Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances

Notably, the Great Awakening was encouraged by the thoughts of the Enlightenment such as the view that one could question governmental authority since it was not infallible. Therefore, these new ideals it caused churches to minimalize the sovereignty of church officials, focusing more on political liberty even within the church, which led to a democracy-based environment in churches (Stanfield, 1949). Evidently, such an excise of self-government within established churches not only encouraged Americans to strive toward self-government through the American Revolution yet also prepared them to efficiently govern such a democracy. Furthermore, the Great Awakening also stressed the idea that all men were equal in God’s sight, therefore empowering

One of the main reasons John Calvin was a leader was that he was willing to make difficult decisions. “In 1528, when he was 19 years old, his father ordered him to take law”. This meant that he had to leave theology (which was a passion of his). This was a hard decision for him to make because he loved theology and was very

In the Reformation era, two groups dictated the war of differing religions, Calvinism and the Catholic Church. Both had different interpretations of God as they maintained loyal members. The Catholic Church and Protestant denominations were enemies. John Calvin created the Protestant religion named Calvinism. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, it eventually became one of the largest Christian religion outside Roman Catholic. Its founder John Calvin used Geneva to spread his message. The Catholic Church experienced several issues in the 1500s. In 1517, Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” and the subsequent formation of the religion Lutheranism posed a threat to the Church. As a result, the Catholic Church took several measures to ensure loyalty from its

Institutes of the Christian Religion: A book by John Calvin that explained the Protestant systematic theology

Calvin believes that scripture is the lone religious authority which was created before the church, and also stands above the church. This is problematic from a Catholic point of view because Roman Catholics believe that scriptures were in fact created by the church. They also believe that scriptures were selected by the church in order to develop an official list of sacred books. Calvin also supports the concept of predestination. Calvin’s idea of predestination is that every human being is either destined to be damned in Hell or destined to be saved in Heaven; God has the ability to choose who goes to heaven based on arbitrary reasons. Calvin says, “The separation is before the eyes of all:…one people is peculiarly chosen to the rejection of others; no reason for this appears, except that Moses, to deprive their posterity of all occasion of glorifying, teaches them that their exaltation is wholly from God’s gratuitous love…” (Calvin 340). Calvin also believes that those who are

It is important for Churches to see the importance of “ the great commission” because this is the

In the Christian creed, the pastors are the ones who give God’s word. Some seem to think that just because they are the ones who receive and then spread the information that they are above societies wrong doings. In bad cases they are personalizing the word so that people believe what they are told by said pastor and are mislead because of it. Even tho God says that all of his children are equal, they still seem to think they are better than anyone that you could compare them too in this society, which is an act of

John Calvin made an extremely large and powerful impact on Christianity as a whole, and that impact can still be seen today. Calvin was born in a small town in the country in France, but eventually became, and is still regarded as the theologian Martin Luther’s successor during one of Christianity’s most shaping events of the time, the Protestant Reformation. At first, he had studied Protestantism due to his father being a priest, but he became the possible most important people of the second part of the Reformation. Calvin originally never wanted to become a part of the Reformation, but he had a lasting effect on the years to follow, even despite being persecuted, and threatened with death in the Great Inquisition. He had the goal, like most

Pastors is organ as Shepherd. They watched over their flocks and the flock know their Shepherd’s voice. (John 10:27, KJV)

In To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, the Church has surrounded themselves with three distinct rules. As a result, Luther believes the rules within the Church are merely defending the corruption from reform. Giving a brief summary of his purpose for writing the text, Luther depicts the beliefs of the Church as foolish and unwise. The Roman Catholic Church has put complete power into the leaders of the Church (9). In the final paragraph of his introduction, Luther directly quotes Joshua 6:20, asking for aid in helping individuals reform themselves and attain God’s good grace.

John Calvin merged a lot of new changes together for the people starting with a new set of unwritten rules, similar to the bill of rights, known as the Rights of Englishmen. This gave citizens the power to some rights, most importantly the right to own weapons and government cannot take away their property. Following this was the belief that getting ahead and

The New Testament leaders are an example of how church leaders of today should also behave and work[8]. They ought to be able to teach, guide the believers in the way of God and nurture their spiritual gifts. The New Testament leaders had to boldly defend the word of God in case of any false teaching. Basing on this New Testament leadership, it is important to make sure that any believer appointed to the leadership office has the laid down qualifications[9].

In today’s society the controversial subject of what positions in the church a woman can hold; has become incredibly debatable among the nation. Some people believe that women have equal rights with men and can uphold any position that a man can. Today’s society also believes that because a woman can be in political and business power, then a woman can also be in authority in the church. However, that could not be farther from the truth a women’s positions in the church are defined by God.

My faith tradition informs my theology of pastoral care as that a pastor has an authority in the pastoral care relationship. The pastor’s image in my faith tradition is an advisor, director, and guide. In my faith tradition, the lay people like to have the pastoral care, when they make important decisions. Since my culture is the hierarchal and patriarch system, the lay people believes that pastors are better to know about God’s will. Therefore, the lay people are too much depending on the pastor’s advices, and taking pastor’s perspective, rather than choosing what they want. There is no space to listen their inner voice in the pastoral care in my faith tradition. My theology of pastoral care in my faith tradition was that what Jesus did is what we should do. Because of my traditional ideal of pastoral care, I thought pastors have to know everything and be better than others until becoming like Jesus. However, I realized that the theology can be dangerous to look down the lay people and non-Christians, and is not helpful for the pastors and the lay people as well. I think it is important to remember in my tradition that the head of the church is the only one, Jesus, and we are all the body of Christ. There is the better part in the body of Christ. We are all the same and we need each other.

The Protestant Reformation indicated that a human can “connect to God and can do so without the aid of a priest.” The ecclesiology behind this is basically what aids me in my ministry. Peterson, in his book Essential Church, explains “the primary affirmation is not that each person is his or her own priest but that each Christian can be a priest, advocate, intercessor, and evangelist to others.” William Willimon, Pastor: the Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry, highlights a variety of ways in which a pastor functions. In this paper, I am going to explain the ways in which my current ministry setting connects with the concept of priest as pastor in relation to worship and the connect and context of pastoral care while teaching others that they are able to accomplish the same task.