Tuesday, January 6, 2009
It's been a while
Well, I don't know if I have any readers out there, but if I do, welcome. Well quick update. I just finished my first semester of my second year. that means only 6 and a half more! But, whose counting? I have added another major, Biblical Languages. That means i am in the Pre-seminary program and have a music major and biblical language major. Right now I am studying Hebrew. I love studying languages again. I have really missed studying a language since high school. I said I wasn't going to quit studying Chinese when I graduated but I haven't don't it and now i am forgetting what I learned in four years. Other things happening in life: I am thinking about switching LCMS. Now it's not written in stone. I am having a hard time with how the ELCA interprets scripture. I have to weigh the pros and cons of staying in each. To make matters harder I just recieved money from my congregation for college. The church itself gave me some then the Women of the Church and then a couple gave me money. So my thought is, if I left the ELCA and went LCMS I would feel like I was stealing money from them. It's a hard decision. If there is anyone out there, please pray for me. If the whole ELCA was like my church I wouldn't have a problem staying, but its not. Now I am rambling. Most people are trying to discern whether to be a pastor or not. I am trying to deal with doubts about a call and on top of that whether to switch or not! This is where I need to say, "Chad, it is ultimately up to God. Don't worry about it." In Christ +
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2 comments:
I am an ELCA pastor of 10 years and I sympathize with your struggle. If you decide to make a switch, perhaps you could pay the money back somehow, in small amounts.
My encouragement to you is to read the Apostolic Fathers, particularly Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and the Didache. Then read Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons and the Church History of Eusebius. When you finish reading their works, then ask yourself (realizing that these either learned at the feet of the Apostles, or were of the next early Christian generations) which church today seems closest to what they are talking about? You will find this will help you greatly in your decision process. These are all widely acknowledged as thoroughly Christian writers, and they help us understand the early Church understanding of what was supposed to be Church teaching on faith and morals as well as regarding Church polity. Don't rely on books that merely excerpt their writings or that write about them. Read the first person sources to get the full picture. I know I wish I had when I was in seminary, much less when I was in college. God bless your discernment process!
Better yet, how about letting Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions speak to you to guide you to the truth, because they ARE (quia) God's Word and a true exposition thereof. (John 17:17.)
As to your conscience with the money, if they stipulated that you must get an "ELCA" education, then you should pay it back if that is not where you are led.
However, if they entrusted you with the money in order that you should become a faithful shepherd of the church catholic to spread the Good News, then go where the Spirit leads you so that you can be equipped to preach the Gospel in all its purity and to rightly administer the Sacraments.
How can you be faulted for going where your conscience, bound to the Word of God, has led you? If you are led to go in that direction, would that not also serve as a witness to the Gospel truth to your brothers and sisters through whom God acted to give you this monetary gift?
BTW, I will pray for you in your journey. I pray for the Church Militant, and especially now the ELCA, that we remain faithful to God's Word and always remain repentant, clinging to the Holy Cross. (Rev 2:10.)
pax vobiscum!
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