Tag: clergy

A mixed up (and messed up) understanding

It is useful here to make a distinction between confidentiality and secrecy. A commitment to secrecy is a commitment never, under any circumstance, to share the information in question. This commitment on the part of the priest is inherent in a sacramental confession. Confidentiality, on the other hand, means holding information in trust and sharing it only in the interest of the person involved — with their permission, or in order to seek consultation with another professional, or in order to protect others from being harmed. The ethic of confidentiality is intended to assist people in getting help for their problems; it is not intended to prevent people from being held accountable for their harmful actions or to keep them from getting the help they need. Continue reading A mixed up (and messed up) understanding

Clergy Burnout

“We had a pastor in our study group who hadn’t taken a vacation in 18 years,” said Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, an assistant professor of health research at Duke University who directs one of the studies. “These people tend to be driven by a sense of a duty to God to answer every call for help from anybody, and they are virtually called upon all the time, 24/7.”

via Evidence Grows of Problem of Clergy Burnout – NYTimes.com.

The Hidden Lives of Congregations

Israel Galindo’s book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations: Discerning Church Dynamics, is in three parts. The first two address the congregation and the forces behind it. The third part is about being a leader in a congregation. When reading it in one setting Galindo seems to repeat him self somewhat when it comes to the third part, as he tries to apply the first two parts to the function of pastoral leaders. Continue reading The Hidden Lives of Congregations

First Call Congregations

The emphasis of the new project, “Vocation of First Call Congregations,” was to study the characteristics of congregations that do a good job supporting first call pastors as they start their ministry following completion of their seminary education.

via Vocation of First Call Congregations – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Why It’s Not An Affair?

Patricia L. Liberty has written an excellent short paper on why sexual contact between a pastor and a parishioner is never justified.

Since the ministerial relationship is professional in nature, it is inappropriate to call a sexual encounter an affair. Affair is a term used to describe a sexual liaison between peers, or equals. In addition, the term affair focuses attention on the sexual nature of the behavior rather than the professional violation. It also places equal responsibility for the behavior on the congregant. Since clergy have a responsibility to set and maintain appropriate boundaries, those who are violated by clergy’s inappropriate sexual behavior are not to be blamed even if they initiated the contact.

via Why It’s Not An Affair by Patricia L. Liberty.

Myers-Briggs

The main problem has to do with the uncritical, theologically naive, rigid, and overly confident manner in which Myers-Briggs categories are often employed in various church settings. Church people, particularly the clergy, are taking MBTI results as the gospel truth and blithely using them to make employment decisions, to establish leadership styles and regulate staff relationships, and to advise people about everything from marriage roles to prayer techniques.
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Why is it that so many in the Christian church, with its long and rich history of understanding persons in the most profound way possible -as living souls and as creatures made in the image of God should fall into the trap of allowing for a moment those theologically enduring and wondrously mysterious understandings to be displaced by something as superficial as a grid of sixteen suspiciously artificial personality types woven out of a questionable and all-too-fashionable theory of human temperament?

via Theology Today – Vol 49, No.3 – October 1992 – EDITORIAL – Myers-Briggs and Other Modern Astrologies.

Righteous living or Hierarchy

Concerning those who call themselves Cathari, if they come over to the Catholic and Apostolic Church, the great and holy Synod decrees that they who are ordained shall continue as they are in the clergy. But it is before all things necessary that they should profess in writing that they will observe and follow the dogmas of the Catholic and Apostolic Church; in particular that they will communicate with persons who have been twice married, and with those who having lapsed in persecution have had a period [of penance] laid upon them, and a time [of restoration] fixed so that in all things they will follow the dogmas of the Catholic Church.

via CHURCH FATHERS: First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325).

When reading through The Canons of Nicaea from 325, it is surely interesting how structures and hierarchy take over and questions of righteous and holy living become secondary. As part of that the Canons address very thoroughly the right way of the clergy, reminds us that:

Let all such practices be utterly done away, and let the deacons remain within their own bounds, knowing that they are the ministers of the bishop and the inferiors of the presbyters. Let them receive the Eucharist according to their order, after the presbyters, and let either the bishop or the presbyter administer to them. Furthermore, let not the deacons sit among the presbyters, for that is contrary to canon and order. And if, after this decree, any one shall refuse to obey, let him be deposed from the diaconate.

One wonders how the word “inferiors” made it to a Christian document in 4th Century, and how this rule of sitting in groups fits with Paul.

Is ‘Mainline’ becoming Mainline again?

Total membership in the seven largest mainline Protestant denominations — United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian Church (USA), Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ and American Baptist Churches — fell a total of 7.4% from 1995 to 2004, based on tallies reported to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.

Meanwhile, the total membership count for Roman Catholics, the ultra-conservative Southern Baptist Convention, Pentecostal Assemblies of God and proselytizing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) reported to the Yearbook is up nearly 11.4% for the same period.

via Some Protestant churches feeling ‘mainline’ again – USATODAY.com.

An article about St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church in Yorktown, that is for sure a mainline denomination but is still growing. It does not use PowerPoint or a Praise band, but offers food twice a week for those gathered.

Annals of Religion: Project Trinity : The New Yorker

‘It was the riots in Detroit, in Newark, both in ’67—that was what shook me,” he recounted. “I said to myself, ‘I have to have a theology that speaks to the hurt in my community. I want a theology that would empower people to be more creative. To be just as aggressive as they are in the riots, but more constructive.’

via Annals of Religion: Project Trinity : The New Yorker.

An important article about Black Theology, Wright and Obama.

Short Overview of the Law Codes

There are at least three main strands of law codes found in the Torah.

Book of Covenant: Exodus 21-23

Here we have texts that are connected strongly to the Code of Hammurabi, with code intertwined that is related to the protection of those on the margin.

Deuteronomic Law: Deut. 12-26

The Deuteronomic Law Code legislates a one central place of worship. It assumes that the people under the law are living in the land God gave. It is probably from the time of Josiah (621 BCE) and is perhaps part of the law reclaimed/found by the prophetess Huldah. It is a Yahweh and Jerusalem focused law.

Holiness Code: Leviticus (some of it anyway)

It is likely written later than the other. It is seen as part of the priestly source of the OT. Some of the laws might have been older than the written form it appears in.

From άδελϕοί to οἰ̑κος θεου̑

David G. Horrell looks in his paper at how the Pauline literature moves away from using sibling language (άδελϕοί) and starts to refer to the Christian community as a household (οἰ̑κος θεου̑:) and wonders whether this is an indication of growing hieararchial tendencies in the early Christian church, as the household was a hierarchically structured entity.

From άδελϕοί to οἰ̑κος θεου̑: social transformation in Pauline Christianity – University of Exeter.

Protecting Children and Youth

The Episcopal Church has developed a great resource about children’s protection in church context. It is called “Model policies for the protection of children and youth from abuse” and can be found here (PDF).

ELCA has gathered information on a one place on their website. The informations are at http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/Congregation-Administration/Legal-Issues-for-Congregations/Questions-About-Protecting-Children-and-Adults-from-Abuse.aspx.

In Ohio there are few Revised Code sections that deal with this issue: 109.574, 109.575, 109.576, 109.577, 121.401, and 121.402).

Preaching as Reimagination

It is not that the church’s theological absolutes are no longer trusted, but that the old modes in which those absolutes have been articulated are increasingly suspect and dysfunctional. That is because our old modes are increasingly regarded as patriarchal, hieararchic, authoritarian, and monologic.

Walter Brueggeman asks how this affects our way of preaching in “Preaching as Reimagination.”

Sizing Up a Congregation

Arlin Rothauge’s “Sizing Up a Congregation” (pdf) is a great overview of the dynamics found in different sized churches.

It addresses the Family Church (0-50), The Pastoral Church (50-150), The Program Church (150-350), and The Corporation Church (350-500+). From the perspective of the pastor, the issues are different in each of those. The smallest one calls the pastor to be innovative and finding things to do, but at the same time be available. The Family church is all about being reactive, there is not a lot of room for innovation, the pastor often seems to have favorites (those that have initiative to be in contact). When we move into the program church, the root of complaints towards the pastor is that he is not available for all groups, and does not participate in all programs. The issues in the largest church group are seldom about the pastor, more about lack of space for various tasks (lets build something together).

Rothauge does not address what we might call mega churches or multisite variations.

Ordination and Authority

The ordination of women dramatically reoriented everyone’s ordinary and probably outworn assumptions about authority. If the move to ordain women signaled an undue idealism on the part of proponents, the women who joined the ranks of the clergy shouldered the task of negotiating authority within congregations. The experience of these women demonstrated that ordination did not confer upon these women the authority of office, or character that could elicit from congregants the same kind of understanding or response that they gave to a male holding the position.

Maria Erling addresses the meaning of ordination in an age of mission in an interesting article that can be found on ELCA’s website (PDF): “Ordination from the Perspective of Mission.“

A few Random Thoughts about Priests, Leadership, and Church

When we use the father concept about a priest. What kind of a parent is that? Is it the one that makes his children independent but still invites them to a steak on Sundays?
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The creeds that we confess are priestly, focused on sacrifice, structure, and systematic worldview, no room for spirit, peace, or justice (innri samþykktir þjóðkirkjunnar, anyone).
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LeBron James does not run Clevaland Cavaliers. However, that does not mean that basketball is secondary on the clubs agenda (or does it?).
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Decision making through dialogue, in the presence of a strong charismatic leader has a strong bend towards monarchy.

What’s the problem?

It is not that the church’s theological absolutes are no longer trusted, but that the old modes in which those absolutes have been articulated are increasingly suspect and dysfunctional. That is because our old modes are increasingly regarded as patriarchal, hierarchic, authoritarian, and monlogic.

In some sense I like this thought from Brueggemann from his article Preaching as Reimagination. The problems are two. The church has great issues with separating between theological absolutes and the proper practices it has, and secondly I think theological absolutes are under more public scrutiny than often before.