Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Ministerial Recognition and Ministry in the 21st Century
We held a Ministerial Recognition Committee today to interview some ministers who have completed their first years in ministry and are now able to become fully accredited and also some candidates for ministerial training. They were asked to do a six minute presentation on 'Ministry in the 21st Century'. A tall order in six minutes! Sitting here this evening I wonder what would I have said? Fortunately I was interviewing rather than being interviewed but I guess it would have been along the lines of: Post Christendom World, Pulling down the sacred/secular divide, enabling God's people to be his people in his world (being 'Missionary Disciples' to use the great corporate slogan). I would be keen to emphasise the reproducing aspect of discipleship and making room for 'not yet christians' to belong before they believe before they behave. But I bet I wouldn't have been able to keep it to six minutes!
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2 comments:
I think this would be a good topic for all of us to think about, not just those "In Ministry". I think even congregations would warrent a discussion on the topic, as they would then have a clear idea of what they want & expect of a ministry & how ministry can take many formats.
If we could but grasp the idea that all ministry is (in one sense) the call to love others as God loves them then it ought not to be (at heart) any different in the twenty-first century as it was in the first. (You'll see I have carefully avoided exploring what it means to love people as God loves them. This is meant to be a comment not an essay!) When programs, patterns, projects and so on start to dominate our idea of ministry, when what we're doing and how we do it become more important than the people we do it for and with, then I think we've lost sight of what God is doing in the world. As someone once said, loving God and loving others are everything we're asked to do.
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