The Weather

I'd give you an update on how my ordination process is going, but to be honest, I'm not really sure how to begin going about explaining our current situation. With that being said, we'd appreciate your prayers as we seek to move forward, hopefully continuing to stay in England and ministering within the Church of England.

And now for something completely different.

I picked up a little gem of a book by Richard Mabey entitled 'Turned Out Nice Again: Living with the Weather'. Brits are pre-occupied by the weather and it is normally the first or second topic to come up in a conversation.

This passage from the book sums up British weather pretty well;

We don't have to live with active volcanoes or sudden tsunamis. The temperature has only exceeded 100 degrees three times in the last hundred years. The heaviest rainfall in a single day was eleven inches in Martinstown Dorset on 18 July, 1955. When you compare that with the several feet that can fall in a couple of hours in a tropical monsoon you can get our weather in some sort of perspective. What we really suffer from is a whimsical climate, and that can be tougher to cope with than knowing for sure you're going to be under three feet of snow every December.

Whimsical is a good term for it, but it's hard to feel very whimsical about the weather when you wake up for church on Palm Sunday and have to scrape your windshield and expect similar for the rest of Holy Week.

Life, Recently

A lot has happened in the last month or two, but with limited internet connection we've not documented it very well.

We moved house! We're now living in Coxheath (a village next door to Loose); which makes my cycle commute to church a lot better.

Inga and Simon (new parents to Elsa Simone, dontcha know?) bought the house we're living in. We're participating in a communal living experiment. So far all is well. It's only a two-bed house, but Erica, Clive and I have the third floor all to ourselves.

Communal living cuts our costs quite a bit and for the first time in a while we're ending up with money leftover at the end of the month.

Part of this financial positiveness is because I'm working more hours at the prison. I'm enjoying it and my bosses are giving me more responsibility.

Erica's graphic work trickles in, but is always just enough. If you need a website, promotional material, logos or anything else, just let us know. She'll cut you a deal.

The three of us have been sick with viruses for the past few weeks. Poor Clive is doing his best to stay up beat but has been pretty miserable. Hopefully soon we'll all be healthy at the same time.

Erica's parents are here in the UK for two weeks. They've come over to see the new baby (grandkid number 5) and to help out a bit.

Lastly, I'm still plugging away at my ordination process. I have a day-long panel on December 1st that will determine whether I continue on the process. I'll know the outcome within a week of the panel.

That's it.

We'll get some new pictures up soon.

The Ordination Process

As I mentioned in our last post, we decided after about six months of living in England that we needed to commit to worshiping and serving in the Church of England and the best way to do that long term was for  Zac to pursue ordination within the CoE.

I spoke to Steve the Priest-in-Charge (A title I love, theologically speaking--perhaps I'll elaborate in a further post) at All Saints' about ordination and he encouraged me to check it out, but warned me that my age and possibly my nationality might be factors going against me.

At the beginning of November I met with the Diocesan Director of Ordinands (Get ready for long (occasionally pompous) titles to start showing up in my blog posts) of the Canterbury diocese as a very first step in the process. He was a nice gentleman by the name of Clive (I mentioned that I named my son after him, I figured it might help) and after praying about it for a few days gave me the go ahead to start the process.

If all goes to plan, here is how the process will play out.

For a period of nine months to a year I will meet with an Assistant Diocesan Director of Ordinands to pray, read, and discuss ordination. There are nine criteria which the CoE uses to help consider a candidate for ordination. They are:

Vocation: basically, you should feel called to the ministry and be able to articulate that calling.

Ministry within the CoE: You should be able to explain why ministering in the CoE is different from other denominations.

Spirituality: You should have an active prayer life, be studying scripture, and attending church regularly.

Personality and Character: You should be self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses and be a person of integrity.

Relationships: You should be able to build and maintain healthy relationships with others.

Leadership and Collaboration: You should be able to offer leadership within and without the church, and be able to identify and nurture the gifts of others.

Faith: Similar to Spirituality, but more related to living out the spiritual disciplines.

Mission and Evangelism: You should be able to articulate Christ's message in various contexts, and in an attractive way.

Quality of Mind: You should have the necessary intellectual capacity to cope with the intellectual demands of ministry and have a commitment to lifelong learning.

Once my ADDO feels that I have a good grasp on these criteria, I will face two examinations. The first will be a one-day local panel who will question me about these criteria and other matters. If approved I would move onto a Bishops' Advisory Panel which is a three-day national panel that will ask the same types of questions but to a much greater level of depth.

Ideally I will have sucessfully completed all of this by the spring/summer of 2013, will be ordained as a deacon, and can start to apply for university programs. Because I will be under the age of thirty, the CoE will pay for three years of further education. The UK has a bunch of great theological colleges and I would love to end up one of them whether it be Wycliffe Hall, Cranmer Hall, Ridley Hall, or Oakhill.

Following further theological training I would appoint to a curacy (basically a position as an assistant minister) for four years.

Following my curacy I would then be then be ordained as a priest and would then be able to take on a role as head of a local church.

The downside to all of this is that at any point in the process, it can be decided that I am not currently suited for ordination and the process stops. If this happens, I would be required to wait two years before restarting the process.

Even though the process is long I am enjoying it. I have met with my Assistant DDO twice now and am doing my best to not get bogged down with the process and to press myself to get the work done.

So that's where I am at, and that's the direction we're heading, (until told otherwise).

Proto-ordination

The short story is that we came to England so that Erica could pursue her master's degree and we could have an adventure. Mixed in with that though was a thought that perhaps God was calling us to the British Isles long term so that we might live for the sake of the salvation of those living in the UK.

This idea first presented itself while we were still considering coming to the UK, before Erica and I were even married. Erica is much more adventurous than I am, and I was still struggling with the idea of living cross culturally. I spoke to Peter (a British professor at Moody, who along with his wife Kelli did our pre-marital counseling) and he encouraged me to really consider England as his opinion was that the state of the church was pretty dire, and that I might fit into English culture well. (Peter, you might not remember this conversation, but I thank you for it.)

As I mentioned I was not anticipating living cross culturally. I had imagined spending the rest of my life within 50 miles of where I was born, and my biggest criterion for living cross culturally was that they spoke English (or kind of spoke English) Erica was enthused to study abroad however, and Peter's opinion stuck in my head so we decided to come over, she would study and that I would look for a ministry job.

No jobs opened up for me in the area of Erica's school, so we decided we should just settle down, allow Erica to study, and that I would get a 'real' job. Along with this, we had to find a church home. Our original default church was a CoE church, and they had a great heart, but sadly not a great mind. They tended to be heavy on emotion and Erica and I never really felt that we fit in well. It remained our default church as we church-hopped (In theory I hate the practice of church-hopping, and our general philosophy is to attend the church nearest to us, but for reasons that require a long-winded explanation we didn't do that). We visited United Reformed churches (a mix of Presbyterian and Congregationalist theology), free churches, a multi-national church plant, and smaller CoE congregations, and for a variety of reasons none of them worked out. We had just about resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd stay at our default church because it was the strongest of the weak, and because we had invested a reasonable amount of time in it, when I suggested that we make one last church visit, All Saints', Loose. On one occasion at a smaller CoE church we heard a guest preacher who was one of the clergy at All Saints' and I had been impressed with his sermon. Erica told me it was the last church we were going to try (at this point we were six months into our stay), and if it was a dud we'd stick with our default church.

Now that we've been at All Saints' for almost two years, am leading a home group, and on the PCC (Parochial Church Council--akin to elders? congregational board?) I'll spare you the details, but we were blown away by the care of the church and it's vision for reaching the area. It's not a perfect church, but the parts I don't care for are personal preferences and not theological issues, so we serve alongside those whom we love.

At this point though I still didn't feel very Anglican or committed to the CoE, but I was intrigued by it. I had never been a part of the 'established' church, (In fact my view of the established church was that they were nearly always the bad guys) and the idea of the corporate worship service being reinforced by a liturgy had been growing on me since graduating from Moody. I also started to realize that at least at All Saints', not-yet Christians would just show up to a service, especially christenings (infant baptisms), weddings, and funerals. It was like it was in their blood.

I'm not sure when this fascination started turning into commitment, but I am pretty sure what sealed it for me was reading Jonathan Fletcher's pamphlet, Why the Church of England? published by Reform There's a fair bit where Reform and I differ in general, but Fletcher's piece really spoke to me. Take a minute to read it, it's only about a page long. His three reasons for sticking with the CoE in it's present state are, 'because of the clear doctrinal basis on which it was founded', ie. The 39 Articles, and the Book of Common Prayer, 'it's glorious liturgy', the BCP and it's emphasis worship being 'intelligible, congregational, biblical, and edifying', and lastly 'historically the CoE has great strategic influence, ie It's the best boat to fish from. As I said before people will regularly wander into their local CoE (because of the building's beauty, because they want to have a child christened, because it is where their parents were married--somewhere within them the CoE is still a part of them) while they will not walk into another church because it might be 'happy clappy', or cultish, or worse yet, foreign.

After reading Fletcher we decided that at least while we were able to live in England, we would commit to being a part of the CoE. Initially that meant being at All Saints', Loose, but what would it mean when our time at All Saints' was finished?

One possibility; ordination

A Workin' Mama

Erica and myself, (but especially Erica) have been quite busy as of late. She has been in the process of revamping our church's website. It is all up now, and you should check it out at www.allsaintsloose.org.uk (In case you are wondering Loose (rhymes with booze) is the name of the village, and All Saints' is the 'sainted name'? of the church, (hence the possessive apostrophe). It is the church of all the saints as opposed to the church of one saint (such as St. Mary's Church)(I like parentheses).

This is the second church website Erica has done. The first being Firestone Baptist in Akron, Ohio.
If you have any graphic design needs, (religious or not)(digital or not)(<--See I told you), she's the lady for you.

Just One of Those Things

Erica and I have been in the UK for over two years, have adjusted to/accepted most of the cultural differences and yet I am always surprised by how much it bothers me.

The zippers over here are backwards.

Here's what I mean.

When I buy a jacket or hoodie, I put it on and as I go to zip it up the pull of the zipper is in my left hand rather than the right.

This really threw me off at first when I would be out browsing at a shop such as H&M (where I am never quite sure what are men's clothes and what are women's).

While I now understand that it is backwards to what I am used to; it is always strange when I put on a jacket for the first time and I routinely use my right hand to grab for the pull even on a jacket that I have owned for over a year.

As opposed to other left-handed peculiarities this is one that is not limited to the UK. While we were in Ukraine last year we met up with one of the missionaries who was there in Kiev. He was wearing a nice custom made track jacket with the name of the football team that he coached on it. I jokingly asked him if it had an 'American' zipper or a 'European' zipper. He made clear that it had a 'normal' zipper and that the rest of teams jackets all had the American style as well.

I guess in the changing of cultures there are some things that you just can't let go of.



In other news, yesterday I met up with a DDO named Clive. Details to follow shortly.

I get up every morning From my 'larm clock's warning

Back in July our Church started advertising for a vacancy for their administrator position. I (Zac) applied and ended up with a second job. There are a lot of things we like about the position. First-off it is a second job (that pays more than my first job) takes me from 24 hours a week of work to forty! I also have the privilege of working once again in a place where I feel I am making an eternal difference and not just allowing a rich corporation to get richer. The position will also not be limited to office work. The church is undergoing some organizational changes and the leadership is going to be forming into more of a ministry team and while I will be more responsible for administrative tasks I will also have some opportunities to eventually do some preaching and other pastoral type tasks.
I worked for a week and a half before we left for Ukraine and will really start-up in earnest once we get back. Thank you for all of you who have been praying about our job situation and continue to pray for the work that God is doing at All Saints' Loose.

The Great Evangelical Pastime: Church Swapping

Being discontented with the church we were attending by default, Erica and I decided to give church hopping one more chance. I talked Erica into visiting a C.O.E. in the nearby village of Loose. (I've mentioned Loose before here) While church hopping initially we had heard the curate (read associate pastor) of All Saints Loose speak at a different church and I was impressed so we decided to give them a chance.
We are so glad we did.
Our first visit was Palm Sunday and was the kickoff of a week known as Passion For Life week in which the church was very intentional about welcoming outsiders. They had a quiz night the night prior, the first session of Christianity Explored the next night, and other events for the non-churched public. We were warmly welcomed (there's a first time for everything) and ended up meeting the vicar (read head pastor) and his wife and chatting for a bit after the service. We told them why we were in the UK and that I had been looking for a job. We mentioned the church we had been attending and Steve told us that All Saints was probaly more "text based" than the church we had been attending and then proceeded to use the term "expository preaching" as the method the church followed in teaching scripture. I have never in my life been to excited to hear that term.
It turns out that Steve (the vicar) just took over the post in September and that All Saints is his first head pastor position. He is a graduate of Oak Hill Seminary which is one of the seminaries I was considering if we stay over here long term. There is certainly an enthusiasm and life to the church started by the previous vicar and now really taking off with Steve. The church isn't a one man show however and that is another aspect that we are excited about. There seem to be four or five other Godly men who preach on a regular basis and wise believers of both genders who make up the church along with a lot of newer Christians.
Erica is jumping right into helping the church do some branding and establishing itself graphically. We're still considering what exactly my role might be, but it sounds like we'll at least be helping out with youth group a bit.
With All Saints as a home base we are really beginning to contemplate being over here long term. If we can play a role in a growing body (and get Erica or I a decent job) we'd love to do it and there are so many opportunities in the C.O.E. for followers of Christ to step forward into a society that is suffocating without Christ both inside and out of the church.
We have been so blessed in our two months of being a part of the body.