Friday, August 16, 2013
Fewer Pros Would Help
Jeremiah Lawson @ Boars Head Tavern reflected on a quote about Ted Haggard and said any number of important things about being a "professional" Christian:
People too often claim grace on an individual basis much to the cost and chagrin of the many that comprise the congregation, the denomination and the church. Grace is not a concept that applies merely to the individual. But then most of us think only about ourselves. These situations are not surprising when all we think about church is what we can get out of it.
It's funny how this utterly selfish thought pattern creeps around. Our moral reasoning is based on what we would want if we were in their situation, not on what is best for the whole. Apparently it is possible to be selfish even for the other.
God, help us with out selfish moral reasoning.
professional ministry selfish morality
There’s no reason, it increasingly seems to me, that “ministry” has to be some lifelong calling. It can be a strange thing to hear someone who is professionally and famously Christian talk about anything because if they ever one day become unfit for being professionally and famously Christian … what do they have? What can they do that would constitute a “real” job?I have counselled many a young person about their "calling." Not that most o them use that terminology anymore - nowadays it just seems like they want a church job. But one of the tests that I have to find out if a person really is "called" to full time ministry is their compulsion to do that thing. Will they do that thing is they don't get a church job? Will they take a day ob in order to pay to do the ministry? That's a calling, anything less is a dream.
Maybe there’s a place to restore fallen church leaders to Christian life in some fashion but “restore” doesn’t have to be back into some formal ministry, it can be back into being productive and doing things in a real job.Amen to that. Grace demands that we help our fallen recuperate, but grace also demands that we withhold from them the temptation to repeat their mistakes. More importantly, grace demands that we withhold from the church the potential for more scandal that these individuals represent.
People too often claim grace on an individual basis much to the cost and chagrin of the many that comprise the congregation, the denomination and the church. Grace is not a concept that applies merely to the individual. But then most of us think only about ourselves. These situations are not surprising when all we think about church is what we can get out of it.
It's funny how this utterly selfish thought pattern creeps around. Our moral reasoning is based on what we would want if we were in their situation, not on what is best for the whole. Apparently it is possible to be selfish even for the other.
God, help us with out selfish moral reasoning.
professional ministry selfish morality
