![]() The "difference" is thought to have something to do with God, but it is not clear exactly what difference that difference is to make for the performance of your office.Īs a result, many who enter the ministry discover after a few years of doing the best they can to meet the expectations of those they serve - expectations such as, whatever else you may do, you should always be nice - end up feeling as if they have been nibbled to death by ducks. Too often, I fear, the ministry is understood by many Christians, as well as many who become ministers, to be but one expression of the more general category of something called a "helping profession." A minister is a social worker "with a difference." Moreover, the lack of consensus about what it might mean for anyone to act with authority in our society and the church cannot help but make those of us who are not ministers wonder about the psychological health of those who tell us they are called to the ministry. ![]() The lack of clarity about what makes Christians Christian, what makes the church the church, continuing ambiguity in our diverse denominations about ordination itself should surely make anyone think twice about becoming a minister. ![]() God knows what possesses anyone to enter the ministry in our day. ![]() Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |