Things I’ve Learned from Clergy

Sorry for the long delay guys!  I guess I just haven’t felt super “inspired” to make a post the past few days.  However, here is one today!  Woo!

As you probably (or may not) know, there are many titles for the clergy in our church (i.e. the leader people who preach on Sunday mornings, plan sermons, visit people in hospitals, and many many other things).  For some people, these titles are synonymous.  For others, they mean completely different things.  Initially, I was in the former category, yet when a friend told me he had left his church because “the pastor was an okay preacher but a bad minister” it got me to thinking.  What is the difference between the quatrifecta of preacher-pastor-minister-reverend?  Is there a difference?  Can someone have only a couple of those attributes?

Let’s explore what each of those mean (at least to myself, as I currently work at a church and attend another church):

Note: All dictionary/etymological information is from the Merriam Webster dictionary.

Preacher: The verb form of preacher (preach) means to either deliver a sermon or, more generally, “to urge acceptance or abandonment of an idea or course of action”.  The word “preach” originally comes from the Latin “praedicare” meaning “to make known”.  So, what does a “preacher” do?  He or she makes the Gospel and Scriptures known to others (generally through a sermon, but can be through a lifestyle as well).  Remember, St. Francis of Assisi said “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.”

Pastor: A pastor is a “spiritual overseer”.  Basically, they oversee the “flock” as a whole.  They are concerned with the well-being of all people, specifically their own flock, but this can mean all peoples as well.  The word actually originates from the Latin “pascere”, a verb meaning “to feed”.  A pastor feeds his/her flock with comfort, security, and truth.

Minister: There are several types of ministers, not all relating to church.  The Prime Minister over in Great Britain is one example of a secular minister.  However, in terms of church it means “one officiating or assisting the officiant in church worship”.  A basically mundane description, this can mean better when we, yes again, go to Latin. The Latin word is identical, but means “servant”.  To me, the minister-job is in correlation with the pastor-job.  Whereas a pastor is concerned with the entire flock (the ninety-nine), the minister is concerned with the one.  He/she is the one that makes one-on-one visits, that calls when something goes bad (or good or neutral!), who walks up to parishioners and asks them about their family/schooling/job/life.  The minister adds the personal touch to what a preacher and pastor does.

Reverend: This relates to the word “reverence”, meaning “honor or respect felt or shown”, from the Latin word “reverentia”, meaning essentially the same thing.  A reverend is, essentially, a person to be respected.  To me, at least, this deals with all of the knowledge and education that comes with being a member of clergy.  A combination of schooling, study, experience, and many other factors go into this, making this the least “outward” seeming attribute.

So, basically, there is no “perfect” clergyperson.  However, if a person has a combination of all four, they are truly a person of God.

Here’s a list of things my ideal church would have.  Granted, such a thing is barely possible, but still.

Components/order of service:

• Lots of music (more on this later), but at least 3 hymns, sung responses, choral anthem, organ/piano interludes, etc.
• Short sermon.  The older I get, the more I want a sermon that is merely a piece of the worship puzzle, and not the focal point.
• Reading of entire lectionary texts for week.  Note, this means reading them straight-through, with no embellishment.  Also, I highly prefer a version like the NRSV to ones such as the NKJV or the (vomit) Message.
• Read prayers and creeds.  These can be read by a pastor/leader, by all, or in call-in-response form.
• A confession of sin and assurance of pardon.  It’s important to confess one’s sins but also know we are pardoned by grace.  Without the former, we will never truly know the weight of sin; without the latter, we will constantly live in a life of grief and pain.
• The holy Eucharist.  And yes, I *prefer* it to have precision.  It’s so much more logical that way!  But not making the whole blasted service about Communion!
• And for my break in high church…a children’s sermon.  I love the children’s sermon, and honestly sometimes have learned more about the grace of God through it and the children’s responses than any sermon, prayer, creed, verse, or song.

Now for some other things about the service

• No dilly-dallying and long explanations.  I really don’t want to sit through a five minute explanation on why the potluck in a month is a good idea.  I know why it’s a good idea.  It’s normal.  It’s fellowship, and church’s without fellowship are poor in Spirit in my opinion.
• Relatively liberal theology.  Not necessarily universalism (though I’ve been skirting with that idea for a while, which may be another post), but not inerrancy.  Basically, adhering to the tenants of Christ (especially the whole “love one another” thing), reading the words of Paul with a grain of salt (it was a different time then…we HAD to evangelize because there were people who knew NOTHING about Christ…women were downgraded because they were basically property…etc), looking to the words of the Torah as they form a foundation (though parts of them, like the part about gay marriage, slavery, etc are dated), reading the words of the Ketuvim with open minds as it is truly beautiful poetry, and reading the Nevi’im with the idea that the words point to a Messiah.

Music.  I adore music.  Seriously.  It’s (along with the children’s sermon) the best part of the service.  So here’s what I’d like:

• At least three hymns in the service.  And yes, I said hymns.  I cannot stand most contemporary music (ooo, maybe another post??).  But hymns are just…so wonderful, deep, moving, spiritual, and captivating.  Also, I’d like for at least one to be a relatively well-known hymn (it’s easier to fully “worship” with songs you know) and at least one to be a relatively new hymn (the church I grew up in was often in a hymn-rut by only singing songs such as “Victory in Jesus” and “Softly and Tenderly”).
• A choral anthem at some point.  I actually kinda like it during the offertory (for one it kills two birds with one stone, in a way, in another it’s a great time for it).  They’d sing classic-type songs, mainly.  Occasionally in Latin.
• A sung psalm.  It’s really pretty that way.
• Choral motet during Eucharist.  At times the Eucharist can seem long, so it’s a good way to make it seem less long.
• Sung responses by the choir.
• A sung Lord’s Prayer, and a sung Gloria Patri.
• The choirs to consist of: a non-audition adult choir (I don’t like the idea of auditioning for choir.  I love to worship through song.  It’s how I worship.  But I’m not sure if I’d pass an audition, which would be very spiritually disheartening), a non-audition youth choir, and non-audition children’s choir.  The latter two would sing a few times a year.

The church (building).

• One aisle, pews, clear altar/pulpit, etc.
• Both stained and regular glass windows to allow lots of light.
• Be termed “sanctuary” rather than “worship center”.

The church (people).

• Mix of old and young, educated and not (though leaning a bit toward the former), male and female, etc.
• Allow inclusion of gays, including same-sex unions.
• Have women as deacons and in pastoral settings.

The church (to others).

• Strong local missions.  Require all clergy to spend at least a certain amount of time (20 hours a year?  3 hours a month?) in actual, legitimate, local missions (such as working at a homeless shelter, building a Habitat house, etc.)
• Have an absolute minimum of 1% of the budget go toward missions (true missions, such as helping the needy locally, nationally, and internationally).
• Available missions opportunities locally, nationally, and internationally.

Children:

• A strong children’s program, which is not focused on fundamentalist beliefs
• Music program for children
• Yearly Vacation Bible School
• Other yearly children’s events
• Children’s sermon during service

Young professionals:

• It’s not bloody Match Game, so stop making young adult events seem like it!
• That’s basically it.

Finally, in terms of theology/spirituality/etc:

• Not yelling at everyone to repent.
• Adherence to Biblical beliefs (though, as before, some taken with a grain of salt), along with recognition of church history, former saints/leaders, etc.
• Speaking more about loving one another than how Christians are better than others (which I often get from Christians).

That’s a large bit of it.  There’s probably more.  But there you have it.

Music Mondays: The Summons

I’ve decided to start a series on here entitled “Music Mondays”, in which I look at some form of music that’s on my mind (anything from hymns to folk to modern catchy pop to movie scores to most other things) and extrapolate things from them.

Since this IS mainly a blog about my faith and growth, it’s only appropriate that I begin with a hymn.

And I’ll begin with one of my favorites, entitled “The Summons”.  Now, I dislike the majority of contemporary Christian music.  Too much of it sounds either trite or overly simplified, or personifies Jesus into a boyfriend-type persona.  However, though “The Summons” was published in 1987, it’s one of my favorites as it gives real, raw, discipleship-centered lyrics.  And the Scottish tune, Kelvingrove, doesn’t hurt matters!

The first verse says

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Basically, Christ is asking if we would follow him.  Simple, right?  All it takes is saying “Hey, Jesus, I’ll follow you.”  But just you wait.  He wants us to go where we don’t know.  Never be the same.  Show his love.  Proclaim his name.  Feeling a bit hot under the collar?  Well, Jesus did that…a lot.  He met so many people that didn’t quite fit the status quo for religious figures to meet…whores and tax collectors and poor widows, oh my!  He wants us to do the same.  Meet people who don’t fit our status quo: the homeless and hungry, tattooed and tattered, promiscuous and perpetrators…meet them and show them His love.  Not just saying “Hey, believe in this guy named Jesus” but SHOWING them about his unfathomable love.

Let’s keep going to verse 2, shall we?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me? 

Oh dear, it’s getting more difficult!  Caring for the cruel?  I thought we just had to memorize John 3:16, put on a pretty dress or suit every Sunday, and sing “Amazing Grace” like it’s going out of style.  There was nothing in the Terms and Conditions about caring about the cruel!  Are refunds acceptable? Can I order a subscription to Jesus Lite?

No.  You have to truly care for everyone.  EVERYONE.  This means showing Christ’s love, not just simply shouting “Come to Jesus” from atop a flight of stairs, but showing true, complete, manifest loving-kindness.  Can you do that?  Can you?

Wait…what’s that…HOSTILE STARE?  What do you mean?  Life as a Christian isn’t super peachy?  It might get *gulp* difficult?  People will oppose you because you’re either preaching the gospel TOO much or not preaching it correctly?  People, both Christians and non-Christians alike will judge you for your beliefs.  They’ll dislike you for trying to be a little more like that all-loving carpenter Jew who traveled across Galilee with his band of not-always-merry men.  They’ll revile you for being actually loving towards others.

Ready to go on?  You sure?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

Okay.  I’m done.  Absolutely done.  I ain’t kissin’ no lepers.  Or setting PRISONERS free.  They are in prison for a reason!

Now, leprosy is as not as big of a “deal” as it used to be.  But there’s lots of things that make a person seem “unclean”.  Will you love (truly love) someone who is covered in tattoos and piercings?  Will you show true love and compassion to a young woman who was violated, even if she was dressed promiscuously and consuming alcohol?  Will you love a young man who cries because he loves Jesus, but finds himself romantically attracted to men, and thus is at a loss of how to live?  Will you do that?

And also, will you love those who have done wrong?  Is it possible to show compassion to the murderer, the thief, the rapist?  Yeah.  It’s hard.  It’s REALLY hard.  But who said following Jesus was easy?

Ready for verse 4?  Might wanna sit down for this one.

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

Wow.  First I thought following Jesus was just about memorizing some verses, buying a cross necklace from Lifeway, and maybe occasionally giving out cookies at the nursing home at Christmas as we sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” ad nauseum.  Then you told me I had to actually love others.  Now, I have to love MYSELF?  ALL OF MYSELF?

Yes.  We need to love ourselves.  Not the facade we put out to the world, but all of our self.  Put our insecurities about body issues away and realize that we are a beautiful and wonderful conglomeration of a heart, brain, lungs, skin, toenails, eyelashes, etc that was formed by God.  Realize that, even if we’ve done bad things in the past, even if we’ve committed crimes, hurt others, been cruel: God still loves us and we are still just as deserving of love.  To not be afraid or unsure, but let our songs burst forth with complete joy.  Find whatever secret thing we have hiding that we want to share with the world, whether it be a love of song, of compassion for the world, of giving, of speech, of whatever, and let it be free for all the world to see!

Because we may think we’re all a bunch of screwed up, silly, constantly failing, essentially pointless dots on this quickly whirling planet.  But, we are so so much more than that.

Time for the last verse.

Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I’ll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

This echoes everything said before.  Follow the call of Jesus.  Fully.  Honestly, I think if everyone showed love and compassion to all people, as Christ showed love and compassion to all, world peace would be inevitable.

Impossible, you say?

No.

But it begins with you.

Will you answer the summons?

Sharing Band-Aids

I have had many incredible teachers in my life.  Truly, I have.  Some of them I still talk to on occasion, whereas others I haven’t talked to in over a decade (for one reason or the other).  However, what some people don’t know is that we have many, MANY types of teachers in our lives.

And some of these haven’t even hit puberty yet.

Today at church, the pastor had a small crowd of children for the children’s sermon.  There were 2 boys, aged 6 and 9 and 2 girls, aged 4 and 10.  Our pastor gave an explanation of the Good Samaritan story by having the kids imagine that they’d all came in with skinned knees.  Then, he only gave the 6 year old boy and 10 year old girl Band-Aids.  Not the other two.  He began to ask the other two (the 4 year old girl and 9 year old boy) how that made them feel when something remarkable happened.  No, the two empty-handed kids didn’t say they were sad or complain about being left out like someone might expect.  The 6 year old (who happened to be my foster baby brother when I was a wee freshman in college 5 years ago!) takes his Band-Aid and hands it to the 4-year old girl without a single word.  Even though he has the same “invisible boo-boo”, he gives it to her with no complaints, no conditions, no bartering, nothing.  Just pure, unadulterated giving.  (Of course, mom and dad were ecstatic, I could tell.)

What does this mean for us today?  We see many people hurting in the world.  People go hungry even in our own town.  There are people who have nowhere to rest their head at night.  People are told that they are essentially second class citizens because they are part of the LGBT community and are “different” from the norm.  Women are downgraded and told that they are at fault when they are violated.  People are killed, just because they aren’t the same as others.  And most of us go by, living our lives, complaining when our smart phone is just a bit too slow at uploading an Instagram while we eat a mindlessly-paid-for burrito made by someone making minimum wage who is barely able to feed her children.  And it’s sad.  It really is.

This isn’t to say you necessarily have to give money to help those who are “in need”.  This isn’t to say necessarily that you have to go on a “mission trip” to some far off country to help bring food and clean water to those in underdeveloped countries.  This isn’t to say necessarily that you have to attend rallies for the freedom of all God’s children.

But what it does say is that when you see someone hurting, in whatever way, you give them that Band-Aid like my 6-year-old friend did.  No complaints, no conditions, no bartering, nothing.

How does this start?

By loving them unconditionally.

Why I’m Still Single

So, lately it’s seemed that those of us young folks who like progressive Christianity have a “post of the day” that we read, reblog, post on Facebook, retweet, text our friends about, and send information via carrier pigeon so all the world can know about it.  A few days ago, that post was entitled “My husband is not my soul mate”, written by a former-Evangelical-but-still-Christian woman who had since said “I Do” to the man she fell in love with.  Honestly, you should read the article (it’s not too long and quite enlightening, as well as funny).  I’ll wait.

Have you read it?  Good.  Now, I do relate to the article some, but not fully.  Why?  Well, the last I checked, I don’t have a ring on my left ring finger.  That’s right, I’m not married.  Or engaged.  Or in a relationship.  Or even in that weird phase known as “talking to” someone.  While I’ve had many opinions over the years as to why, I’ve finally determined why, in fact, I’m still single.  However, let’s first look at the things that are NOT reasons that I’m still single.

1. I am not single because God has a man waiting for me.  While the author of the article used Jeremiah 29:11 (the “infamous” graduation verse which states that “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”) while growing up to say “See!  I *will* have a husband that is, like, totes perf!”, I have had that verse used against me.  That’s right.  It’s been used against me.  When I have one of my sad, mopey, watch rom-coms and eat ice cream from the cartons days, people often come up and say “Just you be patient.  God has someone special picked out just for you!”  Well, I believe in God.  I believe he is all-powerful and wonderful and all that.  But, I believe he has more important things to do (you know…starving children, depletion of natural resources, people using his son’s name to propagate hate towards certain groups of people…) than find me my tall, blue-eyed, sports-loving, Christian, slightly geeky guy.  Honestly, if God was sitting up in heaven playing matchmaker like the woman from Mulan (with dignity, of course) instead of worrying about real problems, I’d be kinda mad.

2. I’m not single because I want to stay single forever.  One of my greatest dreams (which may sound odd from a feminist like myself) is to get married and have a family.  I absolutely adore children and would honestly feel unfulfilled in life if I never had any.  I teach children’s choir at my church, help with Vacation Bible School every year, and many kids at one of my workplaces (a store, in which I work in customer service) now know me and are quite joyful when they see me.  So yes, I do want a husband…one day.

3. I’m not single because I’m not “putting myself out there”.  I’ve actually had someone tell me (to my face) in one of those aforementioned mopey days that I’m single because of my own faults…and those faults being that I don’t put myself out there.  I do.  I go out on occasion (though less now, as I have to be up most mornings at 8am), have been told by many people that I’m quite flirtatious, and have profiles on a few dating sites (to quite little avail).  It’s not like I refuse to talk to anyone and then hide whenever I see a possible bachelor!

4. I’m not single because I’ve not met anyone potential.  To the contrary, I’ve met several “potentials”.  Some I’ve flirted with.  Some I’ve gone on lunch or coffee “dates” with.  Some I’ve liked for a while and then realized that they are most assuredly NOT my type.  I’ve met potential guys, but for whatever reason (be it his, mine, or any other), nothing has become manifest.

5. I’m not single because I’m too picky.  Some people say I’m picky when it comes to dating.  Well, here’s my “criteria”.  You must be never-married, be educated, not smoke, and be an accepting Christian (that is, a non-fundamentalist Christian).  Also, obviously, some traits, such as honesty, faithfulness, positive most of the time, and not being a jerk are givens.

I’ve had many people wonder why I’m single.  They say to me “Hey, you’re a great girl.  You’re nice, compassionate, pretty, funny, smart, etc…I don’t know WHY you’re single!”

I’ll tell you why.

I’m single because I choose to be.  That’s it.  Could I not be single?  Definitely.  But, for whatever reason, at this moment, I choose to be single.  Do I always love it?  No.  Especially as I see friend after friend get married, I realize that I don’t want to live a life of singlehood for long.  But, for now, I’m single.  And that is no one’s choice but my own.

And, who knows, maybe there is a tall, dark, and handsome young man with an accent who likes “Doctor Who”, Mexican food, and going on long hikes in the woods out there that’s looking for a short, slightly spastic, loud, opinionated young woman.

Or maybe there’s not.

And you know what?

That’s cool.

Because one day I’ll meet someone and we’ll pick each other to fall stupidly in love with.

But for now, I’m single.

And that’s okay.

Welcome!

Hey everyone!

So, I’ve finally decided to make a personal blog.  I’ll post all sorts of things, but mainly about my often confusing journey towards being a person that truly resembles Jesus of Nazareth, and not what many people sadly believe Christians to be.  My hope is that the legacy I leave behind in my life will, if not being one that fully “brings people to Christ” (gag me with a spoon for being so cliche), at least tell people that Christians are not all bigoted backwoods jerks that many believe.  Some of us do in fact TRULY love everyone.

So come with me on this journey of self-discovery!