Sacraments

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - Explain the role and significance of the sacraments in the ministry to which you have been called.

Response - My response begins:

The sacraments are an integral part of the ministry to which I have been called. “Elders have a four-fold ministry of Word, Sacrament, Order and Service within the connection ad thus serve in the church and the world.” My role in the ministry to which I have been called is “to administer the sacraments of baptism and the Supper of the Lord according to Christ’s ordinance.” The unity of the church is found in Jesus Christ and through the sacraments which attest to the good news. Baptism is the sacrament of the church that initiates individuals into the community of believers. Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is the sacrament of the church that unites individuals as sisters and brothers in Christ in which the past is remembered and the future anticipated. (Quotes from The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, paragraphs 340 and 340.2).

Discussion

1. How would you respond to this question?
2. Where do you agree with my response?
3. Where do you disagree with my response?

Personal Discipline and Habits

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - You have agreed as a candidate for the sake of the mission of Jesus Christ in the world and the most effective witness of the gospel, and in consideration of their influence as ministers, to make a complete dedication of yourself to the highest ideals of the Christian life, and to this end agree to exercise responsible self-control by personal habits conducive to bodily health, mental and emotional maturity, integrity in all personal relationships, fidelity in marriage and celibacy in singleness, social responsibility, and growth in grace and the knowledge and love of God. What is your understanding of this agreement?

Response - My response is:

“We always have a choice between cleaning up our acts and cleaning up our hearts.” It is more important to cleanse our hearts and seek to live a righteous life. My understanding of this agreement is that in all things I am called to strive to “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The responsibilities to word, sacrament, order and service call for one that is going on to perfection. I believe that “if you want to become a good minister, you have to be holy.” I intend to live out the ideals mentioned in the question through regular physical exercise, continued learning and study, fidelity in my marriage, doing good, doing no harm and attending to the ordinances of God. (Wheeler, Sondra. “Ethical Dimensions of Ministry.” Wesley Theological Seminary. 18 January 2006.)

Discussion

1. How would you respond to this question?
2. Where do you agree with my response?
3. Where do you disagree with my response?

Inclusive Church and Ministry

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - Describe your understanding of an inclusive church and ministry.

Response - My response begins:

My understanding of an inclusive church and ministry is that of a welcoming community that extends hospitality to all. I understand an inclusive church and ministry to be based on the ministry of Jesus who particularly sought to enter into relationship with those who were despised by the world.

“When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” (Matthew 9:11-12 (TNIV)).

Discussion

1. How would you respond to this question?
2. Where do you agree with my response?
3. Where do you disagree with my response?

Ordination

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - What is the meaning of ordination in the context of the general ministry of the Church?

Response - My response begins:

My understanding of the meaning of ordination in the context of the general ministry of the Church has been formed by the Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. “Within the church community, there are persons whose gifts, evidence of God’s grace, and promise of future usefulness are affirmed by the community, and who respond to God’s call by offering themselves in leadership as ordained ministers.” “Ordination to [apostolic] ministry is a gift from God to the church. In ordination, the church affirms and continues the apostolic ministry through persons empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

The practice of ordination, or setting aside for a particular ministry, is not something that is unique to The United Methodist Church. “The early church, through the laying on of hands, set apart persons with responsibility to preach, to teach, to administer the sacraments, to nurture, to heal, to gather the community in worship, and to send them forth in witness. … These functions, though set apart, were never separate from the ministry of the whole people of God.” (Quotes from The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, paragraphs 301.2, 303 and 3o2).

Discussion

1. How would you respond to this question?
2. Where do you agree with my response?
3. Where do you disagree with my response?

Servant Ministry

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - Describe your understanding of diakonia, the servant ministry of the church, and the servant ministry of the probationary member and commissioned minister.

Response - My response begins:

I understand diakonia to be the servant ministry of the church in which the people of God are sent out into the world. The church is called out of the world to be sent out to be the scattered people of God in mission.

“The New Testament witness to Jesus Christ makes clear that the primary form of his ministry in God’s name is that of service, diakonia, in the world. Very early in its history, the church came to understand that all of its members were commissioned in baptism to ministries of love, justice, and service within local congregations and the larger communities in which they lived; all who follow Jesus have a share in the ministry of Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve” (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2004, ¶305).

Discussion

• How would you respond to this question?
• Where do you agree with my response?
• Where do you disagree with my response?

My Probationary Membership and Commissioning

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - How do you perceive yourself, your gifts, your motives, your role, and your commitment as a probationary member and commissioned in The United Methodist Church?

Response - My response begins:

I perceive myself as a probationary member and commissioned in The United Methodist Church as one who is optimistic about the ways that God is working in the world. I recognize that God is at work in The United Methodist Church in Kansas. As a probationary member, I perceive myself as becoming a part of and working toward the renewal of the Kansas Area of The United Methodist Church.

I perceive both gifts and areas of improvement for service as a probationary member and commissioned in The United Methodist Church. An area of improvement for me is experience in preaching at a weekly worship service. At my field setting in seminary I had the opportunity to preach every other month. I am comfortable with the responsibility of preaching and enjoy being in that role. I believe that there will be a natural growth in preaching ability when preaching on a weekly basis.

Discussion

• How would you respond to this question?
• Where do you agree with my response?
• Where do you disagree with my response?

United Methodist Polity

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - Discuss your understanding of the primary characteristics of United Methodist polity.

Response - My response begins:

My understanding of the primary characteristics of United Methodist polity is primarily formed by the Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. These characteristics include: itinerancy, conferences, superintendency, and connectionalism.

Ordained elders of The United Methodist Church are committed to an itinerant ministry. “They offer themselves without reserve to be appointed and to serve, after consultation as the appointive authority may determine” (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2004, ¶333.1.). “Appointments to charges may be made at any time deemed advisable by the bishop and cabinet. Appointments are made with the expectation that the length of pastorates shall respond to the long-term pastoral needs of charges, communities, and pastors” (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2004, ¶434). Pastoral appointments are set at Annual Conference “Appointments are to be made with consideration of the gifts and evidence of God’s grace of those appointed, to the needs, characteristics, and opportunities of congregations and institutions, and with faithfulness to the commitment to an open itineracy” (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2004, ¶430).

Discussion

• How would you respond to this question?
• Where do you agree with my response?
• Where do you disagree with my response?

Nature and Mission of the Church

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - Describe the nature and mission of the Church. What are its primary tasks today?

Response - My response begins:

Although the Holy Spirit is at work in the world with or without the church, I believe that the church is the place in the world where God can be found most fully revealed. The church is the gathering of persons who believe in the good news of Jesus Christ and seek to live in a way that witnesses to the world this belief and the reality of the kingdom of God. In this way, the church fulfills its mission “to make disciples of Jesus Christ” (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004. par 120). The church is a group of persons that are called by God, but also sent by God into the world. I believe that the church does not exist without being sent to spread the good news.

The nature of the church is also that of a worshiping community where the sacraments are given and received and the Word of God is spoken and heard. Also, perhaps more importantly, the nature of the church is to be missional people. The church is a part of the good news being sent to the world. This is a story that has continued for thousands of years and continues to this day. Without knowing the story of being a missional people, the church devises all kinds of other functional identities for itself. (Logan, James. “Evangelism in the Contemporary Church and World.” Wesley Theological Seminary. 17 September 2004).

Discussion

• How would you respond to this question?
• Where do you agree with my response?
• Where do you disagree with my response?

Scripture, Tradition, Reason, Experience

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - The United Methodist Church holds that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason. What is your understanding of this theological position of the Church?

Response - My response begins:

This theological position begins with the living core of the Christian faith. As defined by Donald McKim, Christian faith is “belief, trust and obedience to God as revealed in Jesus Christ. It is the means of salvation or eternal life. Faith affects all dimensions of one’s existence: intellect emotions, and will” (McKim, Donald K. Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996. pg 100). Christian faith can be informed and enlightened by many sources including: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. My understanding of Christian faith is that each of these elements is important because they all reveal different aspects of Christianity. These four sources need to be weighed against each other when considering the truth of Christian faith. I believe Scripture has primacy among these sources of faith.

Discussion

• How would you respond to this question?
• Where do you agree with my response?
• Where do you disagree with my response?

Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task

 

This is part of a series of posts on my understanding of faith, ministry and the church. I would enjoy feedback and your response to my answers to these questions.

Question - How do you intend to affirm, teach and apply Part II of the Discipline (Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task) in your work in the ministry to which you have been called?

Response - My response begins:

I intend to apply Part II of the Discipline in “the testing, renewal, elaboration, and application of our doctrinal perspectives in carrying out our call ‘to spread scriptural holiness over these lands’” (The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2004, par. 104). This theological task is carried out in different ways at different times. I intend to affirm teach and apply Part II of the Discipline to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ through preaching, teaching, and personal discipline in a way that invites individuals to respond.

The Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task contain basic Christian affirmations and the heritage and theological emphases that are distinctive to the Methodist. As a clergy person of The United Methodist Church, I believe that it is important to both proclaim and live tenets outlined in this section. Understanding one’s self as a Christian and as a United Methodist leads to particular commitments and patterns of behavior (i.e. extending grace, forgiveness, concern for the poor, etc.) that affect the way a person lives and interacts with others. The goal is to offer God’s invitation of relationship to all people in a way that is faithful and relevant. All persons need to be able to hear the story of Jesus in such a way they will be able to understand their life as a part of Jesus’ story.

Discussion

• How would you respond to this question?
• Where do you agree with my response?
• Where do you disagree with my response?