Lay Ministry Academy
J.D. Baker’s thoughts on his experiences. This article and the ones that will follow serve many purposes. One, it causes me to go back and reflect on the drink from the fire hose that the 10 hours sometimes feels like. Two, I get feedback from people I met in class, those that taught the class, and anyone else who reads it and elects to comment, which I encourage you to do. Third, I hope that it causes some of those who do read it, to consider their faith journey.
Attending the Cal-Pac Lay Ministry Academy is one of the requirements for me to become a Certified Lay Minister, but these classes are open for anyone to attend. Check out the Academy and the upcoming classes at the Cal-Pac LMA Web Page. You can choose to attend one or more classes and they can be taken in any order.
My visit to the Claremont School of Theology for the first class in Cycle 3 of the Lay Ministry Academy began with an unexpected bonus. As I walked from the car to the classroom, I ran into Rev. Dudley Johnson. He was on campus to photograph the chapel as part of his photography class assignment. For those of you who remember him from his short time as Pastor Steve’s substitute, he is doing well, spending three days a week at Holtville UMC, and has lost 85 pounds since we last saw him.
Next I met Judy and Doug Lewis, the Co-Deans of the Cal-Pac LMA. They were a pleasure to work with. Finally, I met John Fanestil and Lincoln Galloway, the co-instructors for the “Covenant for Ministry” session. They did a wonderful job during the two days of the course. We learned a little Greek, a little Latin, some theology, and how some geometric forms provided different kinds of windows into ways to think about God.
First we engaged in theology, which we learned in drilling down to the roots of that word means simply talking about God. Merriam-Webster defines theology as “the study of God and of God’s relation to the world.” How often do you talk about God and God’s relation to the world? Who do you talk to, and when do you do your talking? It is fascinating to me how the small pieces of the puzzle that is life fall together. In Pastor Steve’s sermon during the week that I was in the process of writing this article, he talked about how people seem to ask more questions about God at parties than at church. It is as though we don’t want to ask questions because we are concerned that someone might figure out we didn’t have all the answers already. But we’re not supposed to have all the answers, so we need to ask questions about God, about religion, about Methodism, about Faith, about Grace, and anything else that causes us to furrow our brow.
What is our understanding of God?
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The questions we ask reveal much about ourselves. As an example of the kinds of questions that get asked, we talked about the Protestant Reformation, the 95 Theses written by Martin Luther in the 1500′s, and the Five Solas that summarized the basic theological beliefs of the reformers. “Sola” means alone or only, and the five solas are the fundamental pillars of Christian life and practice. The five are:
- Scripture
- Faith
- Grace
- Christ
- Glory of God
As we were going over this, I recall thinking that I had been confirmed in the Lutheran Church, so I must have studied the Reformation in my two years of confirmation classes, yet I didn’t remember anything about five solas. This little bit of reflection on my past was just the beginning of my trip down memory lane. I would suggest that thinking about my confirmation days was a coincidence, but Jethro Gibbs or Ruth Smith will tell you there’s no such thing as coincidences.
John and Lincoln suggested we take the opportunity to talk often about God and offered a prescription for how we should hold those discussions. They said we should be informed by tradition, reason and experience, and rooted in scripture, doctrine, and story. They offered several ways that we can use to bound those conversations. One was the Quadrilateral, which forms a box. This prompted one student to ask, is God inside or outside the box? Another was people forming a circle, with God in the middle. If you think about this in terms of loving God and one another, as the circle expands we move farther away from both God and one another, so our goal must always be to move in to the circle. John offered the pattern of a loop, that starts with oops, transitions to ugh, bottoms out at an aha moment, moves up to yeah and ends at whee! I searched for a graphic that looked like the loop that John drew, and the best I could do was an ichthus.
The big picture for the story of the Bible loop starts with Creation at the oops point, the Fall at the ugh point, redemption with Christ on the cross at the aha point, resurrection at the yeah point, and Revelation whee! end. John then challenged us to find the story in our own lives as our homework assignment. As I considered the stories in my life, I couldn’t help but start way back at my confirmation class. I attended a large church, where there were enough youth in the class to have a Confirmation Class Choir. After the first few weeks, the choir director asked me not come anymore. Since the classes were on Saturday morning, I was more than happy to go home earlier than everyone else. Over the following years a number of people asked me not to sing. The problem was, I liked to sing especially in church. One day, I told that story to our choir director, Julie Ann Allen. Her response was to insist that I join the RUMC choir. She gave me a few private lessons, put me between Mark Miller and Dale Balu, and with them singing in my ears I actually hit a few notes on key. The whee! event was a Christmas contata, that left me spiritually fulfilled.
John taught us that the loop offers a metaphor for making progress. Each iteration takes us to a new beginning, a re-creation. And so it was with me. One Maundy Thursday, we put paper footsteps labeled with disciples names around the altar. Pastor Jan invited us to come forward and stand in those footsteps, without first looking at the name. I stood in Peter’s footsteps, and Jan told me that I would need to become a leader. It didn’t happen immediately, there were times of uncertainty, but eventually I began my first term as Lay Leader, then Lay Member to the Annual Conference and then Lay Leader again, when we were encouraged to combine those two roles. After several years and a couple of false starts, I once again know where I’m headed. The guiding force is puppets and all of those who are eager to participate. Now I am eagerly climbing up the loop, headed for that moment when I become a Certified Lay Minister. I know that ending will also be a new beginning.
We finished by talking about grace. We were asked to think about how God has taken the initiative. He is ever creating. He calls us. He speaks to us. He comes to us. We don’t ‘find’ Him on Sunday morning. For by the grace of God, we are all called to be one in Jesus Christ. Grace, is not offered, but given.
There is only one grace, but John Wesley categorized grace based on where we are in our walk with God. The four categories are:
- Prevenient Grace – the grace that is with us from birth, and even before (see Jeremiah 1:5).
- Justifying Grace – the “not guilty” verdict – the pardon that is the beginning of our faith journey. What is God doing with us, for us, to us? How do we reflect God’s grace into the world around us?
- Sanctifying Grace – Once we have accepted the grace that is offered, we must to grow in Christian life. We have entered into a lifetime of work.
- Perfecting Grace – this is reflected in the opening prayer of the sacrament of Communion:
“Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name. Amen.”
For more on Wesley’s ideas on grace, see the GBOD page on God’s grace.
I close with some questions that John and Lincoln asked us to consider.
- Is God more present when we are energized and acting faithfully than when we are despondent?
- Does grace come from the hands of the Children of God?
- How do you reflect God’s grace?
- What scripture illustrates your understanding of God’s grace?
My answer to that last question is Galatians 3:27-28. Happy reading.
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