Ohio District ABLAZE
Rev Terry Cripe
October 28, 2009

It's near the end of October, and we all know what that means: time for trick-or-treating!

What? Well, it is Halloween for everyone except that odd 1 – 2% of Americans who celebrate something called “Reformation.” Celebrating such an event might be seen as an edgy counter-cultural move, except there aren't enough of us celebrating it for the prevailing culture to sit up and take notice. If anyone passing by our churches observes that the lights are on for an evening activity, they'd probably more easily imagine that we were evangelicals hosting an “alternative” event to protest secular Halloween's witches, goblins, and demons. Reformation? What's that?

One of you sent me a little online quiz from Leadership. Supposedly it is designed to reveal a pastor's ministry age based on the answers given to a series of questions. One in particular stood out: “The church's leadership exists primarily to a) empower the people; b) lead the people; or c) protect the people.” According to the key, those whose prime service occurred mainly from 1950-70s view protection as the main function. Pragmatists, who served from the 70's to the 90's, are concerned with leading. Those pastors from ages 25-41 are most concerned with effectiveness and the quality of disciples. I know many of you have heard of or been exposed to all kinds of thinking about the role of the pastor today. If the world has changed, shouldn't the role of the pastor change along with it?

“We began to sing, 'Come Holy Spirit! Fall fresh on me.' We sang this song over and over and over again. The harmony was pretty cool, but my wife and I kept thinking, 'when is the Spirit going to come? Isn't he here yet?' It led me, a trained and ordained LCMS pastor to question whether the Spirit was really given in Baptism, like I confessed and had been taught to believe, or even in his Word.” Marcus J Mackay in Logia, vol XVII, number 4, page 66.

It's that time of the year again when congregations turn to District guidelines for compensation guidance. I happened to be preparing for a Bible study when I came across the phrase I had heard often quoted in connection with such compensation: “they are worthy of double honor.” Then I reread the full passage and my eyebrows raised in surprise: “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor. (NIV)” That's no peculiarity of the NIV. The adverb “well” appears in the RSV, God's Word, and the ESV, just to name a few. And they should use that adverb because it is in the Greek text. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, The Message, reads, “Give a bonus to leaders who do a good job.” It isn't that the pastors themselves are worthy of double honor over against other vocations, but those who do the work well that deserve the double honor.