I've blogged this before. But, I'm right. And, it's important to the future.
It's a matter of history and it's black and white, not a matter of interpretation.
----------------
I got the question this week, off-the-blog, "Was Winebrenner a parish priest? As you apply the term?"
The answer, clearly, is no.
Nearly 50 years ago now, Richard Kern published a study of the life of John Winebrenner.
Kern devoted a chapter to the conflict between Winebrenner and, especially, the Harrisburg German Reformed congregation, mediated by the German Reformed Synod, which led to Winebrenner's separation from the German Reformed church and, ultimately the formation of the Church of God.
The reasons for the conflict are apparent and well-documented by Dr. Kern:
The Harrisburg congregation was dissatisfied with Winebrenner because was not a healthy pastor. He was not doing the things a parish priest does. He was not functioning as a provider of religious products and services to be consumed by a passive laity.
Winebrenner was cavorting with lowly Methodists. He was traveling around the area preaching in various pulpits--even in camp meetings, behaving as an evangelist, calling unchurched people to be converted to Christ, and never, ever offering comforting and encouraging homilies to the crowd in Sunday morning worship service attendance at the church.
-----------------
John Winebrenner was many things but he, most certainly, was not a parish priest. He was never a healthy pastor.
More importantly, the way Winebrenner functioned was the prototype for how a minister in the Church of God operated in Winebrenner's generation...the era in which the Church of God was a growing movement. None of those men and women were healthy pastors. None were parish priests. Not one of them settled for merely providing religious products and services to a passive laity.
As important as that, and even more relevant to the current state of the CGGC, the parish priest, healthy pastor, leadership model, which is, for instance, at the core of the ERC's new New Strategic Plan, came into vogue gradually as the vision of the Church of God movement devolved but, and I've also said this many times before...
...it became dominant as a result of a shepherd revolution that took place 80 years ago and has produced nothing but numerical decline and spiritual decay...
...to the point that even the CGGC shepherd mafiosi are now desperate.
-----------------
So, no. Obviously.
John Winebrenner was not a parish priest, especially as I understand the term. He was not a pastor. He certainly was not the sort of leader current hierarchs think of as being a...healthy...pastor.
What we need to do is repent, and to be converted...from what we now believe in and have become...
...to what we once were, which the Lord of all authority and power and blessing, blessed.
Tell me again your concept of identifying a parish priest.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, you've said in the past that the medium is the message.
That a person up front with everyone facing them, listening to them, is the medium that equals priest (whether they are there regularly or travel from place to place.)
Certainly, Winebrenner did that. There was no circle of no differentiation whatsoever. There was a pulpit and the people were lined up facing it. He preached, while the majority of the congregation did not. For the most part, he talked and they listened. And yes, responded powerfully to the message preached.
So is it how one undertakes their ministry or is it the medium that defines the 'priest' for you?
If it's the medium, I'd suggest you have to call Winebrenner a priest to be consistent.
If it's the ministry, then it's not fair to assume someone is a parish priest because the operate in a particular medium of ministry.
(Of course I agree that Winebrenner was not a Shepherd and that he was not interested in giving people what they wanted, i.e. 'religious goods and services.')
AND, I'm not saying that Winebrenner necessarily operated in the 'ideal' context. These are just questions to your blog post...
Dan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for extending this conversation with me into the light of day.
"The medium is the message" isn't something I would say. It may be something I'd describe, but I don't think so.
I attempted to depict my definition of a parish priest in two ways:
1. In terms of the conflict between the desires and expectations of the members of the German Reformed congregation in Harrisburg, who believed in consuming their clergyman's religious products and services, and Winebrenner who was, well, as we say it today, kingdom-focused.
Winebrenner wanted to go into the actual world where sinners were and confront them with the message that they were sinners but that, in Jesus, there is mercy, grace and forgiveness for men and women who believe in Him and are converted.
The congregation wanted to be sheep cared for and benefiting from the labor of their shepherd who, by the way, in this case, they were paying top dollar to do their bidding.
Winebrenner wanted to win souls and make disciples. The church wanted, well, a parish priest.
2. By pointing out specifically that Winebrenner never, even during his first days in Harrisburg, saw himself as a member of the clergy providing religious products and services to be consumed by the laity.
That's what a parish priest does.
A parish priest serves the church, and, in doing so, serves Jesus.
Winebrenner clearly cared about the community of the converted. He was hyper-focused on establishing churches on "the New Testament plan."
But, Winebrenner served Jesus first. He preached the gospel. He called sinners to be converted and, as you know from your own study, organized those converted sinners according to the pattern he saw in the New Testament.
And, very importantly, organized those communities of the converted so that they'd be served primarily by their elders and deacons, with little contact, in most cases, with a "minister"...
...whom Winebrenner never, ever, as far as I know, called a PASTOR!!!!!
There was no clergy/laity divide in Winebrenner's mind.
What there was, was the PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS.
Winebrenner was about converting sinners so that the sinners became priests, never members of the laity.
The concept of a parish priest was absent from our thinking in our movement days.
It is central in the CGGC today. Hence, our decline and decay.