Tag: priesthood

This I believe

St Mary's College Chapel
St Mary's College Chapel | Photo by simononly

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He lived a life of humility, suffered undeservingly, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He conquered death on the third day and ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father and Creator.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and an abundant everlasting life.
I believe in the priesthood of all believers, who are ordained to be bearers of this message to their sphere of influence, through their public confession and the physical act of baptism.
I believe we are invited us to join Jesus in the redemption of all creation, leading us to the day when he will return to create a new heaven and a new earth.
I believe we are called to reconcile all relationships and build greater spaces of grace through the regular invitation and celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

What do you believe?

Happy Reformation Day!

Happy Reformation Day?

Some of you are thinking “What the heck?! It’s halloween! Or maybe at least All Saint’s Eve or All Hallow’s Eve.”

And yes that’s true – but you can find out about that other holiday somewhere else.

Instead – we’ll celebrate Reformation Day around this here blog. Reformation Day is the celebration of the anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 Thesis on the church doors of the Whittenberg in Germany.

What was initially posted as a Luther’s hope to start a debate in the things he was learning and reading about as a Biblical professor, started a revolution (reformation) in the church – leading to his excommunication from the church and the protestant movement.

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light,
the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg,
under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther,
Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in
Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that
those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us,
may do so by letter.

I doubt Luther had any idea that his 95 Thesis, posted on Oct. 31, 1517, would end up being spread so rapidly to “the people” with the help of a recent invention of Johann Gutenberg, known as the “printing press.”

Who would have thought that the masses would begin reading, thinking about and debating these “high level theological thoughts” like sacramental penance vs inward repentance, the fallacy of the pope, the remittance of sin by the pope and indulgences used to build sanctuaries for the church? I mean seriously, ordinary folks can debate these kind of things?! “That’s heracy!” — or so the church thought at the time (and many continue to think today).

Imagine what might happen if folks started talking about God and debating theology in the bars and pubs of today? Imagine if there was some sort of medium that might spread these ideas and discussions around the world? Imagine if suddenly our theology stopped coming from trained pastors and priests who study for years at schools of higher education and suddenly started coming from Joe Six Pack at your local pub and was shared with folks via Twitter or Wikipedia or other emerging websites to Joe Plumber who lives in Russia or Idaho? Imagine if theology was debating and discussed and lived out in community rather than simply handed down by one central source?

Yeah we wouldn’t want that to happen today. Far from it.

I heard a couple great thoughts today while listening to some of Martin Luther’s bio today via Tripp Fuller and Craig Atwood (hint – you should listen to this great podcast as well and these are loose quotes from memory) ::

“I came to see Christ as my Savior rather than the hangman.”

“Folks got real nervous when Martin Luther began to take his faith seriously.”

“The priests and religious leaders start to get real nervous when people get excited about religion.”

So today I celebrate Reformation Day. Today I celebrate Priests in the Hood (aka the Priesthood of the believers) and hope you do too.

Here are Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis translated to English (and in the original intention of these thesis, your debate, comments and discussions are welcome here) ::

Continue reading Happy Reformation Day!

encounter goes living room

Yesterday we had a different Sunday morning experience for encounter. Rather than gathering at the Civic Center, we met in 10 different homes around Ellis County. Each group was given a DVD (video below) and the DVDs were followed up with some discussion questions.

We had a great time yesterday morning!

I keep hearing more and more reports from folks who said they really enjoyed their get togethers which came in all sizes. I think the smallest group was 4 or 5 and the largest group had over 20. At least 100 people participated in encounter goes living room and I think everyone who participated was impacted in some way.

For those of you who missed out… or would just like to watch it again… here’s the video from the DVD we watched ::


encounter goes living room from Jonathan Blundell on Vimeo.

Along with the video, each group discussed the following questions ::

  • what would the experience of church be like if it was less like a presentation, building, or club and more like a spiritual home of people each living to fully serve Christ and others?
  • what would it take for people to get to that level of understanding and living?
  • what would difference would it make to people far from God if the church had the feel of a spiritual home?
  • what difference will these truths mean for you?

For those who couldn’t make it – feel free to watch the video, read the questions and share your own answers and thoughts.

Thanks again to all the host homes and leaders who made yesterday possible! You all did a great job!