Women in ministry?

I won't get heavily into this debate, because I don't have the energy at the moment. If you want to get some interesting reading on the topic, check out Scot McKnight's blog-- he has been posting about women in ministry over the last few weeks.

I want to share this article that Scot references in one of his posts from The Dallas Morning News. Southwestern Baptist Seminary recently fired a female professor who was a graduate of the seminary and was hired by the seminary to teach Hebrew. But the university fired her because she is a woman, and a woman cannot teach a man according to the seminary and Baptist theology in general. They claim a "lapse" in practice of their beliefs as a reason why they hired her in the first place.

Apparently, this is also causing serious debate amongst Baptists as well, because the central argument is whether or not Pauline texts regarding men's and women's positions in ministry refer to the office of pastors only (thus a woman can't pastor a man) or also includes teachers as well. SBC pastor Wade Burleson gives a great argument about it on his blog. I don't know much about Wade, but apparently his quest to get to the bottom of the professor's firing is becoming quite nasty, and the seminary is even beginning to accuse him of slander, but then refuses to release previously public meeting records that would prove Burleson's claims. Doesn't sound very Christian to me.......

I'm still digesting the article, so I will hold my position....for now.

The Ministry Report: Play Money

The Ministry Report: Play Money

An article from Ministry Today about money among ministers. I have seen this exact thing before and heard these exact same lines as well. Uggh...

The Ministry Report: The Devil in Burma

The Ministry Report: The Devil in Burma

A report about Christian persecution in Burma. I run across these often, but this one struck me for some reason, so I wanted to share for prayer.

Henri Nouwen drives me FROM distraction

I was perusing my Google reader (yes Jason, I am addicted), and read a blog post over at Next Reformation discussing the need to watch for the distractions of life drowning out the voice of God. The post ends with a quote from Henri Nouwen that I want to share:

“In a society in which entertainment and distraction are such important preoccupations, ministers are also tempted to join the ranks of those who consider it their primary task to keep other people busy. It is easy to perceive the young and the elderly as people who need to be kept off the streets or on the streets. And ministers frequently find themselves in fierce competition with people and institutions who offer something more exciting to do than they do.

“But our task is the opposite of distraction. Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God’s active presence in their lives. Hence, the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy; but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence.

“Calling people together, therefore, means calling them away from the fragmenting and distracting wordiness of the dark world to that silence in which they can discover themselves, each other, and God. Thus organizing can be seen as the creation of a space where communion becomes possible and community can develop.” Nouwen,”Way of the Heart”

Pastors on the tightrope

I went to college and earned a Pastoral Ministry degree. I knew enough from growing up in church and hearing snippets of gossip that a pastor can go from hero to pariah faster than you can blink. Always aware that being a pastor in a traditional church setting would be hard, I knew that it would be a tough life. I eventually decided that I would rather serve on an associate level, freed from the responsibility and the stress of being the man on top.

I want to present this article by Jim Rutz about the infamous Ted Haggard scandal. Jim's not really going to get into the specifics about what happened, but he is going to raise some hard questions about the pastoral position in American churches. This is exactly why I never wanted to be a "senior" pastor. Here are some snippets:

"Yet Ted was and is a saint, just like the rest of us who have genuinely been born again by the grace of God. Trouble is, we all have dirty habits. Ted was more like the reforming alcoholic who really wants to quit the bottle, except that he didn't have a close group of fellow alkies around to support him.

Ted probably has a personal prayer support team. But it's almost impossible for pastors to share their innermost problems, even with a select core of parishioner friends. The word about the pastor's weaknesses will eventually get out, and then he will be out of a job. It's lonely on that pedestal, and very slippery."

"We can blame Ted for not seeking help. But there is a much greater blame in this case, and it must be aimed at the pastor-centered church system that does not and cannot provide ongoing help and correction."

Ouch.
What really stinks is that the reason the help and correction is not there is because pastors often operate under a zero-tolerance policy, while those in the pews can make the same mistakes and as long as they make their weeping trek to the altar during revival week, they get off with little punishment. For pastors, correction is often a U-Haul and tarnished record. I've even heard of pastors who went out of state to get another church, and members of the church that fired him tracked him down and called his new church members and gossiped about the man, claiming they were operating "in love."

The dilemma for me is that I don't see how this can change within the traditional paradigm, because I don't think the traditional church is willing to give up the pastor pedestal as Rutz aptly calls it, so the problem spirals into a chicken or egg coming first argument. You need a new system to protect pastors and help them, but you have to eliminate the lofty perch they are forced to live on. Which one comes first?