Throughout the month of July I am teaching in the Course of Study for Ordained Ministry here at Duke. Twenty-one United Methodist local pastors (nearly all of them rural clergy) are taking part with me in "Course of Study 513 - Our Mission from God: Transforming Agent." The purpose of the course is to gain theological understanding for leading congregations to carry out the mission of the church as God’s agent of redemption and transformation in the world. Periodically I will be posting my lectures and lecture notes from the course on this blog. I hope that this will benefit my students: and perhaps a few other readers as well.
Throughout the month of July I am teaching in the Course of Study for Ordained Ministry here at Duke. Twenty-one United Methodist local pastors (nearly all of them rural clergy) are taking part with me in "Course of Study 513 - Our Mission from God: Transforming Agent." The purpose of the course is to gain theological understanding for leading congregations to carry out the mission of the church as God's agent of redemption and transformation in the world. Periodically I will be posting my lectures and lecture notes from the course on this blog.I hope that this will benefit my students: and perhaps a few other readers as well.
Below is material from our first lecture. I hope it might be a blessing.
In my last post, I wrote of the seeming-obscurity that haunts some of us rural pastors.
I think that one of the ways we work through that insecurity-obscurity is through good, old-fashioned, self-emptying, Christ-like, Philippians 2-type humility: a topic I’ll write more about in future posts.
Beside the door of Professor Reinhard Huetter here at Duke you see displayed the “Litany of Humility” found below. It epitomizes the kind of humble self-abnegation that leads to true freedom in ministry.
One of the things that I think many rural pastors struggle with, deep down, is the seeming-obscurity of their ministry.
On television, through the web, in denominational resources, we see images of clergy basking in the rapt adulation of large crowds, spotlighted by television cameras, energized by the collective appreciation of sprawling congregations that, literally, look up to them as they hold forth from the pulpit.
We see a ministry with an audience.