recurring theme -- that of the pastor as shepherd -- aims to demonstrate what the biblical notion of church leadership looks like.  So the ultimate goal and rationale for Shepherding God's Flock is both a justification and a guide for a specific view of leadership in the local church. Benjamin L. Merkle and Thomas R. Schreiner, New Testament scholars at Southeastern and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, respectively, grant up front that this work is written by contributors who are confessional Baptists, and thus "are convinced that the Baptist understanding of church government comports with the Scriptures".  With that in mind, the first four chapters highlight the biblical notions of "elder" and "shepherd" in an attempt to offe...

For this week's "Ask Me Anything": Does the Bible really affirm the ordination of women? This is honestly a difficult argument to make, because several biblical passages seem to argue against it.  Then again, that Gentile believers may be righteous apart from observing the Law of Moses was an even more difficult argument to make, since many more biblical passages (including some in the New Testament) seem to argue against that.  However, the first generations of Christians made it.  A difficult line of reasoning may still be the right one. Of all the New Testament's writers, it is Paul (and those who may have written in his name) who is most directly responsible for both the limitations the Church has put on the participation of women in leadership and liturgy, and the insights through which those limitations have increasingly been removed. Some Christians believe Paul must be sidelined or overturned in order for women to be ordained.  In some ci...

I was ordained in 1997.  Though I was active all through college and seminary as a lay minister, there are some things I was never told and didn't expect about life in ministry.   1.  The wonders of presiding in worship (well, maybe not weddings so much, unless the couple loves what a wedding does and says Christianly ). 2.  Working with an abundance of self-giving ministers among the laity.   3.   The lawn mowing and gardening teams who keep the properties looking loved.   4.  The questions about faith and life and the deep discussions about things that matter.  5.  Being allowed to attend the dying, when we gather and sit and pray a person into the next part of their journey.  As well as the opportunity to be with those whose lives will never be the same reaching out to each other, healing old wounds, being honest (not always -- but often).  6.  Preparing for and giving sermons -- a process that almost always brings me n...

Every minister inevitably faces burnout.  Those of us who are discouraged should take a step back, and consider a few questions.  These questions have always allowed me some space and focus when I needed them.  1.  How has God used the labors of faithful ministers in the past to lay a foundation for your Christian life today?   2.  Has God ever  ever used you -- in much the same way -- to mentor a future pastor, missionary, teacher?   3.  How has God used you in ministry outside your local church? 4.  Has God given you the gift of writing to produce a written legacy of faith and devotion for others? 5.  Has God given you the opportunity to sit beside a dying member of your church?  (This is always a humbling, experience, to be brought into another's confession, that confirms my ministry.) 6.  Are there people whose faith has been strengthened under your ministry? 7.  Consider the most difficult tim...

Foundations of Spiritual Formation:  A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christ , edited by Paul Pettit, is a volume for every seminarian and would-be ordinand.  It's a corrective to the wild-eyed idealism of seminary, in that it habituated habits of spiritual formation long before bad habits of idealism in seminary set it.   The book itself breaks down into two parts.  The first establishes the  theological and Biblical groundwork for spiritual formation.  The second tackles all the technical "know-how".  But it's the second section that deals with material I found most rewarding.  I was ordained nearly eighteen years ago.  When I left school, I took a certification in spiritual direction, because I had already discovered that my ministry was impoverished by a lack of training in spirituality.  This book is another great tool for practitioners that deals in lots of great pastoral-theological material.  Klaus Isler addresses issue...

Because I'm most at home behind a pulpit, I spend my mornings reading through advertisements for open ministry posts.  And when one catches my heart, I'll apply.   I also spend a good deal of my time consulting with churches and pastors about ministry.  So I pay particular attention to things like "metrics" -- the way churches and pastors measure themselves, their vitality, their growth.  And I've noticed something over the past decade or so.   The Church  is increasingly taken with corporate metrics of growth and success.   A former student was sharing with me recently of one national church's way of reporting attendance and membership by means of a computer program, focused entirely on numbers . That's a metric.  Ministry is hard work.  That's why I've always been drawn to speaking about pastoral ministry with young ordinands by reading through the prophets -- but particularly Ezekiel 2. The people Ezekiel is being sent to are described, ov...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Theses on Youth Work in the Church": 1. Since the days of the youth movement, church youth work has often lacked that element of Christian sobriety that alone might enable it to recognize that the spirit of youth is not the Holy Spirit and that the future of he church is not youth itself but rather the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It is the task of youth not to reshape the church, but rather to listen to the word of God; it is the task of the church not to capture the youth, but to teach and proclaim the word of God. 2. Our question is not: What is youth and what rights does it have, but rather: What is the church-community and what is the place of youth within it? 3. The church-community includes those on earth whom God’s dominion has torn away from the dominion of death and evil, those who hear the word concerning the establishment of God’s dominion among human beings in Jesus Christ and who obediently assemble around this word in faith. The church-co...

My friend Tim and I have been going back and forth lately on why clergy should wear clericals.   Clothing conveys a message.  A business suit says, "Money!"  A police uniform says, "Law!"  A tuxedo says, "Wedding!"  Casual clothing says, "Me!"  Clericals say, "Church!"  Any of those messages might be valid in different contexts, so you have to make sure you are wearing the right clothes for the occasion.  If you wear a business suit in a department store, people will mistake you for the manager.  If you wear a tuxedo to a ball game, they won’t ask you to play.  If you wear a jogging outfit to a fancy restaurant, your clothing says, "I wandered in here by mistake," and the staff will treat you accordingly.  The word  clericals  refers to the special clothing that clergy wear outside of worship services, usually consisting of a white collar on a black shirt (for male clergy) or on a black blouse (for female clergy), combined...