Ordination Questions 1 - 3

1. How has the practice of ministry affected your experience and understanding of God?

As I continue my journey toward ordination, I have been able to grow in my understanding that God is always present and active in the world around us.  Even when we refuse to listen to what God is calling us to do, God never leaves us or abandons us.  This is highlighted in scripture where we read that God is love.[1]  The testimony we have in scripture illuminates God’s love for us. We see this with God freeing the Israelites from Pharaoh and with God raising up Judges in the Old Testament to rescue God’s people time and time again even though they turned from God.  We see in our own lives that while we turn from God and follow our own ways, God continues to shower us with God’s love. We see the culmination of God’s love through Jesus Christ, God’s only Son who was sent to earth so we can be justified through Christ’s death and resurrection.

Because of God’s unfailing love, we respond in the love that God has given us to wholly worship and love God and to love those around us.  This is a quality that I have seen exhibited in my ministry setting at Grace United Methodist Church.  I see how much God has done for them, and in return, they want to reach out to the community and world to share God’s love with all of God’s children.  Locally, this occurs through building ramps for those who need assistance coming and going from their houses, collecting food, school supplies and clothing for the poor in our community, and being mentors as Jefferson Elementary School.  Grace members show God’s love to others by leaving the comforts of their homes to be in mission throughout the country and the world.  They talk about what Christ has done in their lives and  demonstrate God’s love through things like home repair projects or ministering to AIDS orphans in Africa.

Grace members also show God’s love by walking with people during difficult situations in their lives.  The often-quoted 23^rd Psalm says, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff —they comfort me.”[2] Because we have experienced God walking with us through the darkest valleys of our lives, that experience has equipped us to help others who are walking through their own dark valleys.  Members have answered the call to be Stephen Ministers, sit in hospital rooms, provide support during funeral services or knit prayer shawls for those who are sick.  Through these activities members have shared with those in need that God is walking with them in and through their difficult times, and God’s love will never abandon them.

The psalmist wrote, “The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.”[3] I started this journey toward ordination over ten years ago when I left the comfort and stability of teaching music in Kansas.  During these past ten years, four ministry settings, and the blessings of a new family, I know that God loves me.  I see that God has remained faithful to me through all of my challenges and difficulties as I have answered God’s call in my life.  Because of God’s love and faithfulness, I know that through all the joys and trials, God’s grace will guide me.

2. What effect has the practice of ministry had on your understanding of humanity and the need for divine grace?

I see that humanity is always in need of reconciliation.  Our world is full of broken relationships and with the guidance and help from the Holy Spirit, the Church can provide that reconciliation to the world. The key to this reconciliation is God’s divine grace.  This grace is a gift from God that we can never earn on our own merit, but it is freely given to us because of God’s love for us.

When humanity seeks and strives for full reconciliation, we have the promise that Paul proclaims when he says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[4]

First, humanity is in need of reconciliation with God.  We see in scripture time and time again how humanity ignored God and found their own standards, oftentimes with disastrous results.  Unfortunately, humanity ignoring God isn’t just a Biblical event.  We see in our own lives where we have failed to listen to God and have moved out on our own.  Or, we set up other idols in our lives thinking they can bring us the peace and joy we can only receive from our Creator.

Second, humanity is in need of reconciliation with the rest of humanity. In the book of Acts, following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the community saw the need to band together and we read that, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”[5] Shortly after this celebration, we hear of a couple that refused to give all to the community and then were ultimately punished for their own selfishness.[6] We look around us and understand that the ultimate goal is to live in community with all of humanity. However our own selfish desires, jealousies and temptations separate us from others which call for reconciliation.

Third, we are in need of reconciliation with ourselves.  Sometimes, we can be our own harshest critics.  Mistakes from our past come back to haunt us. We feel like we can never be good enough. We overanalyze our every move and become frozen in our own grief, self-doubt and failures. Reconciliation is needed so we can have peace within ourselves.

Finally we are in need of reconciliation with all of creation.  In the creation story, God creates and places humanity in the midst of creation. God does this so that humanity can provide stewardship over God’s creation. The Amplified version of the Bible adds that humanity should use “all its vast resources in the service of God and man;”[7]  Over the course of history, creation has been misused and destroyed in pursuit of convenience and profit. Humanity needs to be reconciled with creation and should begin being faithful stewards of all creation.

 3. What changes has the practice of ministry had on your understanding of: (a) the Lordship of Jesus Christ,” and (b) the work of the Holy Spirit?

During my ministry, I have learned that I must wholly trust in Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life.  By living my life fully under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I am submitting myself under that authority and I commit my life to live the way Christ is leading me.  In ministry, there is always a temptation to look at what others are doing and then focus on imitating their activity in order to accomplish the same result.  So many times this focus of imitating leads to disappointment because we can’t produce the same results.  When we succumb to this form of imitation, we take our eyes off of Christ and Christ’s Lordship in our lives and we state that we want to be more like the ministries we are modeling.  Paul shares in his letters to, “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”^[8],^[9] Following the Lordship of Christ in ministry means that I am constantly following the example of what Christ has done in his ministry and follow Christ’s lead in my life.

The example of Jesus that I follow is Christ’s willingness to serve.  Jesus said, “…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve;”[10] in order to fully live this example of Christ, I look for ways to be in service to others and invite members of the congregation to join in that service.  Whether it be serving at the local woman’s crisis center or helping doing dishes after a Church event, I know that the work I am doing is ultimately serving the Lord of my life, not trying to win the approval of others in my congregation.

We do not have to guess at how to respond as Christ our Lord.  Christ promised us that, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”^[11] In ministry, as we seek to live under the Lordship of Christ, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to guide and teach us.  In the Evangelical United Brethren Church Confession we confess that the Holy Spirit leads us “through faithful response to the gospel into the fellowship of the Church. He comforts, sustains and empowers the faithful and guides them into all truth.”^[12]  As we live our lives listening to the Holy Spirit, we can make a faithful witness to what Christ’s Lordship means to us.

We are able to listen to the Holy Spirit when we practice the means of grace.  Through prayer, fasting and searching the scriptures, we open ourselves for that faithful response to the gospel.  Looking back at my call to ministry, I see how listening to the Holy Spirit through the means of grace has guided me, and I know that God will continue to guide me as I strive to live under the lordship of Christ.

---

[1] 1 John 4:8,16

[2] Psalm 23:4 NRSV

[3] Psalm 145:13b

[4] Rom 8:38-39 NRSV

[5] Acts 2:44-46 NRSV

[6] Acts 5: Ananias and Sapphira conspired to hold back a portion of the proceeds from land they sold from the community of Acts.  Peter did confront Ananias and told him that he was lying to God. While the lie was ultimately to God, this action shows that Ananias and Sapphira believed they were above the rest of the community and deserved more which brought division between that couple and the community.

[7] Genesis 1:28 AMP

[8] Ephesians 5:1-2 NRSV

[9] Paul also talked about imitating him, or imitating other believers.  While Paul said this, his intention was clear that we aren’t to imitate that particular person, but how Christ lives within that person and how we should allow Christ to live in us as Christ lives in them.

[10] Matthew 20:28 NRSV

[11] John 14:26-27 NRSV

[12] BOD ¶103 Article III – The Holy Spirit