Faith
About this blog
Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
Thinking, praying, and living the faith is at the core of ministry in the Office of Theology and Worship. In the following videos, learn more about what thinking, praying, and living the faith means to the leadership of the Office of Theology and Worship. Discover why it matters and what difference it makes in our lives, work, and worship.
Charles Wiley
Barry Ensign-George
David Gambrell
Christine Hong
Karen Russell
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The Heart of Pastoral Vocation
The heart of pastoral vocation is theological. In this sense: the pastor (make this plural in contexts where there is more than one) is the person in the life of a congregation who is called, gifted, and trained to be reflecting deeply on the faith as it is being lived out by this group of followers of Jesus Christ here and now.
It took me a while to see this. Well . . . to begin to see this. My first pastoral call was to a yoked pair of congregations in Iowa - a small town congregation and a true country church, with fields (corn and soybeans in rotation) on all sides. When I sat around the table with the sessions of those congregations there was usually at least one person seated at the table who knew much more than I did about the information and questions that we dealt with. While I slowly pieced together what a cash flow statement was telling, others had caught it with little more than a quick skim. Maintenance of property was the same. Issues shaped by the local context. Deeds, titles, loans, financial campaigns. One of my challenges, as a new pastor, was to realize that there was all this expertise sitting around the table with me, and then to begin to let it strengthen us as a session. I wasn't the expert in everything. O.K. . . . I wasn't an expert in most things. Often what I needed to do was get out of the way.
But there was one area where I needed to lead the way. If the congregations I served were going to be able to reflect attentively on the faith, faith in Jesus Christ, then I needed to provide some leadership - to point out this path for our work, to show how one walks this path, to equip my fellow session members to make this journey and to enjoy this countryside as fully as possible. "Equip" meant different things - sometimes, quite a lot, other times, almost nothing; some were already well equipped for the journey, others less so.
Deep reflection on the faith as it is being lived out here and now: that's not an exercise in ivory tower self-indulgence, groovin' on mind games. Deep reflection on the faith as it is being lived out here and now: that's discernment. What is the Holy Spirit doing here - in this congregation, in this neighborhood, in the relationship between congregation and neighborhood? In light of what the Holy Spirit is doing, what should we be doing here and now, in this place, this time? Deep reflection on the faith as it is being lived out here and now: it holds the promise of helping us chart a course that faithfully follows Jesus Christ, instead of being blown reactively by whatever urgent matter screamed the loudest yesterday.
The heart of pastoral vocation is theological. Pastors are called to hold a compass and read it well, accurately, often. Deep reflection on faith in Jesus Christ as it is being lived out by this particular congregation of people in the midst of this particular community of people whom God is calling into the Kingdom. That's a high calling. That's the heart of pastoral vocation.
- Posted at 4:08 p.m.
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