Yesterday we made use of a color to guide your reflections as you drew to the close of the year. Today, I want to suggest that you make use of that theological education that helped prepare you for ministry. Like yesterday’s exercise, these are meant to be simple musings in this brief lull between the end of the Christmas pressures and the New year. Here is the exercise.
Recalling the major theological doctrines that provide the basic framework for the Christian faith, and thinking about your own personal spiritual journey, pick out one doctrine that seems to speak to the challenges of your ministry at this point in time. For example, how would an emphasis on the sovereignty of God, or the sinfulness of humanity, or the nature of Christ, or even the concept of the Body of Christ speak to where you are? Maybe a completely different doctrine comes to mind. Perhaps its predestination, or the meaning of the Eucharist, etc. You can approach this from one of two perspectives. One, if I believed in this doctrine more fully, how would it affect me? Or, since I do believe in this, how should it shape my response in ministry?
What you are doing is allowing at least your memory of what you learned about these larger doctrines to speak to your present situation. We can easily get so mired down in the immediate demands of the ministry that we neglect to draw upon the strength of our doctrinal heritage. Even if you think you no longer believe in a particular doctrine, it might be valuable to revisit it and ask what it was trying to say.
For some people, such reflections are done best through writing; for others it might be in a time of meditation; for still others, you might want to invite a theologically attuned friend to share in such a conversation. Tomorrow we will carry this one step further.
