Education

The Church of the Nazarene put an emphasis on education.  I have heard stories of G.S. Chapman demanding a Seminary to train preachers.  SNU was founded in the 1800's...before the denomination itself.

But, we are now petrified of what education has caused.  There are two sides of this:

(1) We are a church that was founded for the poor (ask Phineas Bresee what he was up to...).  We have now become somewhat bourgeois.  Our identity has been compromised through education.

(2) We are finding out that some of our presuppositions are unjustified.

a.  God may or may not have created in 7 literal days.

b.  Holiness may or may not be two altar experiences that lead to ultimate spiritual clarity                  (which sounds a bit like Scientology, no?).

c.  Other.  The list is endless.

So what do we do?  We cry to the authorities.  We threaten to withhold money (which we never used to have anyway).  We consider splitting the church (yeah, because that keeps working out so well...).

This isn't even my point...but, I could go on.

What I am really concerned about is the fact that we insist that Pastors in the church be educated, but we fear what may be learned.  I am teaching a Nazarene Bible College Extension class for my district.  The folks in this class are largely fundamentalist dogmatics.  They are certain of what they believe, but have no grounding for any of it.*

* This is not everyone in the class.  I love much of the class and respect them very much.  They are true students of the Word.

But, we pass them through as though they have a right to ordination.  Education is a means to an end.  We do not expect that they would assent to basic biblical or Nazarene principals.  No, we want to make sure that they attend every class.  If they do that, we will eventually ordain them.

What?  Is this what we really believe?  It has to be, because our actions are what our beliefs are, no matter what is written down in a Manual.  Life-transforming scripture?  Yeah, it "transformed them" ages ago and they are fine now.

I think it is high time that we get serious about Ordination.  The church has a role/reposibility in, for lack of a better word, weeding out people that should not be pastoring.  If people cannot sustain G.P.A.'s that are respectable, if they cannot demonstrate how they are learning about God, if we see sinfull pride in their lives and exegesis the church should declare: you may feel called but the church does not see it. 

Oh, and never trust a person, let alone pastor, that is dead certain.

Tim

20 Things About Me

I know few things for certain in life.  Here as some samples: 1. TV and video games waste my time.  2.  Baseball is the superior sport.  3.  Everyone is dying to get inside my mind through my posting 20 random things about me.  Oh, not the last?  Really?  Well the first two are true.  Here we go anyway:

1.  I have lived in 8 states: Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio.  Massachusetts is the best, though too expensive.  Louisiana is very underrated, as is Chicago.  Wisconsin is the worst, though it is not Hell.  It is way too cold there to be Hell.

2.  Though I am a big time sports fan, I am increasingly disinterested in the NBA and the NFL.  I have trouble deciding why, but it is what it is.  Meanwhile, I am becoming increasingly interested in soccer.  I think it is because it is all so new and fresh: I was a clean slate, I had to learn it all.

3.  I am planning on getting a D.Min (Doctor of Ministry) and beginning school in 2010.  I am very interested in getting a Ph.D, but I think that that is an arrogance issue.  A D.Min would be more applicable to what I am doing as a pastor.  I am down to two schools, and plan to apply to both.  Don't want to hurt my chances by airing what two schools so loud as to put it on Facebook.

4.  I am a perfectionist.  It's terrible.  What is worse, I am so profoundly aware that I am miles from perfection.  This leads to nothing but despair.  I actually sit around at times mourning laziness, anger, sin, incorrectness, B's in Seminary (I had a 3.8...there weren't many but they kill me), C's in college and High School, poor sermons, incomplete work, not being with my family enough, not being with friends enough, not taking time for me, not having enough money, having too much money, etc., etc., etc.  I need to give this up, but I can't...yet.  See, even that fuels my perfectionism...

5.  I have lost over 100 lbs. in 3 years.  I currently weight 204 lbs.  I was a real fatty.  Now, I have a bit of a gut.  But, I buy sweaters in size Medium at Gap.  That makes me proud of myself.

6.  I got married at 19.  It was a good call for me.  Helped me grow up.  I was a way better student afterward, to say the least.  I had responsibility for the first time.  It was good.  Oh, and I got a great wife out of the deal, too.

7.  I have watched the entire series of The Office in the last month.  HYSTERICAL!  It is now in the Tim Brooks Holy Trinity of Sitcoms: Seinfeld, That 70's Show (High School in the 70's in Wisconsin, a bunch like High School in the 90's in Wisconsin...just sayin'), and The Office.

8.  I fell out of my bunk bed in college.  I was mad that I was trying to sleep while my roommate was listening to the Jackson 5.  The Jackson 5!  I jerked to the wall side and the leg of the bed fell off of a cinder block.  I bounced all the way to the floor.  I hit the bottom bunk and a couch on the way.  The RA from under us came up asking what the racket was.  He felt bad when he heard what happened.  Fortunately, I was okay.

9.  Upon returning from a Mission Trip to Honduras, I scored six goals in a soccer game!  My team told me that they needed to send me to Central America every other week.  They may be right.

10.  I am very affected by theology.  Very.  I have decided that Republicanism is not Christianity.  I have decided that America is not the new Israel.  I have decided that the church is God's people, and that it should start acting that way.  I have decided that Capitalism is not inherently better than Socialism, or the other way around.  Both are issues of the World's Governments and not God's Kingdom.  I have decided that God does not approve of us settling our petty differences through means of violence.  I have decided that love is what Christian's should be about, not a particular issue or two.  There is more, but that is a good start.

11.  I just bought a new computer.  It is an HP.  I am amazed, amazed, at what 4 GB of Memory can accomplish in like 3 seconds.

12.  I am a Red Sox fan.  Through and through.  I have been since I was about five.  I have found out through the years that my Grandmother is a Yankee's fan and that I was born on the Yankee's side of the Red Sox/Yankees line(Mason-Dixon of the Northeast) in Connecticut.  (Oh, I was born in Connecticut.  Take that as point 12.5.)  My favorite Red Sox ever was Nomar Garciaparra.  But, I was glad he was traded.  Talk about internal strife.  At least that led to a World Series.  A World Series that I was convinced would never happen in my lifetime.

13.  I became a big LSU football fan when I lived in Louisiana.  I loved sports before moving there, but not college sports.  I didn't get them.  Boston, even for kids, is all about pro sports: Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots, Celtics.  BC, BU, Harvard, UMASS...all glorified intra/inter-murals.  But, the south changed that all for me.  The Saints barely registered, even though they were decent when I lived there.  LSU was bad, but it was the air that the people there breathed.  It was infectious.  I caught the LSU bug and was unable to find a cure.  It is cool, now that they are good/amazing.  LSU football is the single biggest cultural experience that I took from my time in the south.  And trust me, it is a cultural experience, not just a "fan" of a team thing.

14.  I think that people in Cincinnati drink too much.  Really, I think that all there is to do in Cincinnati is drink.  Bars are the social life.  Not like posh, NYC clubs either.  Trashy looking bars are where people hang out.  There are few cool restaurants, hang-outs, coffee shops.  For someone that doesn't drink, that often makes it hard to come up with something to do.

15.  Moving from Seminary was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  It wasn't at the time.  I was stoked.  I still am, about what I am doing as a pastor, but the lack of people my age with my values and interests is tough.  In seminary, there was someone like me everywhere.  I'd see them at school, work, the Plaza in KC, the store, church.  Here, where we have no family within 200 miles, we feel isolated and alone...a lot, actually.  This is an underrated part of the Seminary experience.  Pastoring is one of the few jobs where you get a professional degree then shipped off to an office in a building where you are the only one who works there.  I was unprepared for this, especially since I am so social.  I am getting used to it, and adapting.  Finally.

16.  Norwood, OH, where I live is the place where Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, and Montell Williams find their guests.  I only say this half tongue-in-cheek.  I hear stories all the time of this person being on that show, or that person being on that.  Reasons from childhood obesity, to videoed chick fights in the girls locker rooms, to the typical white trash affairs.  I even heard of a story the other day of a girl getting "Maury, Maury!" chanted when she entered the Middle school lunch room.  This is one of the number one reasons that I love pastoring Norwood.  People here need Jesus.  I work REAL hard to get to know people in the city that are hurting and struggling.  There is a lot of work left to do.

17.  I have delivered more babies than most med students.  My only child, Mackenzie, was born in our drive way last January 27.  The labor Charryse was in was more difficult than delivering the child.  Based on this, I think that doctor's should start paying mothers instead of the other way around.  I repeat: Delivering child, easy.  Labor, that word used for a reason.

18.  My favorite book of all time is To Kill A Mockingbird.  This is shocking because I was forced to read it for my Sophomore year English Class in High School.  As a rule, I did not read books I was forced to read.  That is the only book that I read all four years of High School.  Yet, it is my favorite of all time.

19.  I lost my Fantasy Baseball league for the first time in my life this year.  To Joe Boggs, no less.  Speaking of blind squirrels finding nuts.  My team was better, I swear.  But, he won fair and square.  For that, I congratulate him.  He did a good job picking under the radar players that were huge for him.

20.  I am cheap.  I hate spending money.  There are two reasons for this, I think.  1) I think that God has called us to resist being a part of consumerism.  There is more to life than "want."  2) I don't have a lot of money, based on college debt and the fact that I am a pastor.  I still like "stuff," but I am trying more and more to be less of a consumer.

Wow, I found that to be rather easy.  There are layers and layers of me.  I guess that makes me like an onion.  Either that, or it makes me like a giant Green ogre that we apparently had to have three movies about.  the fact that I have not seen the third should tell you that I really think we only needed 2.  Or 1.  One was real good.  Trilogies just seem like a money grab.