As I reflect on Calvin: Theological Treatises, “Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances,” I am reminded of a judge adorned in a black robe with a gavel at hand pounding on his bench and saying in a thunderous voice, “Order in the Court.” Order. Order is a small word that can calm a raging sea. It provides structure and organization. According to Webster’s Dictionary, order means to “give an authoritative direction or instruction to do something”. How many times a day does someone tell us what to do? How often do we stop ourselves from doing what we want, because we know that this action is prohibited or wrong? In the United States as well as in the church, we have rules, laws, and regulations to govern or oversee almost everything we do. In court …show more content…
So why must we have order in the church? As aforementioned, the Bible gives us our first glimpse of order in the church. It is our basic structure. In fact, God established order or government for the good of all people. Romans 13:1-2 tells us that, “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed by God.” The Scripture goes on to say that if we reject God’s order or governance, then we reject God. Scripture also tells us that order was instituted in the church for God’s glory. All things exist under the sovereignty of God and serve not only the good of people but also God’s ultimate purpose to bring glory to His name (Psalm115:1-2; Proverbs 16:4, Isaiah 42:8). Therefore, government or order has been instituted by God not only for our good but also for the glory of His own name. Perhaps Paul sums it up best in the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians, when he was speaking to the church in Corinth. He said, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” In putting this verse into perspective, Paul is reminding the people of the church that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace within the body of Christ or the local church setting. Calvin took on the same mindset as Paul. In reading, Calvin: Theological Treatises, the “Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances,” Calvin gives us an explanation …show more content…
Paul’s guidance on the standards of these roles should not be taken lightly; as one should be called to have a leadership role in the church. The governmental structure in the Bible is like a pyramid with the Pastor as the head and the elders beneath him. The pastor’s role according to scriptures is similar to the role of the elder and that is to care for and feed God’s flock (Ephesians 4:1). The New Testament only refers to the pastor’s role one time; which we can conclude that the pastor and elder in a Biblical sense are one in the same. In Calvin’s Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances, there are four orders of office instituted by the Lord for government of the church: pastors, doctors, elders, and deacons. The pastor’s role in the Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances is similar to the Bible. Its role is to, “proclaim the Word of God, to admonish, exhort and censure, both in public and private, to administer the sacraments, and to enjoin in brotherly corrections along with the elders and colleagues.” Doctors of the Ecclesiastical Draft role is to instruct, teach, and lecture on true doctrine. There is no mentioning of doctor’s role in the Bible and the Presbytery Book of
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.