An Opinion on "The Ministry"

 

At the foot of Mt. Sinai I watched this coptic monk pray atop the monastery wall. As I observed, I marveled at the unique role of these clerics, and the unique responsibilities of United Methodist pastors as well. Wherever you serve in our Lord's Church, knowing what is expected, and what one can expect, benefits both the cleric and the congregation. 

Clarity is good.

I've been so grateful for the clarity we're getting from the thoughtful comments on my first "Methodist Monday" post, and so moved by the sincerity of those offering help, that I feel compelled to post some of Niebuhr's enlightening words. Here's his response to the notion that "the ministry was impossible as a vocation," and that "no intelligent person would enter the ministry today." 

I love pastors and think it'll help you know Reinhold Niebuhr was 36 years old when he wrote about the blessings and benefits of ordained ministry...in the journal he'd kept since he was 23.  

                                                                         

"A very sophisticated young man assured me in our discussion today…that no intelligent person would enter the ministry today. He was sure that the ministry was impossible as a vocation not only because too many irrationalities were still enmeshed with the religion but also because there was not real opportunity for usefulness in the church.  I tried to enlighten this sophomoric wise man.

Granted all the weaknesses of the church and the limitations of the ministry as a profession, where can one invest one’s life where it can be made more effective in as many directions?

You can deal with children and young people and help them to set their life goals and organize their personalities around just and reasonable values.

You can help the imperiled family shape the standards and the values by which the institution of the family life may be saved and adjusted to the new conditions of an industrial civilization.

You can awaken a complacent civilization to the injustices which modern industrialism is developing…

You can soften the asperities of racial conflict and aid the various groups of a polyglot city to understand one another and themselves. 

You can direct the thoughts and the hopes of [people] to those facts and those truths which mitigate the cruelty of the natural world and give [people] the opportunity to assert the dignity of human life in the face of the contempt of nature…

Here is a task which requires the knowledge of a social scientist and the insight and imagination of a poet, the executive talents of a business [leader] and the mental discipline of a philosopher.  Of course none of us meets all the demands made upon us…"

                                                                         

Romans 12:5  -  In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Comments

[David]

"Here is a task which requires the knowledge of a social scientist and the insight and imagination of a poet, the executive talents of a business [leader] and the mental discipline of a philosopher. Of course none of us meets all the demands made upon us…"

I think Reinhold is describing some of Jesus character in this unique and insightful paragraph.