Priest

The Spanish throne were heads of the Catholic Church in their territory. The church now became an arm of the state. The Spanish Church had two branches, the secular and the regular. The secular group was composed of priests who served the under their bishops. The regulars were missionaries under the separate authority of their various orders. The conquest was justified due to christian mission of saving of the “savages.” They use this clause to do what they wanted on…

She was in charge of the food and clothing ministry which seemed to be almost a full-time task for her. Literally thousands of people in the church and the local community were ministered to by my mother, and I was a firsthand witness to many of those. I remember carrying sacks of groceries and clothes to homes all over the city and watching my mom pray and lead these needy people to the Lord. It was in my mother that I saw the hard and often unrecognized work of ministry, but again, it was…

Introduction William Willimon states in Calling and Character: Virtues of the Ordained Life: “this character, the cross, indelibly determines our character” (2000, p. 35). He connects how both the calling of the ordained and her/his character connect. Willimon addresses several things that I personally found beneficial as someone who is going into Christian Ministry. For example, he clearly addresses the need for unity between the professional and private life of a pastor. His goal is to inform…

****The short story below is part of a larger work that is, yet, incomplete. All events are true; the letter from my senior “pastor” is verbatim. There were certain names that were left out for privacy sake**** All the previous abuse culminated with a spiritual awakening. The Lord began to bring clarity to my heart. I realized that scripturally I needed to address the issues ongoing in my marriage. The abuse began to take a toll on my church life. I was so afraid of my husband that I avoided…

For my pastoral interview, I choose to interview the Senior Pastor of Huntington Central Church (Disciples of Christ) Rev. Jacque Parlato. I started the interview by asking Pastor Jacque to describe her call to ministry. More precisely I asked her to describe her calling from the time she first received it up until now. During this question Pastor Jacque began by telling me about her background and early life. She informed me that she was born and raised in Santiago California, to parents that…

The old statement holds true to the realities of our career choices. When I look at my family tree, I can see through the genogram the roots in which many messages that I have received growing up stem from. I can also make that statement that it is true indeed that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. It is very typical for individuals to follow their families own career choices. Not only is what our parents career choices were familiar to us, but they are what seem attainable to many of…

New Dawn Baptist Church is a daughter church of New Estate Baptist Church, Surulere, Lagos. In 1983, New Estate Baptist Church implemented a cell church system under the leadership of the then pastor, Dr. Sola Aworinde. Several cells were created in different parts of the city of Lagos. Each of them became fellowship centers meeting primarily on Sunday evenings. They were called Home Fellowships. In due time, the Church decided on a policy of planting new churches using the Home Cells as the…

This post will identify a set of criteria which to use to evaluate the effectiveness of a sports coach, a teacher, and a senior pastor referred to henceforth as leaders. Each of the items will be listed in order of highest priority to least. Next, the item will be justified along with how each item difference from each leader. Lastly, how each of these criteria can be measure will be looked at. This post is written from my personal perception of the job of these individuals and the roles that…

Oppenheimer (2013)10 provides opposing views to female leadership as a ruling position. He states that a woman can be ordained a deaconess if she is faithful and holy, for the ministries toward women. Furthermore, that position is one strictly of service and women can teach younger women, but is not a ruling position.10 He also referenced a letter that Pliny wrote to the Roman emperor Trajan in which he mentions deaconesses in the Eastern churches. Oppenheimer admits there are references in…

Henri Nouwen’s book The Wounded Healer: Ministry In Contemporary Society provides a valuable introspective approach to providing pastoral care and serving in Christian leadership in contemporary society. Nouwen provides a great overview of the wounds and suffering that plagues modern society, the current generation, individual people, and the Christian ministers who are called to serve those in need. (Nouwen, 3) In describing the challenges of modern society, Nouwen asserts that today’s society:…