Ordination?

Today (1/12/07) was a special day for me. I met the Korean Methodist Church ordination board and officially started my ordination process today (whatever that means^^). In Korean Methodist Church, one of the required steps in order to be ordained is to plant a church. As many of you know our church has just planted a missional church in Walnut and that will be the church I will be serving. I hear it will take around two years for me to be ordained. I don’t think I am ready for that yet… When I said “whatever that means,” was becuase I don’t think I really know what it means to be ordained (not the ritual aspect) or become an ordained pastor. Well…. God has started it, so I pray that God will finish the process and use me for his great purpose. I pray that I would serve with humble heart and “finish well” the race…

“Please take from me my life when I don’t have the strength to give it away to You Jesus” – Third Day

-Book Review- John Fuellenbach, Church, Community for the Kingdom

Author: John Fuellenbach, SVD, who teachers at the Gregorian in Rome, has taught in the Philippines, and lectures internationally. He is author of The Kingdom of God

Summary:
In this book, the author revisits the idea of church and the concept of “Kingdom of God” as presented by Jesus; and how that idea is (or should be) relevant to us in this age. The author also states that in the struggle to answer those questions, the church of today is facing a serious difficulty in finding the direction for its future. We can not and should not rely in the historical model since it does not give us the right answer for the future.

The two answers for the questions and the ways for the church to advance in the kingdom of God are: 1) the enculturation and 2) solidarity with the poor. The author argues that the church today must go beyond the western model and theology of the church. We must listen and adapt from the churches found all over the world, especially from Africa, Latin America and Asia, which, according to the author, will be the place for the future church. Fuellenbach also notes that we must focus on the poor, the marginalized, just as Jesus did while standing up against the society.

Reflection
Although I agree in many of the author’s prospective and have greatly benefited from his writings, there are certain aspects that I strongly disagree with. This seems to be an obvious result since we differ in our presuppositions (found at the beginning of the book). The author claims that there is salvation outside the Christian church, through the work of the Holy Spirit released in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He backs his claims with how Genesis begins with the account of humanity and not of the chosen people (just as revelation ends with the gathering of all nations). Also a qualifier he adds is that “the manner in which salvation in Jesus Christ is made available outside the church through the working of the Holy Spirit remains mysterious to us.” In fact it is true that the work of God is mysterious and in fact God “could” grant salvation to an individual outside the church (because he is God and nothing is impossible for Him). Yet, that does not mean we can claim salvation outside the church. Here, I am talking about the principle and the guidance given to us through the scripture (I am not declaring that I hold perfect understanding of scripture). It is clear in the bible that the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ. I do not think this refers, as the author writes, that the resurrection of Jesus could be extended to other religion. I believe there must be a concrete and specific professing of faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection through the community of faith (the church). The idea goes back to the idea of principles. An illustration would be: God could in fact save someone who has taken his or her own life if He chooses to (or for some other reason not known to us), but this does not mean we could claim that “you will still go to heaven in case of suicide.” We must teach what we were taught by the scripture (of course while leaving the result to God) and that order should not be changed.

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This disagreement also brings a different personal view and conclusion of the church with that of the author (only in part). I believe the local church as institution (no matter how corrupted it might be) is crucial for us the believers. If there is something wrong with the church, we must try to fix it but not find an alternative under the name of “different church.”
In terms of the answer given by the authors: Yes, we must be sensitive to the culture but we must not let the culture define the church. It is the gospel adapting to the context, not context reshaping the gospel (I am not saying that is the author’s claim but that in fact, it is happening in many places).