CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AND MINISTERIAL CALLING

 

Scripture Text: Luke 2:52; Eph. 4:11-14

Introduction

            As we all know, we are still in the observance of Christian Education and Nurture month. Interestingly, among all the monthly emphases that we religiously observe as a Church throughout the year, CEN top it all in terms of activities involving all age groups in the local church. As I always say, Christian Education is an all-embracing ministry of the Church. Every aspect of the church’s life and ministry has an element of Christian Education. Christian Education and Nurture also shape the life and witness of every believer. Moreover, the kind of impact that a local congregation makes upon the community where it is located is a concrete manifestation of the kind of Christian Education and Nurture Program that a particular local church undertakes. Along with all of these, let us always bear in mind that we, pastors and soon-to-be pastors play a pivotal role in ensuring a vibrant Christian Education and Nurture Program in every Local Church.

            Given the foregoing and in consideration of our seminary context, I wish to emphasize that there is a strong link between Christian Education and ministerial formation. Indeed, we who are working and preparing for the ministry are products of our Church’s Christian Education and Nurture Program. Along this line, I wish to reflect with you on the unbreakable link between Christian Education and Ministerial Calling.  

I

Firstly, it is significant to stress that Christian Education is a platform from which ministerial calling sprouts and is nurtured. This means Christian Education is the very venue where one’s faith and sense of calling to the ministry is gradually developed. One best example is Jesus himself. Our text in the Gospel of Luke 2:52 declares: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” This verse tells us something that is not given much attention in the teaching and preaching of the church about Jesus. Traditionally, the church gives much attention to the birth, life, and ministry, passion, and resurrection of Jesus. The church seems to forget that Jesus like any other human being also went through the different stages of human development both physically, emotionally, and intellectually as attested by our Gospel text. Luke 2:52 indicates that like any other Jewish child, Jesus went through a rigorous Jewish Education that intentionally instills the faith affirmation of the Jews and the commandments.

The kind of education that is being carried out by the Jewish religion shapes the religious identity of the Jews as the people of God. This is made visible in Jesus' own life as attested by the writer of the Gospel of Luke in which as Jesus’s age increases, his knowledge and wisdom also increase. The Gospel writer further stresses that Jesus gains “divine and human favor.” The Jewish education and nurture program had made a significant impact on Jesus. The affirmation of Luke on divine favor has been corroborated by Matthew (3:16-17) during Jesus’s baptism in which as he was coming out of the water a voice from heaven was heard saying: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Human favor would certainly mean that Jesus gives flesh and blood all the learnings that he got from the Jewish Educational Program in his day-to-day life.

In all likelihood, in the process of going through the rigorous Jewish Education Program, Jesus’s understanding of his mission in the world gets clearer as well. While the Bible and Christian Tradition tell us that Jesus was sent by God to the world for a mission, yet we cannot also discount the fact that his sense of calling was gradually developing and strengthening through the Jewish Education Program.

Like Jesus, we who are working and preparing for the ministry are all products of Christian Education, the Protestant Christianity’s counterpart to the Jewish Education in the contemporary period. Through the consistent Christian Education and Nurture Program of the Church, our faith grows and our sense of calling to the ministry has also gradually evolved and firmed up. Unlike others who had a dramatic experience of their ministerial calling, my sense of calling to the ministry was gradually shaping up in my involvement of the different components of the Christian Education and Nurture Program of the Church since my childhood. Through the guidance of my parents, I was involved in Children Sunday School, Vacation Church School, and the Christian Youth Fellowship. I believe this is also true for all of my colleagues here in the Divinity School. This must also be true to most if not all of our ministerial students. And this will lead us to the second point.

II

It is interesting to note that albeit with its intricacies, a ministerial formation is a form of Christian Education. With Jesus as our model as shown in our Gospel text, ministerial formation aims to help the ministerial candidate increase in knowledge, wisdom, and in faith, which are the determining factors for a successful ministry. Let us remember that the summary statement in Luke chapter 2:52 is preceded by the narrative of the scenario in the Temple wherein Jesus has an engaging discussion with the teachers of the Law (2:46). “And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers (2:47).” By all indications, this Temple scenario suggests that indeed, Jesus has received an effective Jewish religious instruction from his parents. This means that before starting his actual ministry he had to grow first not only physically but also in faith, in knowledge, in wisdom, and in skills as our text in Luke 2:52 indicates. Certainly, the kind of religious education that he got; equipped Jesus with profound knowledge and awareness of the ethical demands of the Law. All these were realized through a well-established Jewish Education Program that takes place primarily in the home, in the school, and then in the synagogue or the temple. In other words, the rigorous Jewish Education had prepared Jesus very well for his ministry that is best characterized by faithfulness and complete obedience to God unto death.

Looking at Jesus as our model, preparing ourselves for the ministry involves the nurturing of our faith and building up of our character. This makes ministerial formation a form of Christian Education. We stress the nurturing of faith and building up of character because these two are essential elements in living up a Christ-like life, which is the ultimate goal of Christian Education and Nurture. Whether we like it or not, ministers are expected to be models of living a Christ-like life despite their limitations and shortcomings. However, let us note that living a Christ-like life cannot happen overnight, it is a process, a life-long process. In the Divinity School, the nurturing of one’s faith is called spiritual formation, which is foundational in ministerial formation. As stipulated in the introductory part of our Ministerial Formation Handbook, spiritual formation “demands the commitment on the part of the student to cultivate a kind of piety and deep spirituality” that is not detached from the realities of the world.

Furthermore, preparing ourselves for the ministry demands the highest standard of academic discipline. That is why all members seminary of the Association for Theological Education in Southeast Asia (ATESEA) put special emphasis on academic excellence. Academic excellence means, providing quality instruction on the part of the professors, employing pedagogical strategies that facilitate a learning process in which the students are led into discovering their potential and developing their skills as well as encouraging them to think critically in the face of different socio-cultural issues affecting the church and society. On the other hand, ministerial students are expected to do their best in the performance of their academic requirements. Submitting a paper or preaching a sermon that is downloaded from an internet website is certainly an anathema of academic excellence and will never make us effective ministers or church workers.  

III

            Finally, it is important to note that the ultimate goal of ministerial formation is also Christian Education. This is the very reason why the church sets apart certain individuals who will eventually equip itself for the work of ministry as emphasized by the writer of the epistle to the Ephesians saying: “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.”

            Implicitly, the writer of the epistle to the Ephesians, which has been traditionally attributed to Paul, underscores that it is the church itself that will identify and facilitate the training of those being set apart for them to become equal to the task. In most cases, Paul in collaboration with the different churches that he has established, which provided material supports, was the one directly involved in the training and supervision of the set apart. Titus, Timothy among others are good examples.

            Paul sees the necessity of training ministers so that eventually there would be other responsible people with whom he can delegate some of the responsibilities of nurturing the faith of the believers. This realization of Paul emerged out of his disgusting experience with the different congregations that he has established in which after leaving them for another missionary endeavor, trouble makers would suddenly appear in the scene sowing confusion and discord among the new believers through their deceptive heretical teachings. For Paul, the work of the set-apart will bring significant impact on the life and witness of the church as he emphatically declares in verse 14: “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.” This is the ultimate task of the set-apart as far as Paul is concerned.

            The above portion of the epistle to the Ephesians is audibly telling us that the ultimate goal of ministerial formation is Christian Education. This means that the main task that awaits us after completing our period of equipping is to primarily nurture and guide the believers toward growth and maturity in the faith. A mature believer can withstand any challenges that come his/her way and translate the professed faith into concrete actions as a dynamic witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world.

In the context of the UCCP, our profoundly articulated Statement of Faith is solidly founded on the Bible and it also captures the gist of the Reformed Evangelical Tradition. Indeed, the SOF defines our identity as a Church of Jesus Christ and it serves as a yardstick for every faith articulation we make and in every social praxis, we undertake whether as a community or as individual members. However, trickling it down to the level of every adherent in the pew remains a huge challenge. Within our Church, we continue to see some disconnect between our faith affirmation and praxis by which whenever our leaders make a statement in a form of a pastoral letter regarding a burning social issue affecting the general population, more often than not it is contradicted by some of the members or some local churches. This scenario is a cause for alarm to every conscientious church leader and church worker. This is an obvious indication that some if not most of our people still lack knowledge and understanding of our faith affirmation and identity as a Church of Jesus Christ. This has something to do with Christian Education and Nurture. Hence, the challenge before us Church Workers and soon to be Church Workers is to be more intentional in giving priority to designing a functional CEN Program that facilitates true understanding of our faith affirmation among our people, leading toward effective witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ both in words and in deeds.

Conclusion

            Friends, since ancient times up to the present, religious education or Christian Education for that matter plays a significant role in the community of faith; for it is an avenue that leads the believers into fuller knowledge and growth in the faith. CEN Program is also a venue upon which the calling of the set apart for the ministry evolves and is nurtured. Let us note that our entry to the Ministerial Formation Center does not mean that we have already graduated from or out of the ambit of Christian Education and Nurture Program of the Church. Indeed, ministerial formation is also a form of Christian Education. It is just another and more demanding venue for us to grow more in the faith and to acquire more sophisticated knowledge and skills so that we eventually become an effective instrument of the Church in nurturing the faith of our fellow believers. AMEN!