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Keeping the Clergy Covenant

Keeping the Clergy Covenant. “Recollecting” “Re-membering” Being a covenant community. Keeping the Clergy Covenant. CLERGY QUALITIES NEEDED: commitment to Christ and his church character competence consistency connection. Keeping the Clergy Covenant.

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Keeping the Clergy Covenant

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  1. Keeping the Clergy Covenant “Recollecting” “Re-membering” Being a covenant community

  2. Keeping the Clergy Covenant CLERGY QUALITIES NEEDED: • commitment to Christ and his church • character • competence • consistency • connection

  3. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By giving each other prayerful support and encouragement (“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” -- Hebrews 10:24-25)

  4. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By seeing each other as colleagues not as competitors (“If one suffers, all suffer together; if one is honored, all rejoice together. Now you then are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” – I Cor. 12:26-27)

  5. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By refusing to gossip and spread rumors about one another (“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless” – James 1:26)

  6. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By paving the way for our successors and affirming our predecessors (“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but it is God who gives the growth. Neither the one who plants or the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow” – I Corinthians 3:6-7)

  7. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By leading our churches to pay their full share (“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard-pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need” – II Corinthians 8:13-14)

  8. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By serving where we are needed, just as we have promised (“Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas” – Acts 15:22)

  9. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By doing the mundane things which manifest our respect and mutuality (“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught” – Mark 6:30)

  10. Keeping the Clergy Covenant By living our lives and performing our ministry in a way that is faithful to our calling (“Therefore I urge you … to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” – Romans 12:1-2)

  11. COVENANT COMMUNITY Where is God Calling You to Strengthen Your Covenants?

  12. Keeping the Clergy Covenant CASE STUDY #1: The Funeral You have been doing hours and hours of pastoral care for a church member who is hospitalized and dying. After the death, which is an emotionally draining experience for you, the family tells you that they would like to invite “our dear former pastor Rev. Jones” to share in the funeral with you. You are angry and frustrated as you think about calling Rev. Jones, when you have done all of the “pastoral homework” with this family. How would you react? How does “connection” inform this?

  13. Keeping the Clergy Covenant CASE STUDY #2: The Wedding You have announced to your previous parish that you will not return to do weddings – hoping to give your successor time and space to establish her ministry. But now you receive a pleading phone call from a family with whom you were very close, asking you to make an exception for the wedding of their daughter. How would you react? Is it possible to be “consistent”?

  14. Keeping the Clergy Covenant CASE STUDY #3: The Parsonage You have learned that you are moving to a new appointment. The PPRC and Trustees are asked by the DS to do a “parsonage review” before the change occurs, and you know that they are likely to overlook some of the needs and problems that you have lived with for the past 6 years. How would you react? What is “integrity” in this case?

  15. Keeping the Clergy Covenant CASE STUDY #4: The Appointment It is that time of year again, and the DS has called to inform you that the Cabinet wants to appoint you to another parish. It is a good appointment, except for the location. Your spouse has a good job, and you like the current area. Your ordination vows said you would go where you are needed, but you also worry about your spouse. How would you react? Does our “covenant” apply here?

  16. COVENANT COMMUNITY Where is God Calling You to Strengthen Your Covenants?

  17. THE WESLEY COVENANT PRAYER I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

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