Thanks to Jason Clark for the encouragement (It’s never just about being called Rev. isn’t it?)! Here’s what he said …
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Something I posted to my doctoral cohort this week about why I value being ordained.
—–Now I confess, I see things functionally. You are only a pastor as long as you are pastoring. But I’m not ready to give up ordination. Yes, a leader is leader, and no more valuable than anyone else, and I hold to the priesthood of believers.
Yes ordination isn’t in the bible.
So why do I want to keep it:1. Pastors are valueless: in the UK there is an anti clerical move, to see pastors as parsites suckin the life and money out of church…I hear it regulary, but most pastors are not in it for the money but to servce christ.
2. When I marry people, bury them, pray with the terminally ill, they want a priest/minister, the role of a priest, and yes in theory anyone can do it, but why do they want me as an ordained priest/minster…there is something about the office of priesthood.
3. Right of passage: we have so few of these, and I look back to my ordination with fondness and it sustains me when I want to quit and go make a shed load of money without all the crap of church.
4. Calling: having people remind me like marriage that I made a committment to something for the rest of my life as best as I can…I am a pastor…So I’m not arguing for the elite of ordination, I’m arguing that for some it is of value and for me life giving, and I don’t see it as making me any better than anyone else.
Jase
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