#163 Puritans, Shema, and Ministry
Part 1: Shema applications
As someone in ministry, the shema, and how to reach my family, and those in my world is something I think about a lot. In so much as the home is your first ministry field I have incorporated many spiritual practices into our home life and I'm continually seeking to add more. My wife and I have been married for six years and have three children, aged four, three, and three days old. We try to remember God as much as we can throughout our days. We pray at every meal. And we pray as a family and individually before bed. We also read our Bible together every evening and read stories of Christian families every evening. Beyond this, we are also beginning the process of homeschooling our children and have them do a catechism regularly. They are learning the basics of the faith. While also teaching them to memorize scripture and passages, such as Psalm 23 and the Lord's prayer.
Thinking about how we reach people within our broader community is a step that we are still figuring out as we're in a season of change. My wife just gave birth to our third child a few days ago. And for ministry, we go between two different cities, spending one to two months in either place at a time and are getting ready to finish seminary and join the Air Force. This makes it challenging to make an impact where we are. But I work with missionaries and pastors, and do make an impact in their lives however I can. Beyond that, we also try to be involved in ministry to reach others. My wife works with children's church while I work with the marriage ministry doing premarital counseling.
Part 2: Insights from Puritans
How have Puritan insights informed your attitudes toward your spouse/potential spouse?
Puritan thinking has caused me to think about my spouse, not just as a partner in life or a partner in ministry, but as a missionary alongside me to our children. As Cotton Mather wrote, “Before all, and above all, tis the knowledge of the Christian religion that parents are to teach their children.” We have goals for ourselves, for each other, and for our children. Our marriage helps to keep us on track.
What did the Puritans understand about the calling and ministry of the laity?
The Puritans believed to all people were called to ministry in one way or another, which is the “The movement toward equalizing the stature of clergy and laity rested on the principle of the priesthood of all believers” since we are all called to minister the question is who are we called to minister to and when?
Discuss their views of the Scriptures and how they applied them to their callings.
The Puritans believed that their work was a calling from God. They further believed that
“You are working for God, who will be sure to reward you to your heart’s content” this means that we do not need to lose heart when we do not see a reward for our labor. But rather our work is for God, through God, and our reward is in God.
How has American Christianity been influenced by materialism?
Materialism has influenced Christianity by causing it to be overly obsessed with the tangible rather than focused on the intangibles of faith in God. Materialism has caused us to worship the things in front of us while Christianity calls us to worship the God above.
Part 3: Favorite Quotes
“Ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross; the Spirit of Christ and of glory then rests upon them”
Preaching is not something that we do, but rather something that God does through us.
“The rewards of work, according to Puritan theory, were spiritual and moral, that is, work glorified God and benefited society. By viewing work as stewardship to God, the Puritans opened the way for a whole new conception of the rewards of work, as suggested in Richard Steele’s comment, “You are working for God, who will be sure to reward you to your heart’s content”
This makes work more meaningful and exciting.
“In the Calvinistic view, not only does work not guarantee success; even if God blesses work with prosperity, it is his grace, and not human merit, that produces the blessing”
This means there's no space for pride.
“On the subject of “moonlighting,” Richard Steele claimed that a person ought not to “accumulate two or three callings merely to increase his riches”
This is true but challenging a minister ought to be focused in their work and purpose to pursue excellence, which is harder to do when your focus is split.
“A Wedding Ring pictured husband and wife as two instruments making music and two streams in one current. Most impressive of all is the following description by Thomas Hooker: The man whose heart is endeared to the woman he loves…dreams of her in the night, hath her in his eye and apprehension when he awakes, museth on her as he sits at the table, walks with her when he travels”
The way in which we love God, gives us an example of how to love our spouse.
“Why were the Puritans so sure that money was a good thing? Chiefly because they believed that money and wealth were gifts from God”
All things that come from God are good but by our human nature, we can corrupt them.
“According to Isaac Ambrose, husband and wife have the task of “erecting and establishing Christ’s glorious kingdom in their house.”
A home is the whole world in miniature therefore we should seek to claim it for God's kingdom.
“The Puritans emphasized the family as an institution designed first of all to benefit God and society, they did not neglect the idea that the purpose of a family is also the personal fulfillment of every member of a family”
These are two things that are often not priorities for families.
“Cotton Mather agreed: Before all, and above all, tis the knowledge of the Christian religion that parents are to teach their children”
This is quite true, it is like teaching your kids how to eat or how to be kind but far more important.
“The theological foundation of the Puritan emphasis on child training was original sin or innate depravity. The Puritans believed that children, if left to themselves, are “inclined to follow their own evil will”
This ought to be self-evident but in the west we glorify children.
“The movement toward equalizing the stature of clergy and laity rested on the principle of the priesthood of all believers”
This is something that I am still figuring out. I think that all believers have a great role to play in reaching the lost but I also believe there may be a distinction to be made between clergy and laity.
Bibliography
Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2010).
