Site
Contents
 |
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Area United Methodist
Foundation
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
July/August 2005 |
2 Corinthians 4:7-12
Bishop tells ordinands be human, let God's power show
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Bishop Mike Coyner told the 1,200 worshippers during the Saturday, June 4 commissioning and ordination service at the North Indiana Annual Conference that he "was ordained a probationary deacon on this stage with this stole 30 years ago," as he showed conference members the stole. He said the text says we have this treasure in clay pots, so that the extraordinary powers of God might be revealed.
Coyner said he read on an Internet blog a piece from Pastor Scott Williams, who is quitting ministry. Williams said pastors live in the limelight and it's hard not to disappoint people. Pastors feel pressured to put numbers on the role. Everything that goes wrong seems to be the pastor's fault. Pastors vacillate between the drive to do everything and to do little. It's hard to be who we (as pastors) are, he said.
"What I would like to say to Scott Williams is that all the reasons to leave ministry are the same ones as those to stay in ministry," Coyner said.
He said the more we stay the more the truth of the Gospel is revealed. Being commissioned and ordained doesn't make you less human but more human. He said, "It's an honor and privilege and how human we are. The Gospel humbles us. Being ordained and being commission makes us more humble. Do any of you feel worthy to be a minister of God? That's why it is always a calling and not a choice. Who would choose it? It's a humble calling."
|
Being commissioned and ordained doesn't make you're less human but more human. |
Coyner said 30 years ago being ordained, he thought it would be easier to be a Christian. It isn't. It's an honor and privilege to serve God. He said we are checked out by everyone - committees, boards, physicians, counselors. The hoops don't mean we are worthy of ministry. It's a privilege (to serve as a ministry) for human folks like us.
Knowing we are human helps us keep going. We are knocked down but we aren't knocked out. The more human we are, the more God's power shows through us, he said. The treasure is the Gospel. Our secret weapon is that this (what we do) is the power of God.
"If we can't accomplish all of this on our own will, how will anyone see through us the power of the Gospel?" The more we are human, the more the power (of God) works.
He assured those to be commissioned and ordained that "ministry on our own will not work. When you do it on your own bag of tricks, it won't work. But the more we are open to God, the more God will act. We are the vessels, the clay pots, the cracked pots. The power is the Gospel."
He closed by saying, "the more I focus on being the vessel and allow God being the power, the more my ministry is possible. Be real. Be human and look for the ways you can be a clay pot so the power of almighty God might be revealed through you."
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008