text:
Next week, Dunedin will host Professor Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger. During her stay, she will deliver a public lecture (details below). If her books on pastoral care be any guide, this will be a 'Do Not Miss' event. If you are in Dunedin, I strongly encourage you to come along and, in the meantime, to help spread the word.
Category Archives: Pastoral Ministry
An ordination liturgy
In my perpetual hunt for liturgical resources that are theologically judicious (which means, among other things, being grounded enough in the earth as it is so as not to be spouting liturgical bullshit) – something which is not as easy a task as one might hope – I happened across this 'Ordination Liturgy' from the Methodist Church of Singapore:
We are not ordaining you to ministry; that happened at your baptism.
We are not ordaining you to be a caring person; you are already called to that.
We are not ordaining you to serve the Church in committees, activities, organisation; that is already implied in your membership.
We are not ordaining you to become involved in social issues, ecology, race, politics, revolution, for that is laid upon every Christian.
We are ordaining you to something smaller and less spectacular: to read and interpret those sacred stories of our community, so that they speak a word to people today; to remember and practice those rituals and rites of meaning that in their poetry address human beings at the level where change operates; to foster in community through word and sacrament that encounter with truth which will set men and women free to minister as the body of Christ.
We are ordaining you to the ministry of the word and sacraments and pastoral care. God grant you grace not to betray but uphold it, not to deny but affirm it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Well put, Methodists!
God and Story in Church and Doctrine: a seminar with Paul Fiddes
Carlton Johnstone's Embedded Faith – a review
Carlton Johnstone, Embedded Faith: the faith journeys of young adults within church communities (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013). ISBN: 9871625641236; 213pp.
A guest review by Geoff New
I have been aware of Carlton Johnstone's work for some time. The thought of reading his book was akin to the thought of going to the dentist; I probably need to but I'm scared of the pain that will no doubt result. The anticipated pain of reading this book was centred on the anxiety I held about the young adults in my congregation. Why? I'm jealous for the young adults in my congregation because I have pastored them since they were in primary school. The prospect of reading this work was like hearing what your children have been up to from other 'concerned parents'. Denial was a tantalising option. Nevertheless, I decided I needed a check-up so I read the book. Spoiler alert: insofar as the emotional effect upon me as a pastor, it was exactly as a dental assistant once said to me, 'Today dentistry is a painless exercise'. Surprisingly!
Allow me to begin with a generalisation. For a busy minister who will be choosy about what they read and for how long, Embedded Faith is not an easy read. It is very academic in style and its main discipline is sociological rather than theological. If you are intending to buy this book, it's important to know that. Also, this is not a how-to book; it is a what's-happening-and-why book. As a reader, you will find a helpful map of what lies ahead in the Introduction (pp. xvi–xvii). Orientate yourself with this and then begin reading with your own people in mind.
Allow me to continue with what might appear as a painfully obvious point. Different chapters and sections will resonate and challenge leaders depending on the nature of their context and the length of time they have been in such a place. For me, I was intrigued with the chapters entitled 'Worship and Modes of Engagement', and 'Preaching and Interpretative Communities'. What struck me about the findings articulated in these chapters was that with good authentic relationships with young adults, anxious leaders do not have a lot to be anxious about. Urban myths about what younger generations are after are debunked by the stories, experiences, and aspirations shared in these pages. Yes, there is work to be done but there is less of a them-and-us dynamic going on than is often claimed. This book, to a significant degree, is actually a tribute to the spirituality and conscientiousness of young adults that God has graced the church with.
The book reaches a conclusion where Carlton coins the phrase 'two-timing' to describe the spiritual practice of young adults attending two churches. At risk of over-simplifying this conclusion, a main feature is that it takes more than one church for the participants described in this book to enjoy spiritual nourishment. Outrageous? Well, in reading that section my mind went to Revelation 1–3 when the ascended and glorified Christ appeared to the apostle John on the island of Patmos. He then addressed the seven churches of Asia Minor at that time. His opening comment to each of the churches featured one or more aspect of the original description of Christ in Revelation 1.12–16; but no church had the entire vision presented. In other words, it took all seven churches to present the full vision of Christ. Maybe that's where this research is heading? By the book's end I was wishing for more application and reflection in terms of 'what-now?' It is there, but it is all too brief and general.
In my view, this work calls forth a commitment to a particular kind of open-hearted relationship with young adults. As mentioned earlier, it is not an easy read due to its academic style and referencing; but it is an empowering voice for young adults and encouraging for over-anxious pastors who feel like they are in the dentist chair.
Ed. In the spirit of both full disclosure and sheer delight, Carlton is one of my students. This means, among other things, that I am particularly happy to give his book a wee plug here at PCaL. – JG.
The 1884 Model Minister
It seems that Qoheleth was right, yet again:
All things are wearisome;
more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
or the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
'See, this is new'?
It has already been,
in the ages before us. (Eccl. 1.8–10)
[The image is taken from Ian Breward, '1871–1901: Clamant Needs, Determined Battlers', in Presbyterians in Aotearoa, 1840–1990, ed. Dennis McEldowney (Wellington: Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, 1990), 50.]
Abused by a priest
[Source: The Age, 17 May 2014]
Waiting Without Justification: Broodings on Vocation in Conversation with Merton's Letters
A guest post by Chris Green
Last summer, I read a collection of Thomas Merton's letters, The Hidden Ground of Love (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1985). I was affected most deeply by some of Merton's responses to the letters of then up-and-coming feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether, exchanges that took place in 1966 and '67, near the end of Merton's life—he died in December '68—and at the beginning of Reuther's career.
The correspondence begins with Ruether's letter of August 12, 1966. She is grateful to have heard of Merton's appreciation for an article she had recently published, and wonders if she might send him the manuscript of her work, The Church Against Itself. Their earliest letters are warm if lively exchanges, the friendly back-and-forth of kindred spirits. He's direct about his struggles with Catholic hierarchy—"I do wonder at times if the Church is real at all … Am I part of a great big hoax?"—and he always writes under the assumption that she shares his vision and his experience. Early in 1967, however, Ruether delivered a few stinging criticisms of the monastic life. In the following few letters, he writes with an edge, attempting to correct what he takes to be her fundamental misapprehension of his vocation. At points he stops just short of out-and-out rebuke. Still, he never hides the fact that her criticisms open old wounds in him, wounds that obviously have not healed and are not healing.
For example, in a letter dated 19 March, Merton remarks how he finds himself wanting to shake off his monastic orders, to make his way out to the "big-time struggle" in the world beyond his hermitage. Bluntly put, he wants to be "more effective" in real-world matters. He nonetheless insists that he cannot abandon his given way of life. To do so, he insists, would mark a "real betrayal of the Kingdom." In his experience, most if not all of the monks who abandon the monastery in hopes of making a more significant impact in the wider world soon lose their way entirely. So, in spite of himself, he knows he's not going to up and leave his post.
A few weeks after (in a letter from 9 April), Merton seems to reach a kind of resolution, writing that he's convinced he must pursue his own way, "marginal and lost" as it is, without any rationale or apology. The monk's life, he says, is not supposed to be explained, only lived.
But judging by the letters that follow, he hadn't really convinced himself.
Taken as a whole, these letters suggest that even after a quarter century of immersion in the monastic life, Merton could not rest in his calling. We sense, in and under his words, an agonizing unsettledness. If just for a moment he seems to have found his footing—some surety about what he's bound to do and why it's good for him to do it—the very next moment the ground drops out from under him. What troubles him most, it seems, is a nagging sense that he's not living truthfully, that somehow he's been deceived and so is deceiving others. In one of the March letters, Merton had admitted to Reuther that his previous responses weren't adequately honest, and that her criticisms, inaccurate as they may have been on some points, had nevertheless struck a nerve. He acknowledges the depth of his uncertainty:
Problem: unrecognized assumption of my own that I have to get out of here. Below that: recognition that life here is to some extent (not entirely) a lie and that I can no longer just say the community lies and I don't. With that: sense of being totally unable to do anything about it that is not a feeble gesture. But the genuine realization that this is my vocation, but that I have not yet found the way of being really true to it. Rock bottom: I don't know what is down there. I just don't know.
The monastic life, he acknowledges bluntly, is "an idol." Not that he despises his fellow monks. They are "idiots," he knows, but they remain nonetheless God's idiots—and just so are his brothers, his responsibility. He recognizes that it's his vanity that aches to belong to "a really groovy worldly in-group," and he knows better than to surrender to such temptation. The solidarity required of him begins with loving these very idiots, many of whom have given themselves over to what he can see as this idolatrous form of the monastic life. Such a life, which he cannot but experience as "exile, humiliation, desperation," he knows is nonetheless the chosen way for him—and better than whatever alternatives he might find for himself.
Again, however, Merton's resolution, such as it is, holds only for a little while. After a few months, the language of despair surfaces again:
I hang on in desperation to what I think I have been called to, trusting not in it but in the mercy of Christ, who knows better than I that it isn't real, but that it is at least a choice. And there don't seem to be more meaningful ones around, for me, all things considered.
What sustained Merton through all of this "exile, humiliation, desperation"? Not mere resignation—although he certainly sounds fatalistic at times. No, I think he had in his depths some small but lively hope that God was in fact using his unsettledness somehow for his (and others') good. He trusted, even against hope, that through this disquiet God was working to deliver him from damning fantasies and pretentions, saving him from delusions about the effectiveness of his work and from "wish-dreams" about the community to which he was called. He wanted to live free of such idolatries. And I think he tried at least to offer that kind of hope as a cry for mercy.
Maybe there is a kairos coming, but I have no notion where or when. I am in the most uncomfortable and unenviable position of waiting without any justification, without a convincing explanation, and without any assurance except that it seems to be what God wants of me and that this kind of desperation is what it means for me to be without idols—I hope.
Frederick Buechner has said that we find our vocation just at the point that our "deep gladness meets the world's deep need." For some people, perhaps, that turns out to be true. But at least for a few of us, vocation is not nearly so gladdening or fulfilling. For some of us, finding and living our calling feels at least at times like protracted martyrdom.
If that seems unnecessarily dire—or "unhealthy," as we are wont to say—we should perhaps recall the Lord's response to Paul's desire to have his "thorn" removed (2 Cor 12.7). I suspect that some of us simply cannot remain true to the gospel in any serious sense if we do not at least at times find ourselves "thorned" into desperation, if we are not riled by a sanctified and sanctifying discomfort. Like Merton, we won't be free to find the truth of our calling—or to learn how to be true to it—without also facing how untrue it all feels to us. Maybe we're never going to move into our vocation until we learn what it means to wait without justification or assurance in the fires of idol-destroying desperation? Perhaps such endurance becomes possible only as we're wasting away on the margins of what seems most important? Maybe it's only in exile that we find our way?
'The pastor as theological reader', by Cynthia L. Rigby
Last spring, one of the graduating M.Div. seniors at Austin Seminary asked us professors for a list of books he should read "sometime in his life." A heartening request, but it got even better. In the last few months, John has made it clear that he does not understand "sometime" to mean an ever-receding future in which he will (he hopes) have the time to read. On the contrary, John seems to think that "sometime" began the day after graduation. Last week, in fact, I received an e-mail which revealed that John is on schedule to complete five classics—by à Kempis, Bonhoeffer, Dillard, H. R. Niebuhr, and Moltmann—by this December. Inspiring, isn't it? But here's the catch: he has not yet taken a call. Will he be able to keep on reading, once he becomes a pastor?
Pastors commonly lament that they aren't able to keep up with the biblical languages. But in my conversations with pastors, frustration with keeping up with the theological literature is also conveyed. Frequent comments include: "There are just so many books out there—how do I know what to read?" "Why don't theologians write shorter books? When I do have time to work through one, I feel like the author could have gotten to the main point a lot sooner," and "Why don't theologians ever write books for pastors?" My sense is that pastors yearn to participate in the wider theological conversation, but do not want to have to fight their way in. Any of us could generate a dozen ideas for how pastors can be helped with their theological reading. Seminaries could provide bibliographies—and, possibly, "book reports" on specific theological works—on-line. Pastors could form reading groups that meet weekly to discuss and encourage one another. Churches could include a weekly "reading day" in pastors' job descriptions (try not to laugh).
Theology professors might help pastors strategize on how to read particular theologians, given their different emphases, styles, and contexts. For example, a professor might advise: (1) Be sure to keep a pocket dictionary of philosophical terms on your desk while reading Tillich; or (2) Don't worry, when reading Barth, if your mind wanders, here and there. Let his words wash over you like a piece of music by Mozart . . . eventually, he'll come back to whatever point you missed; or (3) Don't immediately assume Gutiérrez is wrong, just because you don't resonate with his argument. Allow him to let you "see" what theology looks like from a Latin American context.
While any of these strategies might be helpful in managing symptoms of the problem, I wonder if there is not also a need to address what underlies feelings of being overwhelmed, concerns about having too little time, and fears about wasting time on words that don't have immediate application to the "real world" work of ministry. As helpful as "how-to" advice can be, I have come to believe that the fundamental problem pastors have with reading theology is not a dearth of information regarding what and how to read, but an absence of the conviction that the theological conversation is their conversation.
In the remainder of this brief essay I will propose four points for reflecting on "how to read a theology book" that focus less on the doing of the reading and more on our being as readers. Instead of pushing you to "just do it" (read theology), I reflect on what it means to "really be it" (a reader of theology). The theology of the Reformation, in contrast to our cultural wisdom, teaches us that we don't create ourselves by doing. Nor does what we do (or not do) always reveal who we are, for we are sinful. Rather, what we do is to proceed from who we are: beloved children of God; brothers and sisters of Christ.
With this in mind, I suggest that the fundamental strategy for reading a theology book is to engage it as those who: remember who we are; revel in the richness of our inheritance; converse with our fellow heirs; and create with Christ as partners in the ministry of reconciliation. Let me explore the four facets of this strategy in greater detail.
SUCH IS A PLEASURE BEYOND COMPARE."—Kenko Yoshida
Week after week, pastors remind members of their congregations of who they are. "You are children of God," we tell them. "You are joined, at this Table, with Christians all around the world—from every time and place."
But how do these affirmations come into play—practically speaking—when we pick up a theology book and steal an hour to read? If we think of reading theology as something we do outside of community, as a kind of hunting for provisions to bring "home" to our congregations, it is no wonder we're frustrated when the hunt seems unsuccessful! In actuality, to spend an afternoon with a text like Calvin's Institutes is not to close ourselves off from the community in order to "study." Rather, it is to be intentional about creating a space to develop an intimate relationship with a fellow seeker of understanding, a crucial member of the community of faith. As we read, we hold in our hands a tangible link to brothers and sisters in Christ from "unseen generations." Like the bread that joins us to those who partake in different times and places, so the theology book has a sacramental quality—participating in a reality larger than the sum of the meanings of the words inside.
I wonder if pastors neglect their theological reading because, on some level, they understand it to be in tension with their calling to be with people. If reading a theology book means leaving the community behind or sitting in the proverbial "ivory tower," it's no wonder that ministers—and their congregations—are hesitant to make it a priority. But what if we were convinced that to read theology was to sit in the midst of the community, inviting the saints separated from us by time and space to enter into the circle with us? When we read as rememberers of who we are in relationship to others, our communal life is enriched by the physically absent who are really made present.
WOULD LET ME READ! MY BOOKS!"—Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Theological books abound, it seems. Many pastors, like Browning, have inherited box after box of dusty old books. But how many of us have heard them beating under our pillows?
We might approach our theology books with dread, rather than joy-full anticipation, because we are afraid they might defeat us in our struggle to read. With no intention to "nibble here and there"—but only to succeed in our mission to conquer—we are back on the hunt. And who can fault us, in our competitive context, for setting our sights high? For wanting to master the material?
Recognizing that it is impossible to read every word of every book, students sometimes ask me to help them formulate an attack plan. Perhaps seminaries should offer courses in speed reading, some have suggested. That way, graduates would have some hope of keeping up once they leave seminary and take a church.
Drawn by Browning's curious and playful spirit, I suggest that the "divide and conquer" approach to reading theology should be resisted. I wonder, instead, if "remembering" who we are as members of the Christian community can inspire us to approach our books with a spirit of revelry—knowing that the point isn't to learn it all; loving how much theology there is; immersing ourselves in it. When we pick up a theology book, we might imagine ourselves sitting in a room full of the treasures that are our inheritance, basking in the wonder that we can't begin to count how much there is. When we engage in our theological reading, we might envision ourselves encircled by colorful friends we can spend a lifetime getting to know. The goal of our reading, then, is not to master, control, or conquer, pleading for understanding whenever we haven't done what we know we should do. Rather, it is to live into our identity as members of the body of Christ: to enter into relationship; to revel in the possibilities; to open ourselves up to the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us; to hear the pulse.
KNOWLEDGE;IT IS THINKING THAT MAKES WHAT WE READ OURS."—John Locke
As rememberers who sit in the center of the circle and revel in the riches that surround us, one of our greatest joys is to enter into the conversation. To read theology books is not like entering a museum, where we might work our way around from display to display without feeling the need to announce our presence or opinions. On the contrary, if reading a theology book is about developing a relationship with a brother or sister in Christ, our active participation is required and desired. When we read a theology book, we are being called upon to make a thoughtful contribution to the circle itself.
Eager to engage the circle of witnesses who surround us, we should avoid reading theology books Siskel-and-Ebert style. The "thinking" which Locke advocates would shrivel from self-centered declarations about whether we agree or disagree with the author, or whether the book "works" for us. To offer a simple "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" in response to our theological reading is, again, to fall into a "hunt and conquer" rather than a "remember and revel" mentality.
Remembering who we are in relation to the authors of the theology books who surround us, we make theological ideas our own in the context of conversation. "Talking with" our theology books, then, requires committed attempts to understand what the other is saying, even when we disagree. It involves asking questions (OK . . . a bit difficult to do when you are reading a book and not talking to a "live" person . . . but try writing them in the margins and see if the author addresses them later). It respects the other enough to argue, rather than conveniently dismissing.
As we think about what we are reading, conversing with the witnesses who surround us, we will find that we are being shaped and molded in our Christian convictions. We begin, then, to read theology not only with the hope that we will find ideas for our next sermon or lecture series, but with the expectation that we will, indeed, be changed.
ASSOCIATE AND THE BOOKS YOU READ."—Charles Jones
We read theology as creatures called to participate in God's work of creation; as partners in the ministry of reconciliation and as ministers charged to tend the sheep of God.
But the charge to join in God's ongoing creative work comes with a reminder: We are creators not as God is Creator, for we create only as creatures. Our creative ministerial acts flow not from omnipotence or a never-ending store of Wisdom, but from the reality of our own ongoing creation. The replenishing of our resources that we seek when reading theology will not translate into effective ministry unless we ourselves are replenished. For theology books to get our creative theological juices flowing, we have to be created by them. And if we ask the reasonable question—how can we be created by a mere book?—it's time to go back to remembering. Theology books are not only books, but vehicles through which we enter into relationship with the communion of saints. Theology books are not to be attacked, and finished, and evaluated, but participated in, and conversed with, and nibbled again and again.
When we read theology in this way, our reading becomes less a matter of "something I work into my schedule because it's important" and more a reflection of who we are. Reading theology doesn't make us theologians; we read theology because we are theologians. As those who are called to speak words about God, how can we do otherwise than remember our relationship to the saints, revel in our inheritance, converse openly with one another, and create out of our ongoing re-creation in Christ? However we go about the logistics of our reading, let us seek to live into the truth that theology books are God's open-ended invitation to join in communion.
'The Minister' by Anne Stevenson
We're going to need the minister
to help this heavy body into the ground.
But he won't dig the hole;
others who are stronger and weaker will have to do that.
And he won't wipe his nose and his eyes;
others who are weaker and stronger will have to do that.
And he won't bake cakes or take care of the kids –
women's work. Anyway,
what would they do at a time like this
if they didn't do that?
No, we'll get the minister to come
and take care of the words.
He doesn't have to make them up,
he doesn't have to say them well,
he doesn't have to like them
so long as they agree to obey him.
We have to have the minister
so the words will know where to go.
Imagine them circling and circling
the confusing cemetery.
Imagine them roving the earth
without anywhere to rest.
– Anne Stevenson, 'The Minister', in The Collected Poems 1955–1995 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 62.
Some stuff on the stove
- Steve Holmes' little paper on 'The Politics of Christmas' is wonderful. (Our bible study group is planning to use it as a basis for discussion, and action, as we travel through Advent.)
- Tim Gombis shares some thoughts about what he's learned about teaching.
- Ben Myers posts a delightful reflection about toes.
- One artist makes some great Banksy GIFs.
- David Hayward offers 10 indefinitive reasons for why leaving pastoral ministry is difficult.
- Some curry love.
- Barbara Fister thinks it's time that libraries did something about the future of books. She also posts on judging journals.
- An interview with Rowan Williams on his debt to C. S. Lewis (HT: Paul Fromont).
- Speaking of RW, there's also info on his forthcoming Gifford Lectures.
- Halden Doerge shares a sermon on Luke 18.1-6, 'God's Fiction: A Sermon of Vulnerability'
- Peter Leithart on Alexander Schmemann on the eucharist.
- Neville Callam, the General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, calls upon Baptists to revive the practice of the veneration of the saints:
Shouldn't Baptist churches retrieve the practice of venerating the saints, that is, engaging in corporate worship acts designed not to worship the saints, but to remember, honor, learn from, and celebrate saints from our Baptist family and from other Christian communions? Until we regularly include commemoration of the saints in our worship celebrations, we will continue to neglect the opportunity to give proper value to those from our past who have borne courageous witness to faithful discipleship. Commemorative acts done in our Sunday morning services would provide a suitable accompaniment for the tradition some have already developed as part of their Vacation Bible School program, in which stories are told of great spiritual leaders worthy of emulation … [HT: Steven Harmon]
- Some good stuff here from Richard Bauckham, author of the tremendously helpful book The Theology of the Book of Revelation, speaking with Ben Witherington about the Book of Revelation:
[Image: from Old Picture of the Day]
Review: Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us About Surviving and Thriving
Bob Burns, Tasha D. Guthrie and Donald C. Guthrie, Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told us about Surviving and Thriving (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2013). ISBN: 978-0-8308-4103-5; 312pp.
A guest-review by Kevin Ward.
This is a book which every person working as a minister of the gospel would benefit from reading – indeed, more than reading, but also reflecting on and, in light of that, making changes to how they live and work. We are all aware that many of those who enter ministry in response to what they perceive as a life time calling drop out within a relatively short period of time. Precious few of those I trained with nearly four decades ago are still in church ministry. What kills them off is not what goes into sermons or worship services but, as the authors of this book point out, matters of life skills, behaviour patterns and character. This book not only identifies the core issues but also makes suggestions of what needs to change and how to action that.
Rather than just building on anecdotal evidence or personal experience, the book is based on solid scientific research. The team created three pastoral peer groups or cohorts (who were primarily Presbyterian) who met three times a year for two years. They were interviewed to identify the ministry issues they wanted to discuss. They then read books on those subjects, listened to experts who were brought in and then discussed the issues in their groups. The discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed.
From the transcripts, the researchers identified five themes that they believe are keys to sustaining pastoral excellence. These were:
1. Spiritual formation. Ministers can be so busy in the multiple tasks of ministry that they neglect their own spiritual wellbeing, the source from which ministry flows. They need to internalise the spiritual rhythms of reflection, worship, sabbath and prayer.
2. Self-care. The ongoing development of the whole person: physical, mental, emotional, relational. This involves a range of practical issues including identifying allies and confidants, establishing an exercise routine, planning intellectual development and holidays and creating and keeping good boundaries.
3. Emotional and cultural intelligence. These are related to being aware of oneself and also attentive to and aware of other people, places and social dynamics. Much has been written recently about the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership but the awareness of cultural intelligence, crucial in our increasingly diverse world, is only just emerging.
4. Marriage and family. Unlike many jobs ministers are never really 'off the clock', and so the demands of ministry can constantly intrude on marriage and family time. It is, then, critical to be intentional about giving focussed uninterrupted time to spouse and children. The significance of the contribution of the spouse to a minister's resilience in ministry came through again and again.
5. Leadership and management. I found these chapters full of good insight and found helpful the way they talked about these as the 'poetic' and the 'plumbing' side of leadership, both of which are essential to good and resilient ministry. The management side can be found addressed in many books but the poetic side of leadership is much more intuitive and harder to explain and there are some helpful concepts here.
As well as having lots of good information the book has questions for personal evaluation and reflection throughout, as well as suggestions for further reading and exploring through media. This is an area I have taught in for the past 15 years or so, and this book is as a helpful as any I have come across. It is both informed and practical. As well as its personal use for ministers, it would be ideal for a group of ministers to read and discuss together and perhaps also to work through with the lay leadership in their church. I certainly intend using it as an important text for my students.
[Those interested in reading more on this topic might like to check out Jason's series On the Cost and Grace of Parish Ministry]
October stations …
- Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education by Edward Farley
- Piecing Together a Shared Vision: The 1987 Boyer Lectures by Davis McCaughey
- I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
- Montana 1948: A Novel by Larry Watson
- Later Calvinism International Perspectives edited by W. Fred Graham
- Calvinus sacrarum literarum interpres: Papers of the International Congress on Calvin Research edited by Herman J. Selderhuis
- Commentary on the Basis of Union of the Uniting Church in Australia, by J. Davis McCaughey
- Letter to D: A Love Letter by Andre Gorz
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
- Clergy: The Origin of Species by Martyn Percy
- Rudolf Bultmann: a Biography by Konrad Hammann
- Even as We Speak by Clive James
- The Twits by Roald Dahl
- Karl Barth: Studies of His Theological Methods edited by S. W. Sykes
- Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing by Melissa Mohr
- Honest Doubt: The History Of An Epic Struggle by Richard Holloway
- The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth's Theology by Eberhard Busch
- The Vicar of Nibbleswicke by Roald Dahl
- The Shape of Living by David F. Ford
- Reunion Hill by Richard Shindell
- Cloud Lining by Enda Kenny & Lindsay Martin. [I saw these guys play a gig a few weeks back here in Dunedin. 'Twas certainly one of the best shows I've seen in NZ.]
- Reunion by Lucy Kaplansky
- Ten Year Night by Lucy Kaplansky
- The Red Thread by Lucy Kaplansky
- Over the Hills by Lucy Kaplansky
- Flesh & Bone by Lucy Kaplansky
- Cry Cry Cry by Lucy Kaplansky
- Every Single Day by Lucy Kaplansky
- Greatest Hits Live by Hunters & Collectors
- Gathering Mercury (Limited Edition) by Colin Hay
- Going Somewhere by Colin Hay
- Man at Work by Colin Hay
- Are You Lookin' At Me? by Colin Hay
- American Sunshine by Colin Hay
- Looking for Jack by Colin Hay
- Transcendental Highway by Colin Hay
- Topanga by Colin Hay
- Company of Strangers by Colin Hay
- Wayfaring Sons by Colin Hay
- Peaks & Valleys by Colin Hay
Link love
- Neil Gaiman on why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming
- Kim Fabricius' last 'letter' to his congregation
- Kim Fabricius' farewell sermon
- Ben Myers asks Why go to church?
- ANZATS issues a call for papers
- Wendell Berry on the politics of gay marriage
- Robert Manne on Why Rupert Murdoch can't be stopped
- David Suzuki on Q&A
- Roxanne Missingham on the death of the academic book and the path to Open Access
- Christine Cheyne on New Zealand's Resource Management Act and why not a good model for Australia (or for anywhere else for that matter, including here in NZ)
discussion with James Alison and Brian McLaren
- Theology Studio's wide-ranging interview with Rowan Williams
- J. M. Coetzee reviews The Hanging Garden by Patrick White
- Fresh revelations of cruelty to Australian sheep in Jordan. [I have posted on live animal exports before]
Leunig love
[Source: The Age]
Orders of Service for a Tangihanga and an Unveiling: A resource manual for worship leaders
The Rev Wayne Te Kaawa, the Moderator of Te Aka Puaho (the Māori Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand) has helpfully produced a bilingual Māori and English resource for ministers and worship leaders who may need resources to aid them with a tangi, funeral and unveiling. It can be downloaded here.
Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sam Shammas, The Jesus Storybook Bible Curriculum Kit – a review
Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sam Shammas, The Jesus Storybook Bible Curriculum Kit (Grand Rapids: Zondervan; 2012) – a review
A guest post by Judy Goroncy (the great)
Over the past two terms, our church's Sunday School has been using The Jesus Storybook Bible Curriculum, the focus of which is to teach 'the Story beneath all the stories in the bible'. As the product description has it:
There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories together tell one Big Story: The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the centre of the Story, there is a baby.
The Jesus Storybook Bible (JSBB) includes 21 stories from the Old Testament, and 23 from the New Testament. Each week's accompanying lesson is based on one of the stories and follows a similar structure – a time to recap previous stories, a relevant activity, the story time (which can be presented by either the teacher, or with the use of the accompanying DVD/CD), unpacking the story (technically called exegesis), reflection on Jesus's location in the story, prayer, learning the memory verse, and completion of a hand-out. One of the real strengths and blessings of the programme is that it is concerned at every point to teach the great Story of the Bible rather than focus attention on presenting a series of seemingly unrelated ancient religious stories that remain largely unconnected to their principle purpose. Every part of the JSBB, in other words, is concerned to bear witness to the One who is God's principal revelation; namely, Jesus. 'Every story in the Bible whispers his name'.
We have found the programme to be geared more towards children aged 4–7. However, those aged 2–10 seemed to all benefit from and enjoy it too. Accounting for holidays and other 'interruptions', the curriculum takes about a year-and-a-half to work through. The lessons are easy to prepare, are clearly set out, and come with various helpful media aids. Because the lessons are presented chronologically, connections can be made between the stories and so enable children – and their teachers too – to build on what they have learnt in previous weeks. Hand-outs provide not only an opportunity for children to revisit the teaching and memory verses, but also assist and encourage parents/caregivers to be aware of what the kids are learning at Sunday School, and so encourage further discussions about the Story beyond the Sunday morning.
Despite there being so much focus on the Bible, learning memory verses, learning books of the Bible, etc., we have felt it imperative that the children look up the verses in their own Bible (a real one and not the JSBB). While this component is not specified in the curriculum, we believe that it is vital that the children have an understanding that all the stories come from the 'actual' Bible and that they become familiar with and are able to look up books, chapters and verses in their own Bible.
As we draw near to the end of the Old Testament section, the children are enjoying opportunities to present what they have learnt to the rest of the congregation, typically through the Sunday morning service. They present an overview of the key events and people in the Old Testament in the form of drama, bible readings, memory verses and song, using all to bear witness to God's Great Rescue Plan in Jesus.
I cannot recommend this curriculum highly enough. Too often, our children's programmes are so geared at entertainment, or are so diluted of content, that the true message of what Christ has done is lost. This programme takes seriously God's love, our sin, and that we need Jesus, our Saviour, to redeem us and our lost world.
'Ministry As Difficult As It Ought to Be', by Will Willimon
Will Willimon's latest piece, a version of an article previously-published in The Christian Century, is well worth the read. It's entitled 'Ministry As Difficult As It Ought to Be', and I thought it worth reproducing here. Willimon's words speak powerfully to pastors, to theological educators, to church committees set up to discern/assess calls about future pastors, and more:
"See our big buildings?" asked the Medical School Dean as he swept his hand across the panorama of the Duke Medical Center. "Their purpose is production of a handful of doctors who can be trusted to be alone with a naked patient. Takes us four years."
I repositioned the Dean so that he faced the less impressive neogothic Divinity School. "That's where we teach our seminarians to be in awkward situations with naked, vulnerable parishioners. It only takes us three years."
After two quadrennia as a church bureaucrat, slogging in the muck and mire of ecclesiastical trenches — sending pastors to remote, unappealing locations where Jesus insists on working — I'm again teaching in that amazing countercultural phenomenon called a seminary.
I was honored to serve with eight hundred fellow clergy who risked United Methodism in Alabama, though I leave behind a subpoena and three law suits; don't tell Governor Bentley that I've now fled the state.
Being bishop gave me a front row seat to observe ministry in the Protestant mainline that is being rapidly sidelined. Pastoral leadership of a mainline congregation is no picnic. My admiration is unbounded for clergy who persist in proclaiming the gospel in the face of the resistance that the world throws at them. Now, as a seminary professor, I'm eager to do my bit in the classroom to prepare new clergy for the most demanding of vocations.
Consumer Corrupted Clergy
From what I saw, too many contemporary clergy limit themselves to ministries of congregational care-giving – soothing the fears of the anxiously affluent. One of my pastors led a self-study of her congregation. Eighty percent responded that their chief expectation of their pastor was, "Care for me and my family."
I left seminary in the heady Sixties, eager to be on the front line in the struggle for a renaissance of the church as countercultural work of God. By a happy confluence of events, the church was again being given the opportunity to be salt and light to the world rather than sweet syrup to enable the world's solutions to go down easier.
Four decades later as bishop I saw too many of my fellow clergy allow congregational-caregiving and maintenance to trump other more important acts of ministry like truth-telling and mission leadership. Lacking the theological resources to resist the relentless cloying of self-centered congregations, these tired pastors breathlessly dashed about offering their parishioners undisciplined compassion rather than sharp biblical truth.
North American parishes are in a bad neighborhood for care-giving. Most of our people (at least those we are willing to include in mainline churches) solve biblically legitimate need (food, clothing, housing) with their check books. Now, in the little free time they have for religion, they seek a purpose-driven life, deeper spirituality, reason to get out of bed in the morning, or inner well-being – matters of unconcern to Jesus. In this narcissistic environment, the gospel is presented as a technique, a vaguely spiritual response to free-floating, ill-defined omnivorous human desire.
A consumptive society perverts the church's ministry into another commodity which the clergy dole out to self-centered consumers who enlist us in their attempt to cure their emptiness. Exclusively therapeutic ministry is the result. I saw fatigue and depression among many clergy whom I served as bishop. Debilitation is predictable for a cleros with no higher purpose for ministry than servitude to the voracious personal needs of the laos.
The 12 million dollar Duke Clergy Health study implies that our biggest challenge is to drop a few pounds and take a day off. If you can't be faithful, be healthy and happy. I believe that our toughest task is to love the Truth who is Jesus Christ more than we love our people who are so skillful in conning us into their idolatries.
Seminaries, Wake Up
Yet I must say that by comparison, the poor old demoralized mainline church, for all its faults, is a good deal more self-critical and boldly innovative than the seminary. Our most effective clergy are finding creative ways to critique the practice of ministry, to start new communities of faith, to reach out to underserved and unwelcomed constituencies, and to engage the laity in something more important than themselves. Alas, seminaries have changed less in the past one hundred years than the worship, preaching, and life of vibrant congregations have changed in the last two decades.
As bishop I served as chair of our denomination's Theological Schools Commission. Most of our seminaries are clueless, or at least unresponsive, to the huge transformation that is sweeping through mainline Protestantism. We have so many seminaries for one reason: the church has given seminaries a monopoly on training our clergy with no accountability for the clergy they produce. Increasing numbers of our most vital congregations say that seminary fails to give them the leadership they now require. Oblivious to our current crisis, seminaries continue to produce pastors for congregational care-giving and institutional preservation. The result is another generation of pastors who know only how to be chaplains for the status quo and managers of decline rather than leaders of a movement in transformational faith. As a fellow bishop said, "Seminaries are still cranking out pastors to serve healthy congregations, giving us new pastors who are ill equipped to serve two-thirds of my churches."
In just a decade, United Methodists, various Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians will have half of our strength and resources – judgment upon our unfaithful limitation of ministry to a demographic (mine) that is rapidly exiting. After decades of study, finger-pointing and blaming, we now know that a major factor in our rapid decline is our unwillingness to go where the people are and to plant new churches. Yet few traditionalist mainline seminaries teach future pastors how to start new communities of faith.
My new pastors repeatedly told me: "We got out of seminary with lots of good ideas but without the ability to lead people from here to there." "I've learned enough to know that something is bad wrong with the current church but I don't know where to begin to fix it." Seminaries produce clergy rich in ideas but impoverished in agency, well-intentioned in care giving but deficient in leadership.
After interviewing a dozen seminarians at one of our prestigious seminaries, I asked my District Superintendents, "How many interviewees could be helpful in the work that we believe God has assigned us in Alabama?"
They identified two of the twelve. "Seminaries are run by professors whose life goal is acquisition of academic tenure," said one DS. "Why ask the seminary to give us innovators who take risks and hold people accountable for their discipleship?"
We found that too many of our pastors want to be John on Patmos, dreaming dreams and seeing visions, when what we badly need is Paul in Corinth, doing the tough, persistent, measureable work required to initiate new communities of faith. If that much touted moniker "servant leader" means anything, it means someone who is willing to submit to what the institution now needs doing for the common good in this time and place. Mainline churches who want to be part of God's future need leadership by impatient instigators rather than patient caretakers for the ecclesial status quo.
Our Board of Ordained ministry habitually asked candidates unrevealing questions like, "What are your gifts and graces for ministry?"
Surprise, the would-be pastors were incredibly gifted.
I got the Board to ask behavioral questions like, "When is the last time you started a ministry?" "Tell us about your most recent failure in the church. What did you learn?" No ventures, no leadership; no failures, no initiatives.
Don't dismiss my criticism of seminaries as due to anxiety about a dying institution. Though anxiety is an appropriate response to death, my impetus for concern is Christological. Scripture renders a living agent on the move. "God never rests!" thunders Barth. The Lord of the church means to reign over a far more expansive realm than the church. Nothing in the message or work of Christ justifies a settled, parochial, sedate, care-giving style of ministry that comforts one generation (the average Methodist is 59), cares for aging real estate, and ceases all efforts to get the news to a violent, despairing world that, in Jesus Christ, God is decisively doing something about what's wrong with the world.
So in this semester's The Local Church in Mission class rather than have students write a paper on their theology of mission, I'm having them attempt to start up some mission in a church context. Then they are to tell me what they have learned about the leadership skills they need to obtain if they are to be a pastor in a North American church that finds itself in a missionary situation.
One of my pastors succeeded in planting a congregation in a marginalized, primarily Spanish-speaking community (where we have closed three churches in the past ten years). I spent a day with her, primarily to urge her to go back to school and finish her seminary education. During the course of the day she told me that in her previous life she had started three restaurants. Two failed, one finally succeeded. I not only understood why God had used her so effectively in this church start but also why I ought to put her in charge of our new church development rather than send her to seminary.
Seminaries have got to find ways to listen to the church's cry for bold, transformative clergy leaders to serve the church in the present hour or seminaries face a bleak prospectus.
Theological Refurbishment
Seminaries must remember that the most interesting thing about clergy is not that we have acquired savvy management skills or have been given esoteric knowledge that is unavailable to the lowly baptized. The One who calls and makes clergy, the One who is in ministry and mission rocking the world (whether we are or not) is ultimately the only good reason to be a pastor. Leadership in the name of Jesus is inherently energetic, transformative leadership that challenges and enables Christians to participate in the ever-expanding Realm of God. Pastors have the privilege of expending our lives for someone more important than ourselves or our congregations. We get to serve a people on the move because they are in the grip of a God who refuses to be God alone and leave us to our own devices.
After my prattling about how the sixth century prophets inform our work as pastors, a surly seminarian piped up, "So Jesus explains how you got to be pastor of a large church and a bishop?" Being a seminary professor is more difficult than it looks.
As I look out upon the students in my Intro to Christian Ministry class, I hear Jesus say, "Hey, I'm doing my part to give your church a future. I'm giving you all the resources you need to be faithful."
Then I hear Jesus sneer, "Would you people at Duke try not to bore to death those whom I've summoned to give your church a future?"
I agonized with a pastor about what he could do to stop his congregation from self-destruction. Had he tried a consultant? Yes. Had he secured a crisis counselor? Yes.
"I keep thinking that maybe our disintegration is not something I did or didn't do," the pastor said, "or even due to our bad history. I wonder if our demise is caused by Jesus."
"Maybe Jesus has used our way of being church as much as he intends. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is moving somewhere else? Only Jesus can birth a church; maybe he's the only one who's got a right to kill it."
How willing are we clergy to risk service to such a demanding Savior?
Seminary's grand goal? Theological education makes ministry in the name of Jesus Christ as difficult as it ought to be. In sending each new wave of pastors, seminaries have the opportunity to theologically regenerate the church, giving the church and its pastoral leaders some canon of measurement greater than institutional health or cultural relevance. Seminarians come to us more adept at construal of their world through a-theistic categories, most of them purloined from the reigning social sciences, than theological canons. Our job is to train the church's leaders in a rigorously theological refurbishment of the church.
Training people to minister in the name of Jesus is a huge challenge — because of Jesus. His vision of a new, reborn humanity, the extravagant reach of his realm, the constant outward, Trinitarian momentum, the command not only to belief the faith but also to enact and embody the faith, Christ's revelation of the God whom we did not expect, Christ's determination to save sinners, only sinners, all make leadership in Jesus' name a daunting task.
I received a heated email from a long-time member of one of my churches complaining that during the Sunday service the pastor had prayed for the salvation of Osama bin Laden. "We don't pay a preacher to pull a stunt like that," whined the lay leader.
I called the pastor, explaining to him that his behavior was difficult for the laity to handle, asking him if he had used good judgment to pray such a thing during our national crisis.
With distinct annoyance the pastor replied, "Just for your information bishop, I happen to believe that the Jew who said, 'Pray for your enemies and bless those who persecute you,' is the Son of God."
In my courses I face a two-fold challenge: responsibility to hand over what we've learned in two thousand years of leading in the name of Jesus, indoctrinating a new generation of pastors into the God-given wisdom of the church and taunting would-be pastoral leaders to step up and help the church think, pray, and act our way out of our present malaise.
"Here kid, watch me now," I say in my classes, "here's the way my generation tried to serve the church and its mission. Now, here's my list of failures and disappointments. God has sent you to overcome my generation's limitations in doing church. Go for it!"
In spite of my best intentions, my classes in ministry sometimes degenerate into techniques for success, managerial tips and tricks, and irresistible, knock down arguments for effective ministry; atheism that ministers as if God doesn't matter.
Still, my students keep calling me back to the theological wonders that convene us, another benefit of working almost exclusively among those who outrageously believe that they have been summoned, commandeered, called by God to leadership in the Body of Christ. Whatever God wants to do with the world, God has decided to do it with them.
The paradigmatic story of their enlistment is Exodus 3, the call of Moses. (We made our entering students read Gregory's Life of Moses to prepare them for Duke Divinity.) When summoned to leadership, Moses asks, "Who are you that you should send me?"
Moses cannot represent a deity without knowing the peculiar identity of the God who sends him against the empire. Nor can we. The best work we do in the seminary classroom is investigation and reiteration of the identity of the Triune God who, in every time and place, summons the people required to help the church to be faithful, giving them the grace needed to keep ministry as difficult as God needs it to be.
I begin my class by asking students to describe, in less than five pages, how they got to seminary, "My Call to Christian Leadership." Reading those papers is a faith-engendering experience. People jerked out of secure positions in perfectly good professions, bright young things commandeered and shoved into a very different life trajectory, a nurse to whom Jesus personally appeared on a patio. All I could say, when I finished reading those papers was, "Wow. Jesus is more interesting (and dangerous) than even I knew."
Do you love me?
Stanley Hauerwas is always worth listening to. Here he is preaching on Jesus' words, 'Do you
believe in love me?', at the recent closing convocation at Duke Divinity School:
The Hobbit(s) and the call to ministry
On Mondays, Wednesdays and the occasional Saturday evening, ministers are a little bit like hobbits. As a result of his encounter with the 'fierce and jealous love' of the dwarves, Bilbo Baggins, we are told, 'got up trembling':
He had less than half a mind to fetch the lamp, and more than half a mind to pretend to, and go and hide behind the beer barrels in the cellar, and not come out again until all the dwarves had gone away. Suddenly he found that the music and the singing had stopped, and they were all looking at him with eyes shining in the dark.
For some of us, that's how the call to train for pastoral ministry happens – where love and joy lead to confusion and timidity which in turn lead to the cessation of music and to finding oneself in the spotlight examined carefully by probing 'eyes shining in the dark'.
When our assumptions are challenged, when our faith is stirred, when things once familiar become the new unknown, when we find ourselves travelling 'too near the mountains' in unguarded territory seldom traversed by ecclesial wayfarers, and when all we have in our kit are 'old maps' which are of 'no use' in this new terrain, it may be that at that point we have begun, like Abraham and Sarah and Mr Baggins, on a quest that will leave us and the future different.
Colourful and noisy and undersized hobbits enter the quest, as Tolkien reminds us in his 'Notes on W. H. Auden's review of The Return of the King', not to preserve 'this or that polity, such as the half republic half aristocracy of the Shire', but rather to engage in 'liberation from … evil tyranny'. Such words serve as a reminder of our calling too, that the people of God are not called to preserve that familiar life that they had known in the Shire but rather to imagine a future in which all of life's enemies have been overcome, and to direct all their efforts towards that end. Along the way, they not only lose their reputation, but they also carry unanswered questions, all the while knowing that there can be no going back. Nor, as Bilbo was to discover, can there be anything to be gained by going sideways. And it is precisely in both the refusal to abandon questions and the determination to move forward nonetheless that Bilbo and his company of friends discover that prudence is not about worldly cleverness but is rather about uncomplicated minds and wills conformed to a life of virtue, of boundless mercy, and of unbending devotion to the destruction of that which would undo their very being. It is to this end, we hope, that the church's hobbits will direct their efforts.
And along the way, may they learn from Galdalf and Aragorn and their other companions that
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost,
From the ashes afire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king.
Towards a Modest and Messy Manifesto for Pastors: a draft
In just over a week, the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership will be welcoming a new group of ministry interns. This is often nearly as exciting as it is sad to say goodbye to those ones who are completing their studies with us. In addition to writing some new lectures, I've also been thinking about putting together a wee list of items of counsel for new (and old) ministers to consider and discuss. Of course, such a list could be endless, or radically brief. But here are 54 little tidbits that I came up with/stole today:
- Remember your baptism. Creep back into the font regularly.
- 'Let nothing be done by force; let everything be done in freedom and love'.[1]
- Do not neglect the gift of prayer. Pray especially when you don't have time to pray, when prayer makes the least sense, and when God's aliveness seems the least likely version of reality.
- Read Scripture devotionally. Immerse your mind, your heart, your wallet, your time and your conscience in Scripture. This means reading the Bible for your sake, and not merely in order to mine passages that can be 'used' for some purpose other than hearing the Word of God for yourself. To read devotionally also entails a commitment to letting Scripture read you.
- Read Scripture in a scholarly way. Commit yourself to the disciplined study of Scripture, preferably in the original languages. Pastoral ministry is about three things: Exegesis, exegesis and exegesis. 'Plow [Scripture] like a farmer, furrow after furrow' (Eduard Thurneysen).
- Read newspapers in a scholarly way. Commit yourself to disciplined study of the newspaper. Pastoral ministry is about three things: Exegesis, exegesis and exegesis.
- Immerse yourself in the thought and writings of 2–3 significant thinkers for the next 20 years or more. Let them teach you, pastor you, advise you in various pastoral situations. Argue with them heaps, and learn from them.
- Always have (at least) one serious theological book on the go. Something like Dostoyevsky's The Brother's Karamazov or St Basil's treatise On the Holy Spirit are worthy options.
- Regularly read paragraphs from P.T. Forsyth's Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind and The Soul of Prayer, from Karl Barth's The Word of God and the Word of Man, from Alexander Schmemann's For the Life of the World, and from Athanasius' On the Incarnation.
- Always have (at least) one novel or collection of poetry on the go, and read from it daily. Not only will this increase your chances of avoiding insanity, but it will make you a better theologian, pastor and preacher. Like sore thumbs and monotonous crickets are those untrustworthy and boring souls who don't read novels and/or poetry.[2]
- Whatever the situation, always begin by asking the 'Who' question; i.e., 'Who is Jesus Christ today, here and now?'[3] There may well come a time when you feel that the 'Why' and 'How' questions matter too, but they can wait their proper turn.
- In every situation, recall that humanity has been given one Great High Priest and that such a person is not you. Christian ministry has no justification or power or acceptance except that it be a participation, by the Spirit, in the vicarious humanity of the Son who, as the second (or last) Adam, leads creation and its priests into the worship and joy of the Father and into the service of the Father's world.[4]
- In every situation, remember that every believer – and not just those with dog-collars (or their 'secular' equivalents) – receives from God all of the Great High Priest's benefits and shares in what he is doing now.
- Every now and then, read 1 Peter 4 and, more than every now and then, 2 Corinthians.
- Learn to trust the people close to you.
- Learn to be suspicious of the people close to you.
- 'Many people will want to give you advice. Mostly this says more about them than about you' (Mary-Jane Konings).
- Hang out regularly – and informally – with a more seasoned minister. When you meet, beer and pizza should be the only additional default items.
- Hang out regularly – and informally – with peers. When you meet, beer and pizza – or beer and good Indian food – should be the only additional default items.
- Hang out regularly – and informally – with those you can mentor. When you meet, beer and pizza – or just beer – should be the only additional default item(s).
- Keep a whiteboard marker in the shower for those moments of inspiration.
- Despise and avoid romantic visions of Christian community. So Bonhoeffer: 'God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own laws, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of the brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself. Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients. We thank God for giving us brethren who live by his call, by his forgiveness, and his promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what he does give us daily. And is not what has been given us enough: brothers, who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of his grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Christ Jesus? Thus, the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by the one Word and Deed which really binds us together – the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship'.[5]
- Give thanks often and don't complain about your church, not even to God: 'If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ. This applies in a special way to the complaints often heard from pastors and zealous members about their congregations. A pastor should not complain about his congregations, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men. When a person becomes alienated from a Christian community in which he has been placed and begins to raise complaints about it, he had better examine himself first to see whether the trouble is not due to his wish dream that should be shattered by God; and if this be the case, let him thank God for leading him into this predicament. But if not, let him nevertheless guard against ever becoming an accuser of the congregation before God. Let him rather accuse himself for his unbelief. Let him pray to God for understanding of his own failure and his particular sin, and pray that he may not wrong his brethren. Let him, in the consciousness of his own guilt, make intercession for his brethren. Let him do what he is committed to do, and thank God … What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature'.[6]
- 'Your church is not a reflection of you. It's success doesn't make you great; it's failures don't make you one. It's really not about you' (Carolyn Francis).
- Retain a private phone number, and that if for no other reason than that your partner and kids will be grateful.
- Remember that God has been calling people do to this impossible stuff for long before you came on the scene, and that you're dreadfully unlikely to be the last.
- Don't seek honour and don't give a toss about who is the greatest (see Luke 9.46). As Bonhoeffer put it, 'The desire for one's own honor hinders faith. One who seeks his own honor is no longer seeking God and his neighbour … Every cult of personality that emphasizes the distinguished qualities, virtues, and talents of another person … is worldly and has no place in the Christian community; indeed, it poisons the Christian community … The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus … The root of all sin is pride'.[7] Or, as Jesus put it, 'change and become like little children' (Matt 18.3).
- Fish, or garden, or tramp, or climb trees, or keep bees, or just do something that reminds you that you and this earth belong together, that you are made of dust, and to dust you will return. There is, we are reminded, 'no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman'.[8]
- Learn a musical instrument, or paint, or cook. Human vocation involves undoing the curse of tastelessness and boringness that exists within creation, of adding value to creation itself, and of bearing witness to the wonderful truth that in the end all is music.
- Avoid ecclesiocentricity. The end game, after all, is not the church but the new creation. Consequently, those whose entire identity is wrapped up in churchly matters are not only living a lie but are failing to bear witness to the true nature of reality.
- Avoid ecclesioisolation: 'Let him [or her] who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him [or her] who is not in community beware of being alone'.[9]
- Cultivate the gifts of friendship. This is a biggie, and its neglect is the cause of much pain in the minister, of much scandal in the church, and of much lying in the world.
- Start to seriously worry if you never change your mind about important things.
- Anticipate being surprised about God's location and shape: 'I can never know beforehand how God's image should appear in others'.[10]
- While we're speaking of anticipations, if you anticipate wanting something changed at the manse, or in the proposed 'job description' (Is there anything more ugly or category-confusing for a minister to have to contend with than one of these awfully-heretical documents?), agree on it early and be done with it.
- Because there is an inevitable unfinishedness about the routines of ministry, many ministers find it helpful to 'pursue a hobby where you can complete projects regularly' (Mary-Jane Konings).
- Minister out of your love life with God. Better still, minister out of God's love life with you.
- Love the people that God has entrusted to your care. Live in solidarity with them, rejoice with them, cry with them and, if called upon, die for them. This includes your own family.
- For those with partners, never underestimate the gift that your partner's eyes (and those of your kids too) are for noticing things within and outwith you that you need to know.
- At home, keep a strong-handled basket somewhere handy into which you can throw things during the week that you need to take to church on Sunday, and bring home things (like books that you'll never read but someone thinks you should) that others give you. When at church, keep this basket on the front pew and make it known that this is what it is for.
- Develop ways of learning to speak the local lingo. 'Laity sometimes complain that their young pastor, in sermons, uses "religious" words like "spiritual practice," "liberation," "empowerment," "intentional community" … that no one understands and no one recalls having heard in Scripture. Such "preacher talk" makes the pastor seem detached, alien, and aloof from the people and hinders leadership'. (William Willimon)
- 'At the same time, prepare yourself to become a teacher of the church's peculiar speech to a people who may have forgotten how to use it. This may seem contrary to [the previous] suggestion. My friend, Stanley Hauerwas, says that the best preparation for being a pastor today is previously to have taught high school French. The skills required to drill French verbs into the heads of adolescents are the skills that pastors need to teach our people how to speak the gospel. Trouble is, most seminarians are more skilled, upon graduation from school, to be able to describe the world anthropologically than theologically. They have learned to use the language of Marxist analysis or feminist criticism better than the language of Zion. We must be persons who lovingly cultivate and actively use the church's peculiar speech'. (William Willimon)
- 'Keep telling yourself that the difference in thought between the laity in your first parish and that of your friends back in seminary is not so much the difference between ignorance and intelligence; it's just different ways of thinking that arise out of life in different worlds. I recommend reading novels (Flannery O'Connor saved me in my first parish by writing true stories that sounded like they were written by one of my parishioners) in order to appreciate the thought and the speech of people who, while having never been initiated into the narrow confines of the world of theological education, are thinking deeply'. (William Willimon)
- 'Remind yourself that while the seminary has an important role to play in the life of the church, it is the seminary that must be accountable to the church, not vice versa. It is my prejudice that, if you have difficulty making the transition from seminary to parish it is probably a criticism of the seminary. The Christian faith is to be studied and critically examined only for the purpose of its embodiment. Christians are those who are to become that which we profess. The purpose of theological discernment is not to devise something that is interesting to say to the modern world but rather to rock the modern world with the church's demonstration that Jesus Christ is Lord and all other little lordlets are not'. (William Willimon)
- 'Be open to the possibility that the matters that were focused upon in the course of the seminary curriculum, the questions raised and the arguments engaged, might be a distraction from the true, historic mission and purpose of the church and its ministry'. (William Willimon)
- 'On the other hand, be open to the possibility that the church has a tendency to bed down with mediocrity, to accept the mere status quo as the norm, and to let itself off the theological hook too easily. One reason why the church needs theology explored and taught in its seminaries is that theology (at its best) keeps making Christian discipleship as hard as it ought to be. Theology keeps guard over the church's peculiar speech and the church's distinctive mission. Something there is within any accommodated, compromised church (and aren't they all, in one way or another?) that needs to reassure itself, "All that academic, intellectual, theological stuff is bunk and is irrelevant to the way the church really is." The way the church "really is" is faithless, mistaken, cowardly, and compromised. It's sad that it is up to seminaries to offer some of the most trenchant and interesting critiques of the church. Criticism of the church ought to be part of the ongoing mission of a faithful church that takes Jesus more seriously and itself a little less so'. (William Willimon)
- 'Your life would be infinitely easier and less complicated if God had called you to be an accountant or a seminary professor. Most of the stuff that you read in seminary will only prepare you really to grow and to develop after you leave seminary. Think of your tough transition into the parish as the beginning, not the end, of your adventure into real growth as a minister. Theology tends to be wasted on the young. It's only when you run into a complete dead end in the parish, when you are aging and tired and fed up with the people of God (and maybe even God too) that you need to know where to go to have a good conversation with some saint in order to make it through the night. Believe it or not, it's much easier to begin in the ministry, even considering the tough transition between seminary and the parish, than it is to continue in ministry. A winning smile, a pleasing personality, a winsome way with people, none of these are enough to keep you working with Jesus, preaching the Word, nurturing the flock, looking for the lost. Only God can do that and a major way God does that is through the prayerful, intense reading, study and reflection that you can only begin in three or four years of seminary'. (William Willimon)
- 'Try not to listen to your parishioners when they attempt to use you to weasel out of the claims of Christ. Much of the criticism that you will receive, many of their negative comments about your work, are just their attempt to excuse themselves from discipleship. "When you are older, you will understand," they told me as a young pastor. "You have still got all that theological stuff in you from seminary. Eventually, you'll learn," said older, cynical pastors … God has called you to preach and to live the gospel before them and they will use any means to avoid it. Be suspicious when people encourage you to see the transition from seminary to the parish as mainly a time finally to settle in and make peace with the "real world." Jesus Christ is our definition of what's real and there is much that passes for "the way things are" in the average church that makes Jesus want to grab a whip in hand and clean house'. (William Willimon)
- 'The next few years could be among the most important in your ministry, including the years that you spent in seminary, because they are the years in which you will form your habits that will make your ministry. That's one reason why I think the Lutherans are wise to require an internship year in a parish, before seminary graduation, for their pastors and why I think that a great way to begin is to begin your ministry as someone's associate in a team ministry in a larger church. In a small, rural church, alone, with total responsibility in your shoulders, in the weekly treadmill of sermons and pastoral care, if you are not careful there is too little time to read and reflect, too little time to prepare your first sermons, so you develop bad habits of flying by the seat of your pants, taking short cuts, and borrowing from others what ought to be developed in the workshop of your own soul. Ministry has a way of coming at you, of jerking you around from here to there, so you need to take charge of your time, prioritize your work, and be sure that you don't neglect the absolute essentials while you are doing the merely important. If you don't define your ministry on the basis of your theological commitments, the parish has a way of defining your ministry on the basis of their selfish preoccupations and that is why so many clergy are so harried and tired today. Mind your habits'. (William Willimon)
- Speaking of habits, remember that 'The pulpit is the real arena of the Kingdom of God' (Karl Barth). In the busy demands that attend parish life, order your priorities accordingly.
- Woe to that minister who sub-contracts their pastoral care responsibilities to others and in so doing divorces the cure of souls from the ministry of the Word.
- Always strive to represent the local church to the church catholic, and the church catholic to the local church.
- Prepare three envelopes:
'In a certain city there lived a young pastor who was starting her first day at her first solo pastorate. She had met the staff, put all her books on the shelves, and was arranging her desk when a curious thing happened. She opened the desk drawer, and there were three sealed envelopes, numbered one, two, and three, encircled with a rubber band, and with a note attached.
She eagerly unfolded the note, and this is what it said: "Dear Successor. Welcome to the Old Church on the Green. When I arrived here many years ago I found three envelopes in my desk as you just have. They were from my predecessor and his note told me to open each of them in turn whenever I found myself in difficulty in the parish. This was very helpful to me, so I am providing you with three numbered envelopes to open when you need them. Blessings on your ministry. Your Predecessor."
She didn't know what to make of this, but soon forgot about the envelopes amidst the whirlwind of starting a new ministry, meeting new people, putting names with faces, in the general excitement and anxiety of the first months. And truth to tell, she had a joyful honeymoon period where she learned to love the congregation and they learned to love her, and everybody was very happy and content.
But in the fullness of time some discontents could be discerned among the faithful. Well-meaning advisors came to her to tell her things they had heard, not that they felt that way, but others did. None of the complaints were major, but they ate at her morale. Some said she had annoying mannerisms in the pulpit, that she was never in the office, that she didn't do enough pastoral visitation, that she had been seen coming out of a yoga class during the daytime when honest hard-working people are at their jobs.
All these things got her down, and one day she spotted the forgotten envelopes in her desk drawer. She wondered if she should open the first one, and after some struggling and prayer about it, she did so. Inside was a single sheet of paper and on it were the words: "Blame your predecessor."
She had once taken interim ministry training so she knew how to do this and immediately put the strategy into play. She told her boards and committee that congregations were really dysfunctional family systems and the dysfunction was caused by the former pastor. They all nodded their heads and agreed to be healthier, and they forgot all about their complaints against her, since it is always easier to judge someone that isn't around. And once again everybody was happy and content.
There came a time, however, when new discontents emerged. The economy went South, pledges were down, fuel cost were up, the endowment which many worshipped had taken a hit, new members were slow to arrive to help pay the bills. She was no longer the new pastor, and there were hints and rumors that a different kind of a leader might fix the problems. She didn't know what to do. She tried everything she could think of. She went to a centering prayer workshop, she got a Day-Timer, and she attended the Alban Institute conference called "When your Job Sucks." But none of it seemed to help, so one day, after much struggle and prayer, she opened the second envelope. Once again it was a single sheet of paper and on it were the words: "Reorganize."
So she convinced her board to create a long-term planning committee, write a new mission statement, and re-write the by-laws. And everybody got very busy, and worked hard together, and there wasn't enough energy left to complain, and the church thrived for many seasons, and everybody in the congregation felt proud of themselves for having such a well-organized church and such a clever pastor. And, once again, everybody was happy and content.
By this time our pastor was frankly getting a little bored, and not a little burned-out, and wondered just how long she could put out the energy it was taking to keep such a well-organized church going. And her soul was disquited within her.
Once again she tried everything she could think of. She joined a pastor's support group, she went on a Conference Committee on pastoral excellence, she bought herself a smart-phone and started a blog. But none of it seemed to help, so finally one day in desperation she went to her desk drawer and she opened the third envelope. Once again inside was a single sheet of paper and on it were the words: "Prepare three envelopes."'[11]
54. Remember your baptism.
Suggestions will be gratefully received.
To be continued …
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (trans. John W. Doberstein; New York: Harper and Row, 1954), 66.
[2] See Michael Jinkins, Letters to New Pastors (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2006), 49–55.
[3] See Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christology (trans. John Bowden; London: Collins, 1966), 58ff.
[4] See Jason A. Goroncy, '"Tha mi a' toirt fainear dur gearan": J. McLeod Campbell and P.T. Forsyth on the Extent of Christ's Vicarious Ministry' in Evangelical Calvinism: Essays Resourcing the Continuing Reformation of the Church (ed. Myk Habets and Bobby Grow; Princeton Theological Monograph Series. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2012), 253–86.
[5] Bonhoeffer, Life Together 27–29.
[6] Ibid. 29–30.
[7] Ibid. 95, 108, 109, 113.
[8] Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It.
[9] Bonhoeffer, Life Together 78.
[10] Ibid. 93.
[11] Richard L. Floyd, "Prepare Three Envelopes": A Parable about Pastoral Ministry. See also the accompanying midrash: Richard L. Floyd, The Lost Soul of the Procedural Church: A Midrash on Three Envelopes.
Rick Floyd on the lost soul of the procedural church
Some years ago now, my dear friend Rick Floyd shared a wonderful wee parable about pastoral ministry. It was called 'Prepare Three Envelopes'. He then followed it up with an insightful midrash which bears repeating:
One of the rules I live by is to never explain a joke, but I'm going to break that rule to talk about my recent post: Prepare Three Envelopes: A Parable about Pastoral Ministry.
As several of you have pointed out it is an old joke. John McFadden said he "kicked the slats out of his crib laughing" the first time he heard it. Several of you told me different variations on the one I told, which I think I first heard from Peter Wells, my canny former area minister.
Many of you said it was both funny and painful. Bob Grove-Markwood said, "I laughed, I cried." Verlee Copeland said she wished "it were funnier for that bell tolls for us all." It surely resonated with many clergy, which is no accident.
The joke itself was just the frame I used for the picture I wanted to draw. I put the joke in an extended shaggy dog style to accomplish several things. First, I wanted the heroine to be a bit of a cipher and not a fleshed-out character, so that clergy could fill in their own particulars and relate to her situation. I made her a woman pastor so that the parable wouldn't be seen as strictly autobiographical, although there is more of my own story in it than is entirely comfortable.
I wanted to evoke a certain kind of congregation, what I will call here the procedural church. Now such a congregation doesn't exist as an ideal type, but I believe most mainline congregations have features of what I will describe.
As I have written elsewhere ("Introduction" to When I Survey the Wondrous Cross) I believe the dominant mode of reflecting on congregational life in our time is not theological (as I believe it should be), but managerial, psychological, and political.
So a managerial congregation will borrow outlooks and methods from the corporate world, and be preoccupied with metrics, goals, objectives, and outcomes largely cast without use of the church's historic grammar. My reference to the second envelope was a small swat at this approach.
The psychological congregation sees its life in therapeutic terms, and employs the language of health and pathology, of addiction and recovery, and co-dependence. This model loves to talk about boundaries. My little dig at interim ministry comes from my conviction that the family systems model employed by many interim ministers is a blunt tool to deal with complex congregational life, and often scapegoats former pastors, which the Intentional Interim Network dismissingly refers to in their training as BFP's, Beloved Former Pastors. As a beloved former pastor myself I feel this outlook is disrespectful to dedicated leaders who have given their lives for the church.
The political church sees itself as a change-agent in an unjust and oppressive society, and understands its mission to advance a series of predetermined causes. The bond between congregants is political like-mindedness, and those who don't "get it" are likely to be driven away without regret. This kind of church, usually liberal in the mainline, fosters a paranoid style, which demonize those who disagree with it. They are always railing against the Religious Right, but actually provide a mirror image of those they fear and distrust, a shadow side Religious Left.
Now I must insert the mandatory self-evident truth that there are genuine insights in all these approaches, and wise leaders should avail themselves of whatever is useful in the culture. Having said that, what is striking to me about the procedural church is the dominance of its perspective over the church's own grammar.
Congregations can partake of all three of these procedural approaches in various combinations, but what they all share is a procedurally driven church whose agenda takes little account of the church's own rich heritage of congregational self-understanding derived from scripture and tradition. Ecclesiology, the sub-category of theology that thinks deeply about the church, has a long and deep ecumenical storehouse of insights on how to be the church that are largely ignored or forgotten. Leander Keck, in his fine book, The Church Confident, once compared the contemporary church with folks who inherit a fine old mansion, but choose rather to live in a pup tent in the back yard.
So notice that in Prepare Three Envelopes I never mention God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, the Scriptures, the sacraments, the creeds, or Christian doctrine. Our heroine does pray, but whether it is Christian prayer is left an open question.
I tried to evoke a kind of flatness in this imaginary congregation. We don't see our pastor preparing or delivering a sermon, baptizing a baby, presiding at the eucharist, praying by a sickbed, or standing by a grave, even though these activities take up a good deal of any pastor's time in real life. What we do see her doing is strategizing and attending meetings, the hallmarks of the procedural church.
Now at the end of the parable our heroine is burned-out because she has been driving this frenetic congregational juggernaut out of her own soul, which is now seriously depleted. And if there is one feature common to all three kinds of procedural congregations it is this endless frenetic activity, what P.T. Forsyth once called "The Sin of Bustle."
The procedural church is functionally atheistic, in that everything depends on us, and nothing depends on God, other than to bless and sanctify the works of our hands.
Morale is bad in the procedural church. Brad Braxton's sudden and sad departure from Riverside Church has lit up the blogosphere with comments from clergy who feel ill-used by their congregations. There is always plenty of blame to go around in any church kerfuffle, but my perception of many congregations is that their fights and preoccupations about procedure, in Braxton's case over his salary package, arise because they do not know how to be church.
They know how to manage organizations, they know how to analyze family systems, and they know how to drive a political agenda. But when it comes down to being the church of Christ, to hear his living voice in sermon and text, to eat his sustaining bread, to share his cruciform life, to know that it is his ministry we are called to share and not just be our own voluntary association, not so much! And clergy can blame toxic congregations all they want, but isn't it the work of the ordained ministry to keep these things before them?
Without sound teaching, faithful preaching, lively and sacramental worship, and enriching group life, the congregation can have all the procedures down and still have lost its soul.
'A Cure of Souls', by Denise Levertov
The pastor
of grief and dreams
guides his flock towards
the next field
with all his care.
He has heard
the bell tolling
but the sheep
are hungry and need
the grass, today and
every day. Beautiful
his patience, his long
shadow, the rippling
sound of the flocks moving
along the valley.
– Denise Levertov, 'A Cure of Souls', in Poems, 1960–1967 (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1983), 92.


text:
Osakis is key in measuring space data
Next time you look to the stars, consider this: Osakis is key in what scientists are learning about space.
A farm place east of Osakis houses scientific equipment that gathers data on the weather in space.
The equipment is used as part of a project called Canadian Array for Realtime Investigations of Magnetic Activity (CARISMA), led by Professor David Milling at the University of Alberta (UofA) in Canada.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Would an African-American Spider-Man be 'confusing'?
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Lt. Commander
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 120
# 33
Once there was an animated series, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. His amazing freinds were Ice-Man and Fire-Star and it did portray them in high-school or at least college. Dr Doom was the recurring villain in that show. It was fun to watch.
And as for the colour thing, why change Peter Parker ? They could do it, but.... if it´s true what they say about black men he couldn´t possibly wear spandex....
On a side note, The Denzel is ancient, they could kill him with action scenes.


text:
Crystalline Entity Bugged?
Hello, perhaps I am doing something totally wrong, but I have tried for days now and I dont have a clue.
I am trying to join friends with battling the CE, but everytime i try to join 'Enter fleet action' it warps to a map without any players in it. I only see some NPC's but thats it.
I've tried changing instance in the map itself, where i get an error 'NoPossibleMaps' but I know thats a common 'bug'. But i've tried changing instance in sector space too, but it just keeps moving me to a map with no players... !?
Then I tried fleeting with someone and teaming, no effect. Tried doing it without the official mission, failed. I am Commander 2 so that wouldnt be the problem. Am i doing something wrong here?
Perhaps a side note: When i team with someone, I've got the 'problem' that the icons of the characters whom i team with are just black... And It seems i cannot get all the information when I click on one and press 'info'... I dont know if it is related, but ...
Help please.
Actually, you only being a commander could be the problem. Are your friends VAs? If so, they woul dbe placed in a different instance that you couldn't join
This has happened to me every time ive tried the CE. Sometimes ive been in teams with all of us as the same rank..and we enter and sure enough 2 of the team get into another instance somehow. And if anyone tries to change instances they get an error stating "no possible maps".
Had 3 different teams ready the other day...I know a couple were mixed ranks though..and each team got into different instances. No one could change insances either....the whole effort broke down due to this horrid teaming problem.
This has always been a problem with the CE, and was a huge issue with most fleet battles in general. They fixed the rest but left the CE mission as it is..bugged and crappy. I dont understand why you cant get into the same map if you form a team...isnt that the purpose of forming a team? Shouldnt matching team leaders skill option make this work? I love social games that dont allow you to play together....Id love to see things like this fixed....that have been messed up for ages, rather than 20 dollar ships released to the c-store...use our money to fix this mess...price gouge us later. :D
Nope they are definately no Vice Admirals. In fact they are just Lieutenant Commanders, Commanders, Captain at most. Just enough to be able to join this mission.
This just has to be a bug of some kind.
Another one like me just had the same problem and just quit the mission because you are impossible to destroy it all by yourself.
Be nice if more people spoke up here so the Devs might get on this issue. Everyone complains about this in game. They need to speak here too
Post a bug report in game and the proper people will get to it when they can. The Devs that monitor these fourms, while able to affect some change in STO, are not the people who go and fix bugs. While I do agree with posting such important bugs here, I think the purpose is more to raise awareness in the player base so that people go 'Ah, I should expect this certain mission to behave incorrectly in this way'. Posting here is not the way to get it fixed. It's just simply good policy imo.
You really were saved some misery by not being able to even attempt it.
CE....Sucked then, Sucks now, will suck forever...
Worst fleet action mission ever. PLEASE CRYPTIC, Either scrap it or fix it! Every now and then I get the urge to try it again....thinking...maybe it's fixed...but then after wasting an hour on it I'm swearing and damning the game to hell...lol.
Lts. can ONLY be in instances with other Lts.
Lt. Cmdrs. with other Lt.Cmdrs.
So... if your character is an LT. and the person you enter the Fleet Action with a friend who isn't (say he's a Captain); you'll both be shunted to your own instance - and the only other player that enter the instance with you will be Lt.1 to Lt.9 and for your Captain friend, the only other players that can enter his instance must be Capt.1 - Capt.9
I treally hope they get back to the Fleet Actions in General and figure out a better solution than the Level banding that's still in place.But again, if you're all different main ranks - that's why you don't all go into the same instance.
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