I picked up a copy of Pagan christianity and was very fascinated by how it deals with ordination. I would like to throw out some of the questions to the group.
For those of you who have been ordained- how do you react to the ideas about ordination presented in the book.
If someone were seeking ordination what advice would you give them.
Would you ever ocnsider being part of an intentional community that shared leadership roles the way suggested in the book.
Do you think there could be a group of people like the ones assembled here who morph into something different than church as it is practiced today- what would it look like- what would its challenges be?
Peace and grace
Ruth
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3 comments:
Great questios Ruth! I am making my way through the book too. I have been listening to the audiobook. Wow, what a game changer. My head is spinning. I can't really argue with the rationale. The research is solid and the logic is sound. The Church is way off base and the present practices hinder the working of the Spirit. This ordination thing is a tough question. I agree with the author's logic, but being ordained myself, I have this twang of not wanting to let go of it. That's probably not good, but it's honest. So much of the book rings true with me about notions of professional clergy. I have some questions of my own: What about all those people that feel they have a "call" to "full-time" ministry? Is that real? What about those people who call it a "call to preach"? How do I make sense of that now? I can not give advice on the subject. Not after "Pagan Christianity". I would consider being part of an intentional community that shared leadership like the book suggests. How that would look, or where it would be I have to do more thinking on. I would hope there are groups already doing this. I'm eager to hear other's ideas about how that might look, act, etc.
Frank Viola's latest book, "Reimagining Church", goes into greater detail regarding what an intentional community might look like. He goes into greater detail regarding leadership questions. You might want to check it out. I read it and found it to be very insightful.
"Reimagining Church" is considered a sequel to "Pagan Christianity". It picks up where “Pagan Christianity” left off and continues the conversation. (“Pagan Christianity” was never meant to be a stand alone book; it’s part one of the conversation.) “Reimagining Church” is endorsed by Leonard Sweet, Shane Claiborne, Alan Hirsch, and many others. You can read a sample chapter at
http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org
It’s also available on Amazon.com. Frank is also blogging now at http://www.frankviola.wordpress.com. Also, have you seen the spoof video for "Pagan"? Very funny. Check it out at http://youtube.com/watch?v=hslswIal9u4.
Make sure your church pays it's budgets or you won't be ordained in the Church of the Nazarene. Another reason I left the Nazarene Church.
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