| |  | Currently Listening
Give Up
By The Postal Service
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
see related |
I think too much. But I have been thinking, and Stanzy is going to kill
me for even considering this, but I need prayer and advice.
I have thought more than once, and for some considerable time, of
applying to be a chaplain in the Navy (chaplain because it's a job I've
considered, Navy because it's the best branch). The trouble lies --
well, it lies in a number of places. One is that I don't know the
requirements (e.g. college major, seminarian degree). Another,
obviously, is that I have yet to graduate college. A third is that --
according to my dad -- chaplains have a tendency (I don't know whether
it's an official thing or not) to be counsellors for people with
disciplinary problems, and I might or might not be any good at that. A
fourth is that I haven't been to seminary, and I'm unlikely to get
there any time soon, given money.
But it's the fifth that troubles me most. My Protestant friends are
going to think me ridiculous and law-minded, and my Catholic friends,
because of who they are rather than because of their Catholicism, are
going to make fun of me. Frankly, I rather not be ordained in another
denomination rather than the PCA; but the catch-22 lies in the fact
that unless there is a sweeping, radical reform of PCA doctrine, I will
never be ordained in it. My beliefs on various crucial issues such as
infant baptism, the Covenant of Grace, the role of the Mosaic Law in
the Christian life, the place of laymen in the priesthood of believers,
Purgatory, communion with the departed saints, the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, the charismata, are all wrong in their book.
I know that several of you will tell me to just found my own church --
for some of you this will be the sixth time, at least, that you have
told me. But I am a member, or in modern parlance a 'limb' or 'organ',
according to the membership vows which I took six years ago, and if
there is any alternative I would rather hold to those vows. Even if I
am convicted that I need to leave, I intend to request release from
those vows from the Session. I am willing to leave only if it seems
plain to me that God is leading me away. If it is truly necessary I am
willing to leave without anybody's permission, even without anybody's
knowledge, but I think it is perfectly obvious that these sorts of
measures are last resorts employed in emergencies. I am utterly
convinced that leaving a church should not be a casual decision. The
mere fact that we can switch denominations is a ghastly fact which
serves only to highlight the greater ghastly fact that denominations
exist. The church ought to be one. (I cannot quite comprehend the
attitude that some of my friends have here regarding denominations;
isn't like a body that has been torn limb from limb and strewn over a
field? Because of the nature of this particular body the limbs haven't
died, and neither has the body as a whole; but who would argue that
such a state of affairs is natural? Indeed, who would approach such a
thing casually?)
So anyway. I need prayer, first of all, as to whether I am called to be
a pastor. Then as to whether I am supposed to be a PCA pastor. Then, if
not, for leaving the PCA, both in terms of ability to do so and where
to go if go I must.
|
| | Posted 3/18/2006 10:44 AM - 9 views - 7 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- give stars
- votes0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
