Well, I posted a while back about the series that was coming out on A&E called God or the Girl. I have since seen this show and I must say that its quite well done. When I first saw the show come out, I was a little shocked and was using that shock really to blog about my feeling about this fad we’ve had lated of Reality TV. I was talking about how most “reality” shows are not real at all. They take what could be real people and put them in completely unreal environments where they are pretty well tested as to what their limits are. It’s not really all that real if you think about it.
God or the Girl is NOT this kind of show though. It’s a documentary, not a freak show. I can say that now that I’ve seen a few episodes. It’s interesting because MOST peopel aren’t facing the decisions these guys are facing. A couple of them had/have really meaningful relationships and are having to choose between a celebate life as a priest, or a family life as a husband. The show clearly depicts both choices as being good and worthy options. This is refreshing to see.
The whole show is centred only around Catholic priesthood though, which is kind of funny to me because my dad is a priest and I’m here. Some of these guys are almost tortured by the decision and I find it interesting because if I were faced with the decision as an Anglican, I would not have to choose celebacy.
It raises some questions about Catholism. I have spend a lot of time in the past thinking on Catholism and the claim they have to being the “one true church”. There are a number of things I struggle with in regards to catholism and one day maybe I’ll blog in detail about it, but for now I just think of the concept that in the minds of these guys on the show, they can not imagine a life where they are pastors AND husbands.
Consider this, if they have gifts in leadership, teaching, and pastoring, and they KNOW that, and they also have the drive and desire to be a husband and a father who is faithful and devoted to God and his family, then why is it inconceivable to them that maybe they are called into a priesthood that is not Catholic?
Here’s the problem with denomination - ALL denomination - we are too close-minded about what’s on the outside of our denominational walls. Why? We can’t seem to fathom the fact that God is working all over the world in many different ways and through the devotion of many different men and women of God from many different churches. How many Catholic priests out there would be far more effective if they were also fathers? How many protestant pastors would be far more suited to celebacy than they would ever really consider? How many staunch Anglican priests would God be using to actually be healing masses of people if they would only follow their own personal gifting and forget for a second about what’s going to keep the people in their church happy?
I guess we’re lucky that God can work in mysterious ways. He can find a way through no matter how inefficient we can be. It makes you wonder though.
And for the record, God or the Girl, is series worth watching. It’s factinating, respectfull and truthful while at the same time being quite entertaining. I will say this though - the theme song is DATED. And old Jars of Clay song. It’s just such a cliche “Christian” song. They’d be better off with a Lifehouse song or a Creed song.
If you get the chance, check it out. I’m not sure when it airs normally, but I know I saw it on A&E.
I just came across anther good quote from Mr. Dutch Sheets. It goes like this…
”We can run our churches and ministries from the boardroom or the prayer room. The first produces the works of man, the other births a move of God.”
- Dutch Sheets, The River of God (Regal Books, 1998), p 194
I fear that the structure of most Anglican churches seek to run the church through a boardroom. A boardroom in which there is prayer. In most Anglican churches, there are no elders (people who are appointed by leadership to be spiritual directors). There is a priest, the wardens, and a vestry (church board). THe wardens are appointed, but are not delgated with eldership - in fact sometimes they are not all the spiritually mature at all. The vestry are a voting body that manage the money and the property. They are not expected to have very much spirit in their decisions with the exeption of the blanket prayer that gets prayer at the beginning of every meeting.
I think its clear that the better way to handle church leadership is to run it from a prayer room in which decisions are made. Prayer must be the priority over business. If we are going to have vestries, we need to also have other people who are appointed to lead the church from a spiritual standpoint, and I don’t feel that one priest or pastor can carry that role all by himself. In fact, when considering the whole accountability thing, churches would be far better off with a group of elders that were headed but not dictated by a head pastor or priest.
The elders would set out to pray together regularly and seek vision and direction for the church. They then had that direction down to the vestry and the various other ministries in the church that need to understand the direction of the church (so pretty well all of them).
THis would be prayer room church as opposed to a boardroom church that basis most of it’s decisions on finances and the democratic process. Jesus wasn’t democratic and neither were his disciples. Don’t get me wrong, it works for government, but I’m not sure it’s the right thing for churches.
Happy Easter everyone!
That’s Dutch Sheets and wine skin. 
As member of an Anglican church I often think about the importance of tradition in our forms of worship. I can see richness in this tradition which I think is good. Sometimes though I think I see more of an inability to be flexible and up with the times. I see people gripping “the ways it’s been” so hard that they become convinced that they are gripping God himself when they are clearly not.
Dutch Sheets has this to say about wineskins…
“‘…The wineskin is made of sheep’s skin. When it is originally prepared for use to contain wine, it is very flexible, pliable and elastic. … Once the wine has been curing and aging for several years, the wineskin gets rigid. It becomes inflexible and stiff…’1
All of us, as wineskins, harden into set ways of doing things - forms, rituals, liturgies, tradition. If God then brings something to our church service which violates our traditional sense of orthodoxy, we usually reject it. Our definition of orthodoxy defines what we will let Him do, instead of allowing what He does to define our orthodoxy. When this has happened, we have become “old wineskins” which cannot hold “new wine.” We cannot flex and are therefore incapable of receiving the new.”2
I think of the fact that people get upset when our pastor mentions that he might not wear an alb one Sunday (the white robes you see Anglican and Catholic priests sometimes where), or the trouble that arises if we miss having communion one week. Neither of these things are even all that Biblical. I mean the eucharist is VERY biblical, but to do it weekly versus monthly or even yearly has no real biblical presedent. Not that there is anything wrong with choosing to wear an alb and have communion every…whatever, but there is no commandment that says we must have communion on a weekly basis or else! These things do have significance and they can add some real richness to how we worship, but to miss them here and there is not bad in my opinion. In fact the freshness it would add would be welcome - at least by me.
I guess I’m just saddened by all those folks that make a thing out of any kind of change and end up robbing other people from a chance to experience the new wine. Why is it that we don’t crave new wine more? I wish we did. I wish we would grow tired of the old wine and set out for something new.
1. Ralph Mahoney, Is a New Wave of Revival Coming? (Burbank, World Missionary Assistance Plan, 1982), pp 71, 72.
2. Dutch Sheets, The River of God (Regal Books, 1998), p 165
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