[Vision2020] Does Doug Wilson fit the Presbyterian mold of an ordained minister?

[J Ford]

Ok, I realize this is a bit long, but......

What Presbyterians Believe about ordination

What does it mean to be ordained?

Presbyterian beliefs about ordination have changed significantly over the 
years

What Presbyterians believe about ordination has changed--sometimes rather 
significantly--over time. For example, the ordination of women as ministers, 
elders and deacons--something considered unthinkable earlier in our 
history--has become not only acceptable but expected.

Three unchanging beliefs Presbyterians have remained open to change 
regarding our understanding of ordination because of three unchanging 
beliefs:

1.) We believe that God is the source and summit of all ministry in the 
church. For Presbyterians ordination is not synonymous with ministry. We 
believe all Christians are called by God and equipped by the Spirit for 
service in the world when they are joined to the ministry of Jesus Christ at 
their baptism. On the other hand, not every member is called or equipped by 
God for the exercise of particular offices of ministry within the church.
2.) Presbyterians hold the conviction, voiced in chapter 1 of the Book of 
Order, that "truth is in order to goodness." Truth includes our shared 
convictions about who should be ordained, to what offices, for what 
purposes, and with what preparation and standards of accountability. The 
measure of this truth, however, does not depend upon logical coherence or 
philosophical argument, but from the character of the fruit it bears.
3.) Presbyterians believe that ordained ministry should be collegial (shared 
with others), non-hierarchical (shared by clergy and laity), and communal 
(representing the whole church and not merely a congregation). We also 
believe those called to ordained offices in the church should be subjected 
to a process in which their calls are tested and confirmed by the church.
Men and women together?

In 1789, when the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the 
United States of America met in Philadelphia, all church officers-- deacons, 
elders and ministers--were, by both custom and church law, male. The very 
notion of women holding office was considered preposterous. Indeed, some 
early 19th-century church "worthies" became quite worked up over the 
possibility that women might lead prayer in "promiscuous assemblies" 
(gatherings where men would be present).
Women were prohibited from serving as elders or deacons until the 1930s--or 
the 1960s in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS). Ordaining women to 
the gospel ministry took an additional 20-30 years.

Today, however, the proportion of women and men serving in ordained offices 
is nearly 50 percent each, a development that is mirrored in the enrollment 
figures of the 10 Presbyterian theological institutions.

Whose hands?

Until the 1830s no one seriously challenged the notion that only pastors 
(also called bishops until 1957) were permitted to join in the laying on of 
hands in the ordination of new pastors, elders and deacons. Professor 
Charles Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary, who opposed letting elders 
take part in the process, was fond of quoting an old Latin proverb: Nemo det 
quod non habet (no one may give what he does not have). Hodge's argument was 
cast aside by the PCUS in the 1860s, but Presbyterians in the "Northern" 
stream steadfastly clung to it until the 1950s.
Today ordination is explicitly defined as an act done by a governing body 
made up of ministers and elders who jointly exercise the power of 
jurisdiction, rather than as an act done by persons who possess a power of 
order only they can transmit.

Service for life

For the first century of American Presbyterianism, congregations were unable 
to change entrenched leadership on the session or board of deacons. Elders 
and deacons served on their boards until they died (or were convicted of an 
offense that stripped them of their ordination). Finally, in the middle of 
the 19th century, churches were given permission to opt out of the lifetime 
service model in favor of a rotating limited-term service (the PCUS would 
take nearly a century to provide the same option to its congregations).

Today, limited-term service is now mandatory, and congregations that wish to 
be exempted from this requirement must make their request to the presbytery.

Radical roles for elders

During the same general era a then-radical notion began to take root: that 
elders should be able to be moderators of governing bodies above the level 
of the session. Although the idea eventually carried the day, a debate 
opened up almost immediately: How, it was asked, could a lay person serve as 
moderator since the retiring moderator each year was required to preach? 
Because elders had not been given the power of order needed to preach, any 
retiring elder-moderator was expected to deputize a minister member or 
commissioner to preach the retiring moderator's sermon!
Today elders are not only regularly elected to serve as moderators of higher 
governing bodies but often serve as commissioned lay pastors, preaching the 
Word and presiding at sacramental celebrations for congregations without 
pastors. Moreover, elders are as likely as ministers to be elected to 
service as presbytery, synod and General Assembly executives.

More ministry options

When American Presbyterians adopted their first Book of Order in 1789, only 
two options existed for those who had prepared themselves for ordination to 
the gospel ministry. Those with a call from an existing congregation would 
be ordained by the presbytery as pastors (or bishops). Those without a call 
would be ordained as evangelists, charged with gathering and organizing a 
new congregation.
Today those preparing to serve as ministers of the Word and Sacrament are 
faced with an array of specialized forms of ministry, many of which have no 
formal ties or links to local congregations or agencies of higher governing 
bodies.

Testing what we believe

Picture a child's top. When the top is not spinning, all sorts of clever 
lines and designs can be seen, but once it is set to spinning, we see 
something altogether different. When we look only at what our confessional 
and governance documents say about ordination, we can see all kinds of 
logical connections and easy-to-understand categories. When all of these are 
put in motion by virtue of applying them to particular persons, with 
particular gifts, called by particular communities of God's people to lead 
them at a particular time in history, the lines and the categories begin to 
blur. The strengths and weaknesses of these provisions come to light in ways 
that matter to people.
Some in our church feel strongly that Christian educators ought to be 
ordained. The church also is deeply divided over the question of whether 
openly gay and lesbian persons may be ordained to offices of ministry. We 
may wish these debates would just go away, but they are the way we 
Presbyterians go about testing what we believe to be the truth. If and when 
the debates finally come to an end, it will come from putting everything 
that matters to us into play and then testing the fruits born of each side's 
understanding and practice of ministry. (By J. Frederick Holper)

J. Frederick Holper is professor of preaching and worship at McCormick 
Theological Seminary, Chicago, Ill.

What is ordination

The act by which the church sets apart leaders to serve in particular 
offices. The word ordination is derived from order. In ordination the church 
orders itself for ministry.

Q. For what offices is ordination required?
A. Minister of the Word and Sacrament, elder, deacon.

Q. Who does the ordaining?
A. The presbytery ordains ministers. The church session ordains deacons and 
elders.

Q. How does the process of ordination work?

A. Those called to an ordained office in the church are subjected to a 
four-stage process of admission to that office. Presbyterian ordination 
rites have always included each aspect of this fourfold process:
•	Articulation of a clear inner sense that God is calling the person to an 
office of ministry requiring ordination.
•	Testing of that inner call by the church itself. In practice, this has 
included an examination not only of the person's knowledge and gifts, but 
also of his or her way of life.
•	Election to office by a particular community of God's people, ordinarily a 
congregation.
•	Admission to the office (ordination) in the context of public worship, 
through prayer, with the laying on of hands.

Q. What kind of leadership does the church need?
A. The two key words here are gifts and service.

"Leaders in the church are identified and called to office in terms of their 
gifts. It is expected that these gifts, coming from God, are to be exercised 
in the particular tasks and office. It is also to be expected that the gifts 
of the leader will be cultivated and developed in obedience to the guidance 
of the Spirit and in the service of the church. Leaders are also called on 
to empower and enhance the exercise and development of the gifts of all of 
the members of the community."--A Proposal for Considering the Theology and 
Practice of Ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), commended for 
churchwide study by the 1992 General Assembly

"The purpose and pattern of leadership in the church in all its forms of 
ministry shall be understood not in terms of power but of service, after the 
manner of the servant ministry of Jesus Christ."--Book of Order, G-14.0103


According to the Encyclopedia Americana, ordination is:

"The CEREMONY by which priests, deacons, subdeacons, candidates for the 
minor orders and ministers of any denomination are admitted to their 
specific office in the church."

While Jesus himself was not ordained by the clergy and religious system of 
His day John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Christ dedicated Himself to God; so 
why did Jesus insist that John baptize him? Because Jesus wanted to 
symbolize in a PUBLIC CONFESSION that He had dedicated Himself to God. The 
Bible tells us of Jesus' baptism that "immediately on coming up out of the 
water He saw the heavens being parted, and, like a dove, the spirit coming 
down upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: 'You are my Son, the 
beloved; I have approved you."

After His ordination immediately following His baptism in the River Jordan 
Jesus PUBLICLY stated the authority of His ordination by reading from Isaiah 
61:1, 2: "1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has 
anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the 
brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from 
darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and 
the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn."

In today's world, declaring someone ordained through ceremony is a 
recognizable way for the ENTIRE community into which the "minister" belongs, 
to agree with the choosing of him and to greet the newly ordained.  
Basically, it is a "vote", if you will, of confidence and acceptance of the 
new minister/leader of their church.  Jesus' baptism/ordination "ceremony" 
is a model for a church to follow His steps closely; it marks the person as 
a person that is dedicating his ENTIRE life/world to God and God's people 
for the benefit of those people and Glory of God.  It is a "token" of the 
person's willingness to follow God's Word and Jesus' work.


Comment

Given all this, the following sheds light on the fact that Doug Wilson is 
NOT an ordained minister in any given "ministry":

To answer your question:

Doug Wilson, Evan Wilson, and several other men were commissioned to the 
work of Faith Fellowship, later to become Christ Church, by the elders of 
the Evangelical Free Church of Pullman at a meeting held in the One-Way 
Bookstore of Pullman, WA in the mid-1970s. The elders of EFC-Pullman at the 
time included Jim Wilson and Doug Busby." (poohsthink.com)

The four stages or order of ordination were not followed; they were simply 
overlooked or ignored.  The group met in a coffee/bookstore, basically had a 
business meeting and decided "Viola! you are now a "minister."  Or did they? 
  Were they simply "appointing" Doug as a deacon of the newly formed 
ministry and he took it to be an ordination or anointing as a minister, and 
ran with it?  It has been seen that the EFC have condemned Doug over the 
years for actions "unfitting" of the position he holds himself in, i.e. 
minister.

Where, before this and certainly since, does Doug show any kind of gift(s) 
that would make people say "Hmm, this guy looks like he'd be a good 
candidate for ordination?"  or "Doug Wilson has a gift for making people 
understand and follow God's word?" - especially given his penchant for 
ignoring God's laws and ways (for instance, following the laws of the land 
he finds himself in?)

It is my belief that ordination should be required for all men that want to 
be Ministers to go to a college or Seminary. Otherwise you get these people 
who become Pastors simply because they "like to preach" and know nothing 
about correct doctrine or how to even look for the correct doctrine.  I 
think a church, when thinking of putting a pastor in office should question 
his doctrine, and if he knows what he is talking about, then and only then 
should a PUBLIC ordination be committed.

Because, there are skills and things learned from an experienced and well 
educated Seminarian that a "pastor" should have; those things simply can not 
be learned at the local bookstore or as an apprentice.  Granted, a person 
would be able to learn "about" or "of" them, but you simply can't get a full 
education like what you get at a college.  Seminaries have experienced 
professors that have had their own parishes/churches. The reason why there 
are so many churches full of false doctrine today is because of pastors who 
have never gone to college and preach their own thing. They have no 
counseling skills, no communication skills, and no interpersonal skills. It 
leads to a mess!

Also, Pastors need to know how to properly interpret, much less educate, the 
people of the Word. You don't learn how to do this by simply reading a book 
all the time or even writing them. Most of the Pastors I know have a good 
handle on Greek and Hebrew and actually go into the original text to get 
sermons from. Sermons are a lot more difficult then just finding a problem 
and getting 1 to 2 points out of it to verify their true point. There is 
much more involved if done properly.  I would say that one should be an 
"ordained" minister to be the senior pastor of a church, but one must more 
importantly focus on what it means to be ordained.  I do realize and accept 
the prerequisites will vary from place to place.

I believe that one should have a strong theological background in order to 
be ordained. In almost all cases, this should require the approval of an 
acceptable degree-granting university or seminary. In some wild and 
generally hypothetical cases (like Peter and the apostles), one might make 
an exception.  I realize that Doug is stating (lately) that he is in fact an 
apostle; but can one just appoint oneself to that position?  Can anyone just 
say "I am a (*), therefore I am a (*)"? In other words, is Doug a 
pastor/minister/apostle simply because he says so?

Accountability needs to be another concern and requirement of an ordaining 
body.  If someone is not ordained per the steps outlined above, who does the 
pastor/minister(apostle) answer to?  Especially if they are, in reality, 
self-appointed?

Aithníonn cíaróg cíaróg eile. -- One beetle recognizes another beetle (and 
can accommodate for the lacking of their fellow beetle.)

Given the actions of Doug and his fellow "deacons" (especially after Dale's 
repugnant posting this morning), I believe the Christ Church fellowship 
needs to seriously look at Doug's continued role as "minister".  They need 
to seriously consider if he is the type of "minister of God's Word" and 
God's work that they want to represent them in the community.


J  :]




J  :]

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/