Sacramental Living

So what is a minister supposed to be and/or do?

A good question for me to wrestle with (being a vocational pastor and what not).

First, let’s look at this question from the perspective of “religion.” Now by religion (specifically the Christian religion) I mean the system of organized doctrine and practices instituted by human initiatives and based on an underlying story of God’s initiatives. And an individual who looks at the world through the eyes of religion tends to separate the world into two parts: sacred and secular.

This is not the lens through which I see the world.

Instead, my worldview is filtered through the person of the Triune God. This means I’m adverse to the definition of “What Is a Minister?” that follows.

The religious person expects to see the minister as profoundly serious and deliberate in his/her approach to life. The minister shoud be dignified in his/her denouncement of the world. The minister should attend to the needs and wants of the religious under his/her care and separate oneself from the world.

The religious person will be decidedly disappointed with me as a minister.

Seeing the world through the lens of the Triune God means I don’t see a separation between sacred and secular. All is of God. All is good. All space and time is sacred space and time. “For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever!” (Romans 11:36). I confess being influenced by Aquinas and his theology of glory.

Consequently, the world is my parish.

Part 2 will answer this question from the perspective of “the world.”

SO TELL ME:
What is a minister to you?

Related Posts:

• What Is a Minister? – Part 2
• What Is a Minister? – Part 3
• What Is Emergent? Who Is Emergent? – Part 1
• Stirring Up the Hornet’s Nest
• Trinity and the “Other”

Tags: minister, pastor, Christian, religion, doctrine, practices, story, sacred, secular, Triune, God, sacred space, Aquinas