My Column

Here is my column from this week's newsletter at Grace for those of you who don't get it and for those of you wait.

Two rather major events occurred in my life within the last two weeks. On Tuesday, February 12, at Mount Wesley in Kerrville, I sat for my interview with the full Board of Ordained Ministry and was recommended unanimously for ordination at Annual Conference on June 7. This was my final interview in a process that has taken about seven years and has included three years of schooling, countless interviews, and hundreds of pages of writing.

Then, on Friday, February 22, at the Bexar County Courthouse, Alisha and I stood up together as the judge announced that our adoption of Joshua Steven Rice had been granted. This was the final step in a process that has taken close to a year and a half and has included nearly as much paperwork as my ordination process.

A couple of people have asked, “Aren’t you glad to be finished?” And I am, but finished is probably not the right word. These two milestones in my life are very similar in that they were and are both things that were already done and not yet completed. I believe that God called me into Christian ministry on my baptism. My ordination will mark the end of a process but not the beginning and certainly not the end of my ministry. It is really just another step on the path that I have allowed my heart to follow. Our adoption of Joshua is the end of a legal process but we became Joshua’s parents and he became our son the day he was carried through our front door and we still have a long journey ahead as a family.

It is important to mark milestones in our lives. It is good to stop and mark major events and accomplishments and give thanks to God for where we have been and how far we have come; but we always need to do so in the context of the continuing journey of growth and change that God has in store for us.

The Apostle Paul, with so many accomplishments already behind him writes in his letter to the Philippians about his own spiritual journey, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is speaking of sanctification, the idea that, while there is a major milestone in our lives when we accept the grace that God offers us, when we are justified, there is also so much more. There is the prevenient grace of God that loved us before we even knew it and the sanctifying grace of God that continues to mold us and change us and recreate us more in God’s image. I was called to be a pastor before I knew it, I will be becoming a pastor for the rest of my life. Joshua and Alisha and I were a family long before the court decided so and we will be becoming a family as long as we live.

During the season of Lent, as we prepare our hearts for Easter, I invite you to consider where you are on the journey. Where are you on the continual journey of transformation and re-creation that God has undertaken in you?

peace,

will

More after this...

Another break from the story of my epic journey to share with you a piece from yesterday's New York Times on a new poll released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. There is a ton of stuff in this article and more in the study it is referring to that could inform our church's or any church's evangelism effort.

The line that really jumped out at me was this:

“Those losing out are offering impersonal religion,” he said, “and those winning are offering a smaller scale: mega-churches succeed not because they are mega but because they have smaller ministries inside.”

Give the article a read. I would love to hear your comments.

Poll Finds a Fluid Religious Life in U.S.

By NEELA BANERJEE

Published: February 26, 2008

More than a quarter of adult Americans have left their childhood faith for another religion or no religion.

peace,

will

The Monumental Journey Towards Ordination - Volume 1

So I have decided to reflect on the all the things that have brought me to the eve or my ordination in June. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will count on any of my colleagues who read the blog to chime in with corrections or experiences that were different than mine. Here goes:

The very first thing someone is to do when they feel a call to ministry is go and talk to their pastor. Which raises the question, "How do you know if you are being called into ministry?" Good question. Everyone's experience seems to be different. I have friends who always knew they were supposed to be in full-time ministry. Others describe a pretty dramatic moment of revelation. For me, it was more similar to having some nagging discomfort that someone finally convinces you to go to the doctor about.

My first step was schedule a meeting with Pastor John. For me, it took a while to schedule this meeting. It is a little unnerving to go and tell someone you think God is calling you into full-time ministry. What if the person says, "No, I talked to God and you heard wrong."

This is especially an issue if the person feeling the call is fairly new to the Christian faith as I was. There tends to be a initial suspicion about people who are young in the faith that perhaps there call to ministry is just a strong feeling of the call that all baptized Christians are called to ministry of one sort or another.

Anyway, Pastor John did as he was supposed to and ordered me a copy of A Christian as Minister. Those who initial feel the call to ministry are to read this to learn a little bit about Christian vocation and all the different option that were available. Pastor John also spent a little time explaining what actually goes into the process of ordination. It sounded impossible and like it would take forever. It didn't take quite that long.

More next time.

peace,

will

I Love it When the Blog Gets Interesting

Responses to postings are the lifeblood of an interactive weblog. So, check out my post from yesterday: But First... and then check out the reply it inspired. Good stuff.

peace,

will

So much to write... So little time

All the complexities of life have caused me to slack on writing about the books I am reading. This causes me other headaches because I refuse to put the book back on the shelf or lend it out until I have written something about and moved it from my What Will is Reading Now list to my What Will Read Last list.

Stuck on my desk is one of the most fun books I have read in a while, A.J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically, One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

I had seen this author on television after the book came out last year but didn't get a chance to pick it up until a friend of Alisha's who works at Simon & Schuster sent it our way. I didn't know what to expect. The premise is pretty simple an author, who happens to be a non-practicing Jew decides try to live the words, laws and instructions of the Bible as literally as possible for a year and write about it as he goes. The main thing this book accomplishes is being hysterically funny and oddly not irreverent. But the writing also does some other things. For me, as a Christian and a person who struggles to live faithfully it gave me an opportunity to see my struggles through the eyes and experience of someone else, someone else who takes to the project without nearly as many preconceived notions of what living faithfully is supposed to look like. Oddly, as hysterical as it was to read about Jacobs dealing with unruly facial hair and building booths in his living room and someone maintaining a relationship with his wife, the book actually increased my belief in the life changing power of scripture. It was fascinating to see how someone who engaged the Bible pretty much just to write a book, was radically changed. His efforts to be faithful were inspired by his commitment as an author but they still had a profound, altering effect on him. Don't get me wrong, he has not become an orthodox Jew or a born-again Christian, but it seems that he was a profoundly different person by the end of the book. And at the end of reading the book, I had an even deeper respect for the complexities and power of the Bible.

I think open-minded Christians could do a great small group book study on this. This is a fantastic book, I highly recommend it.

peace,

will

But First...

I hope to start today writing about the ordination process (see previous post). However, I wanted to first share this op-ed piece from Paul Krugman of The New York Times. I am often frustrated when people believe that everyone in America has the same shot at a full an abundant life. Where and when we are born has a massive impact on the possibilities that are before us. Sure it is possible for a poor kid from inner-city Philadelphia to grow up to be a senator, an astronaut, a pro quarterback or a C.E.O.. However, it the it is statistically less probable than for a rich kid from Martha's Vineyard. There are lots of reasons for this and Krugman talks a little bit about the science behind it.

Poverty Is Poison

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: February 18, 2008

To be poor in America today, even more than in the past, is to be an outcast in your own country. And that, the neuroscientists tell us, is what poisons a child’s brain.

peace,

will

O.K. I am done (pretty much)

Last Tuesday, I took another trip to Kerrville for my interview with The Board of Ordained Ministry, my final interview of my ordination process. Good news! The interview went very well and the full board has unanimously recommended me for ordination. The final two steps are election into full connection by the full clergy session of the Annual Conference on Wednesday, June 4th and Ordination by the Bishop at the Ordination Service on Saturday, June 7th. If you happen to be in the area, that service is open and is a really wonderful service.

Because this process is so amazingly complex and because so few people understand it, I have undertaken a new project. I am going to try to blog about the whole process from start to finish. I am going to count on my colleagues to post comments when I leave something out or get something wrong or if I had a experience not typical of the process. How long this whole explanation on the weblog takes will just depend on how motivated I am. So, keep checking back for updates!

peace,

will

Blogging in Lent

Last night's Ash Wednesday service really has me thinking about the power and pitfalls and sharing and writing about spiritual disciplines. As I talked about in my sermon last night (which I really hope to post today) there may be some power in sharing with each other the things we are doing during Lent to enhance our relationship with God and to increase our obedience to God. If we share them with each other, we may encourage each other. But, as I also shared, we have to be careful that our sharing is not boasting, that we are not doing it to "show off" our piety. I was in a meeting with a colleague the other day and he paused to get some juice from his office refrigerator. He apologized for interrupting and mentioned that he was fasting. For some reason, either the way it was shared or because of my relationship with the person, I didn't hear it at all as boastful. In fact, it really made me consider my own relationship with the discipline of fasting. Here was one of my colleagues, someone far busier and more overworked than me and he could manage to undertake this discipline. So why couldn't I. When we share, we may encourage each other and we may also gain some degree of accountability. If my friend had asked for a sandwich, I may have reminded him that he was fasting. If I were to say that I was going to observe the sabbath every week in lent and you saw me working on the day I had set aside, you might inquire as to why.

So with all this, I still don't have a clear answer on the appropriate level of sharing. So far, you won't find a list of the disciplines I will undertake during Lent here on the weblog.

peace,

will

Still catching up...

I have not been posting sermons as quickly as I like. In fact until now, there were not any from this year. I just posted the first two of the year and the sermon from this week should be up tomorrow.

Will Rice - Sermon #56 - "There's More to the Story"

Will Rice - Sermon #57 - "Baptism of the Lord"

peace,

will