Ethics of the Church (broadly speaking) adopting or incorporating business practices and revenue models into worship. e.g. licensing of worship music, selling tickets to a CCM "concert" (where people on stage and off ostensibly believe they are engaging in corporate worship).
I understand and want to uphold the good of paying artists for their valuable work.
I'm less sure about adopting the revenue models of the day, which introduce legal restrictions into a activity that I think we would all consider "holy."
This even affects folks like me, in a denomination that practices exclusive psalmody with a capella congregational singing. Our denominational publisher restricts the recording and streaming of singing from the psalter because of the licensed tunes and copyright on the lyrics.
It feels wrong, improper and unwise to me, but it also seems like I'm sort of alone on this issue.
As you probably know, Wilshire has just completed its search for a new Senior Pastor, to replace a predecessor who had served with us for 33 years. The by-laws provide that the Personnel Committee nominates members of the church to serve on a Pastoral Search Committee, which are then approved at a special business meeting of the members of the Church. It had obviously been a long time since this process had been exercised last and ironically it was 30 years before that when it had last been done before (2 pastors over 63 years is a pretty amazing record). The Personnel Committee decided fairly quickly that we wanted both men and women to serve on the search committee and that 9 members was probably a good working number for the committee. The surprise was not being able to pick only 9. The Personnel Committee ultimately nominated 12 members, 6 women and 6 men, which the church approved at its annual church conference in January 2022. The first meeting of the Search Committee was on January 28, 2022 and after 11 months, one candidate was asked to preach in view of a call on December 4, 2022. I served on the Search Committee as one of only two persons over the age of 60. We had 4 members between the ages of 40 and 60 and 6 members below the age of 40, including one 16 year old member from our youth group. A discussion of the process and the discussions, while maintaining the necessary confidentiality, might be of interest and perhaps helpful for both churches about to search and your students as they look to their own job searches.
The Body of Christ embodying the offices of Christ--Prophet, Priest, and King--specifically interested in navigating the Church’s role re: justice for the oppressed, abused, etc. and when those who are implicated are members of that Body. I feel like there’s something there but not even sure where that starts.
Ethics of the Church (broadly speaking) adopting or incorporating business practices and revenue models into worship. e.g. licensing of worship music, selling tickets to a CCM "concert" (where people on stage and off ostensibly believe they are engaging in corporate worship).
I understand and want to uphold the good of paying artists for their valuable work.
I'm less sure about adopting the revenue models of the day, which introduce legal restrictions into a activity that I think we would all consider "holy."
This even affects folks like me, in a denomination that practices exclusive psalmody with a capella congregational singing. Our denominational publisher restricts the recording and streaming of singing from the psalter because of the licensed tunes and copyright on the lyrics.
It feels wrong, improper and unwise to me, but it also seems like I'm sort of alone on this issue.
A few of the questions I’ve been thinking about and trying to understand over the past few months ---
-The relationship between ethics and theology.
-what is Church (capital C)?
-The fracturing of the church/splitting of denominations etc/ how to think about this,
-How to leave a church “well”.
As you probably know, Wilshire has just completed its search for a new Senior Pastor, to replace a predecessor who had served with us for 33 years. The by-laws provide that the Personnel Committee nominates members of the church to serve on a Pastoral Search Committee, which are then approved at a special business meeting of the members of the Church. It had obviously been a long time since this process had been exercised last and ironically it was 30 years before that when it had last been done before (2 pastors over 63 years is a pretty amazing record). The Personnel Committee decided fairly quickly that we wanted both men and women to serve on the search committee and that 9 members was probably a good working number for the committee. The surprise was not being able to pick only 9. The Personnel Committee ultimately nominated 12 members, 6 women and 6 men, which the church approved at its annual church conference in January 2022. The first meeting of the Search Committee was on January 28, 2022 and after 11 months, one candidate was asked to preach in view of a call on December 4, 2022. I served on the Search Committee as one of only two persons over the age of 60. We had 4 members between the ages of 40 and 60 and 6 members below the age of 40, including one 16 year old member from our youth group. A discussion of the process and the discussions, while maintaining the necessary confidentiality, might be of interest and perhaps helpful for both churches about to search and your students as they look to their own job searches.
The Body of Christ embodying the offices of Christ--Prophet, Priest, and King--specifically interested in navigating the Church’s role re: justice for the oppressed, abused, etc. and when those who are implicated are members of that Body. I feel like there’s something there but not even sure where that starts.