Author: Wick

“All persons who belong to Jesus Christ are called to minister his reconciling work through the Church. But to lead the Church, our Lord calls particular believers to shepherd the people, teach doctrine, administer the sacraments and keep order…

..God calls men and women, bu the Church examines them so as to confirm the presence of spiritual gifts and personal graces…

..When people are set apart for this leadership responsibility, they are ordained by the laying on of hands. Paul remembered this moment in his counsel to Timothy when he said: “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6 RSV).

Whether elders serve as pastors, teachers, missionaries, chaplains or in unique combinations of these vocations, they provide Spirit-filled leadership. In fulfilling the Great Commandment to love the Lord our God and to love others, and in fulfilling the Great Commission to go into all the world to make disciples, elders are God’s gift to the Church.

Pastoral leadership focuses on developing healthy biblical communities of holy people. These communities multiply disciples, mentor leaders, create new groups and plant new churches. Such Spirit-filled leadership requires vision and courage to move people to obey the Word of God and increase His church.

Rooted in a deep love for Christ and sharing his compassion for people, Free Methodist elders help create congregations that are fervent in prayer, enthusiastic in worship, holy in lifestyle, insistent for justice, caring for the poor, and reaching out locally and globally to bring all people into relationship with Jesus Christ.”

– Book of Discipline, FMC

“Psychiatrist David Burns notes that is is not another person’s compliment or approval that makes us feel good; rather, it is OUR belief that there is validity to the compliment.” – From “The Life You’ve Always Wanted” by John Ortberg.

He gives a quick illustration of someone from a psychiatric ward rushing up to you and saying God revealed to him the 13th person he sees is incredible special. You’re that 13 person, so you are so very special.

Would your self esteem rise much? Probably not.

Moving towards ordination over the past 6 years has had thoughts like this running through my brain. I believe that God can work through ordination in unexplainable and Spirit-sourced ways. But why does it matter who ordains/how it’s done? Why do I consider it important that an entire denomination collectively says “yes” to the work God is accomplishing through me?

The answer in this regard would be, my belief in what God has done/is doing through the Free Methodist Church. I have gained tremendous respect/reverence for the history/location/future of this group of God’s people. The roots in Kingdom building, caring for the poor and social injustice, while not neglecting Holiness and salvation from sin itself, have drawn me in since the start. The size and polity of the denomination, have continued to echo that same draw.

I believe that while no denomination is perfect, and even debating about which ones have “more right” than others doesn’t often help much, I have felt both drawn by and led to what seems to be a great fit. A “home” of sorts, even. I love this church.

Granted….I love the Church even more.

But in the next few days I will take this relationship to the next level, both submitting to and being privileged by ordination within this denomination. The blessing, and the accountability for the journey together offers more than I can imagine, and I look forward to it…

I don’t often go to the movie theater. Mainly because of the cost, and then the cost of a babysitter. So when I go, I tell myself the movie either:

1. Must have INCREDIBLE special effects.

2. Be a VERY important movie. (Based on a great literary work of some sort, or sequel of another important movie)

3. Be a movie that my wife wants to go to.

If it doesn’t mean at least one of these criteria, I don’t go.

I’m a youth pastor. Hanging out with teens is a part of my job. So I thought about possibly going to see Transformers with some of them next week. But I want to be careful what I seem to support. I hopped on “Focus on the Family’s” movie review site (which is overly conservative usually, so if they like something I know it’s safe)

Here are a few of their final thoughts:

“The film’s emotional moments felt forced, and its themes of sacrifice insincere. While some films use CGI to set up a story, Transformers reverses the process: It uses a half-hearted story as an excuse to string together some cool special effects….But a much bigger issue than the film’s cinematic failure, for our purposes, is it’s level of crassness and sexual content….

Film critic Marshall Fine put it this way: “This is what we’ve come to: movies based on cartoons that were marketing tools for toys.” He also noted, “It’s hard to exaggerate what a depressing mess of a film this misbegotten monstrosity is. More depressing still, it will attract lemming-like multitudes to multiplexes this weekend, further convincing [director Michael] Bay of his own genius.” “

I’ve not gone to see it…based on this review, I’m considering seeing it in theater still simply for the fact that besides the special effects, there doesn’t seem like any reason to see the movie; and special effects are always best on a big screen….not a dvd at home. If you saw it…what did you think?