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go here to buy my stock photography Alan Creech
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Of course, how you understand these three things (they're not really "things") is dependent on what Christian tradition you have been schooled in. Hopefully all these terms are familiar enough to all of us here. What's more is that my whole point, really, isn't about any of the three, but about a more central concern of spiritual formation, of the real and substantive transformation of the Christian person. These three areas of focus, which are tightly connected practically speaking, are the cause of much confusion and trouble. I'm sure I'm not the only one to have noticed this. Now, to sort of boil this down a bit and get to the meat... Perhaps we know, realize, have pointed out to us, a certain charism that has been given to us by God, a gift. These are deposits of His own Life given to us to function in certain ways inside the context of the whole Body. Sometimes we know we have these gifts and sometimes we don't. I'm not going to go into that entire process right now, how I see it working, etc. I'm trying to keep this less than 14 paragraphs long. I'll make one more short statement about charisms - they are not representative of spiritual maturity. Just as one may have a gene which says that they will be tall, one may have the gift of prophecy and still be a "baby" with lots of growing and development yet to do. And there are things we may or may not do which will retard our development. And then, if we grow to be tall, we may be obnoxious about it and make fun of short people - not good. See the comparison? Simply because we have been given something does NOT mean we know how to use it, what it's for, etc. Now, at some point during our journey we may "hear" a "call" to do something. Vocation refers to this call, to our being told that there is something for us to do - perhaps with our charism. I'll state the obvious at the get-go - just because you think you heard this call, doesn't mean it's legitimately God telling you to do something. How did you hear it? Where did you hear it? Who did you tell? What did you measure it against? If you've never heard questions like this in conjunction with a vocation or call then you need to stop, find someone who is mature, whom you respect, and get them to ask you these things. OK, so you come to the conclusion, properly, in the context of the Christian community, that this vocation is genuine. Then what? Well, you go do it right? Hold on there charlie. When? Statement on vocation: Just because you've figured out you have a vocation, a calling from God to do something, doesn't mean you know the time tables. It doesn't mean you know WHEN do it or how it's going to work out. You may have a lot of formation to go through before you are able to fully do that. A lot may have to change in order for this to be able to happen. Simply because you know (sort of know) the destination of a trip doesn't mean you're going to be there in 5 minutes - that it's even possible. So slow down! It's not all up to you! The whole concept of ministry or doing ministry is probably the most complex of these three things, and as such, in this setting, I'll spend less time on it. Basically, we're talking about using our charism in conjunction with our vocation - administering what we've been given to others. This has become its own little world, you may well know this. We are told in many circles of our responsibility in connection with our gifts and callings. "No pressure, but you have this thing that GOD gave you and asked you to give to someone somewhere, and uhh, you're just sitting there not doing anything!" This is what is communicated many times to us. I'm saying this is done without proper consideration for the development of the person into the image of Christ - their one central and core "vocation." We get worried. Well, what we do is, I believe, concentrate on the wrong things, the things that are measurable and more readily demonstrative. Here's how it goes: we find or discover these charisms, these gifts, then we think we hear or we actually hear some kind of call (not necessarily in that order), and either explicitly or implicitly, we are encouraged to do some kind of ministry or perhaps to even start a ministry. Now I could probably go on for a long time talking about the difference between these two things - not now, don't worry. Suffice to say now, that one may do ministry without starting "a ministry." OK, I said I was going to spend less time didn't I? Oh well. I'm trying to get to this: we encourage people before their time, very often. We pump them up about their great gifts when this is not what they need to hear. They need to be sitting, learning, growing, developing, but we get them all excited about this charism and in connection with that, this vocation thing and we press them into service, very very often, before they are ready. Is this innocent? No. It is ignorant though, and it causes a lot of harm to a lot of people. It wears people out. It does not allow them to be the Body with others, but only to concentrate on finding something and then doing something. What are we? Factories or trade schools? No, we are the Church. And that, as I see it, is more of a life context than a club that we join in order to do some kind of work. Yes, work happens in life, but life is life, not just work. It is all of life. So, as the Church, the life context of Kingdom citizens, we should be living, not just looking for a job and pumping people through system in which their talents are identified and they're given a job to do. We are sending people to their ruin by doing this. I didn't say to hell. But we are ruining people. Some serious rethinking is in order. God's Grace be with us. technorati tags > charism, vocation, ministry, church, spiritual formation, christianity Labels: church, leadership, spiritual formation :::
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three quotes |:: "Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." "Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." "...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
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