ordained
What makes someone ordained by God? What gives someone the right to proclaim God's Truth and deliver His message? What gives someone authority in the state to provide services like marriage?
I am a notary. I helped plant a church. I helped lead and teach in this church. I have been involved in the spiritual lives of people over the course of several years. But I do not have a seminary education. I don't even have my undergraduate degree. I haven't been "ordained" by the church in any formal ceremony. So does that make the work I have done or the desire of my heart to serve not "ordained" by God? Is it by the acceptance of man or God that people are ordained and chosen to serve? And who decides whether someone else is ordained?
The Apostles didn't have formal education. Most of them were young men working with their families, yet they were called and did the work of the Lord and they had authority.
I obviously have loads of questions and while I am curious as to the millions of answers I could possibly receive to these questions, I ultimately just desire to seek God and serve Him and those around me. I seek to be humble and loving...whether "ordained" or not...
I am a notary. I helped plant a church. I helped lead and teach in this church. I have been involved in the spiritual lives of people over the course of several years. But I do not have a seminary education. I don't even have my undergraduate degree. I haven't been "ordained" by the church in any formal ceremony. So does that make the work I have done or the desire of my heart to serve not "ordained" by God? Is it by the acceptance of man or God that people are ordained and chosen to serve? And who decides whether someone else is ordained?
The Apostles didn't have formal education. Most of them were young men working with their families, yet they were called and did the work of the Lord and they had authority.
I obviously have loads of questions and while I am curious as to the millions of answers I could possibly receive to these questions, I ultimately just desire to seek God and serve Him and those around me. I seek to be humble and loving...whether "ordained" or not...
posted by Michael Anthony | 10:35 PM
2 Comments:
Everyone who is a believer has authority. That's why the symbolism of the curtain being torn when Jesus died is so amazing & important.
1 Peter 2:5ff
All Ordination really is, is you saying that God has called you to do something, and the church affirming your call publicly... It's cultural. It's not necessary, there's nothing special spiritually that happens. In other cultures, they do different things to affirm your call.
And just because you haven't been called to seminary doesn't mean everyone is called the same. Technically, seminary is "formal" education... but the Apostles had something better than seminary - they had Jesus himself... so that argument is pretty weak... I am definitely in the party of folks that know that seminary isn't necessary - BUT studying the Bible and learning about God Is VERY necessary - the good thing about seminary is that you can learn from people that know more than you and have devoted their lives to studying and teaching (which is something that God has called them to do)...
I'm not saying that everyone should go to seminary in order to have "authority" - if that was the case there wouldn't be ANY churches in countries overseas where seminaries aren't allowed...(besides - it doesn't say that in the Bible)... In America it is culturally necessary for some employment to have a seminary education - so that they have some way of measuring your spiritual knowledge / "education" before you teach or lead...
Seminary IS a good thing - but it's not necessary to being a "good" believer.
The important thing to remember is that God calls everyone differently, and it's important not to feel that your convictions are the same as everyone else's convictions. AND to remember that all Christians have authority! Thank goodness that we do!
Just wanted to say....
I don't have an undergrad degree.
I don't have a seminary degree.
But I am in ministry in England and the tools I needed to be here, to better equip me for God's work here, I did not learn in a school. In fact, I would have never learned them in a school.
If God calls you to something, He will equip you for it. For some it might be some sort of schooling and for others it's something else. We just have to be open to whatever it is.
There are somethings you can't learn in school, you have to learn it in the ordinary every day.
I can testify to that one.
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