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Sample Essay on Paul & Church Leadership

Any institution must have a leader and rules for administration. Even churches are not exempt from this and pastors must also learn to be leaders and administrators in addition to being preachers. Leadership can be defined as shepherding people to follow your vision (Barth, 2010 ). Administration on the other hand is more about paperwork and management of the institution to ensure it adheres to the laws of the land and all logistics are taken care of. It involves issues like budgeting, finance, human resources and the like.

Paul in his letters talked about the behavior of a minister. One of the points he urged is that a minister continuously purifies himself. Paul instructed Timothy to purify himself continually by separating himself from those things that would distract one. (2 Timothy 1:6). For example, pastors can easily start concentrating on the wrong things to avoid the true and hard work of the ministry. Even lay people can suffer from this syndrome whose symptoms are fatigue, boredom, laziness and the like. Ways a minister can avoid these things is by discipline in doing tasks like reading the bible, personal prayer, having a person to account to, studying or increasing one’s knowledge in leadership and ministry (Barth, 2010).

Another characteristic of a minister is to be compassionate. Work without love, Paul in first Corinthians chapter 13 highlighted is fruitless and useless (1 Cor13,1-3). In Ephesians Paul urges pastors to show love to one another with humility, gentleness, and patience as it’s the key to a godly church.

Another character of a minister according to Paul is that a minister should be persevering. One they must stick to the true word or doctrine regardless of the circumstances and guard the word with the help of the Holy Spirit. (2 Timothy 1:13-14). He urges ministers to avoid distractions but keep their eye on the prize (2 Timothy 2:3).

Paul also taught about church should be administration. He taught that that the church is to be ruled by elders, and that these elders are accountable to one another and to God. Paul while in Ephesus told the elders to watch over the flock and guard it against false prophets (Acts 20:28-30). He taught that Christians should obey those in authority as it is God who put them there.

Read more about the existence of Heaven and Hell

Also Paul taught that there are different kinds of leadership positions and structures in the church where all are called to fit. He likened the church to a body which has different parts all joined together to perform tasks as one. Each part is important and cannot be ignored. On different leadership positions, Paul illustrated this by showing how some people were called to be prophets, others evangelists, others apostles and others pastors and teachers (Eph 4:7-12). Different people are needed for the work of God and that is why God gave people different gifts. God did this to prepare people for the work of Christian service or to build the church or body of Christ (Eph 4:13). Paul went ahead to show the importance of everyone i.e. everyone was necessary to the church and had a role to play.

Leaders were to serve the Christians by teaching the right doctrine and protecting them from false teachers while Christians were to change their ways and live a life worthy of being children of the Kingdom (Eph4:23). Also Paul talked about the domestic order and how proper structure of authority must be maintained in households. He taught how husbands and wives are to relate to one another. He taught that wives should subject to their husbands and that husbands were the head of the house. He also talked about how children should relate with their parents saying they should be obedient to them. (Eph 5:9-6:7).

The church was to be administered so that it could become God"s dwelling place. God was to be the cornerstone of the building (Eph 2:19-22). The goal of the church was to honour God and bring him glory and not to bring glory to ourselves. For example Paul in letter to the Ephesians prayed that Christ would make a home in the people’s hearts (Eph3:17) and that God gets the glory – “Now … to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:19-20 ).

Paul also taught that the child should be administered with humility and not authoritarian rule. He emphasized how all are equal and no one should think himself better of the other or look down on another. He emphasized this by saying that it is by grace that we are saved and not because of our own works - “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God … For we are God"s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Today church also faces some of the problems Paul highlighted in the epistles. For example, the purpose of the church has been distorted. The purpose of churches is to lead people to God. However, some churches try to achieve a big following by promising people prosperity and riches as opposed to the true purpose of Christianity which is to worship and glorify God (Lim, 2013). This touches on doctrine issues which pastors are twisting to suit themselves. They want to be famous and are driven by attracting huge offerings by saying only the pleasing parts like the prosperity that comes when one serves the Lord - “Seek First the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you” – Lk 18-6-12) but avoiding to tell the whole truth especially the one that hurts like suffering and persecution.

Another issue that plagues the church today is administration. Churches today are run like corporations instead of communities or places of worship and pastors have become CEO’s instead of sheppards (Frank, 2009). Pastors have become sole proprietors of their churches often with family members thus the church becomes lead like an asset - which has to remain in the family hands and not as an institution that belongs to God and has apostolic foundation of the early church as Paul emphasized in the epistles (Lim, 2013 ).

Pastors or churches are now focusing on achieving the wrong objectives of being rated as the best church or one with the biggest followers or one with the biggest humanitarian projects i.e. seeking worldly praise rather than making God the cornerstone of the church (Frank, 2009).

Paul warned the church not to become a structure or a show of power and authority and rules but it should be more about the individual and people. The focus should be trying to please God and concern for my neighbor by bringing him to God through by showing him love (Barth, 2010). In conclusion, being a Christian is not just about being forgiven one’s sins but it is about playing your part in building and spreading God’s kingdom in the world through concern for our neighbor and living in a way that is pleasing to God.

References

Thomas Edward Frank (2009). Leadership and Administration: An Emerging Field in Practical Theology IJPT, vol. 10
KarYong Lim (2013). Generosity from Pauline Perspective: Insights from Paul's Letters to the Corinthians. ERT 37:1, 20-33
Tom Barth (2010). Crisis Management in the Catholic Church: Lessons for Public Administrators. Public Administration Review
The Holy Bible - Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.

The Role of Reason within Theology Sample Essay & Outline

Faith is a common element in almost every religion. However, it is known to be the most difficult aspect of religion for the human mind to comprehend. As a matter of facts, faith is about believing even when one does not understand the reasons behind it (Vaticana 1). However, human beings have covered a long journey through self-realization by which answers to the mysteries of life and religion intensify the quest to find out more (Vaticana 2). Studies on the topic of faith have proved that reason is an important aspect of understanding the mystery of faith.

As quoted earlier, faith, in most cases is based on occurrences that are unknown to humanity. This means that it is not possible to present tangible evidence that the mysteries associated with faith are true or will come to pass. Here, sound reasoning becomes a necessity in understanding faith. The ability to reason enables human beings to discern between substantial faith and engineered lies about religion (Swindal 2).

Theology concentrates on the ability to contemplate on the message written in scriptures and interpreting them in order to deduce significant themes and meanings (Jasper 3). To do this, theologian require sound reasoning. It is important to understand that most of the scriptures were written several decades ago based on the events that occurred then. As a result of human civilization, the scripture may appear to be outlived. Surprisingly they are still highly applicable in defining the Christian faith. Reasoning is required in connecting the themes in the scriptures to modernity (Jefferson 3).

In conclusion, reason is a vital element in theology. Through reasoning, theologians can extract themes and fit them within the principles of modern Christianity. Without reasoning, it would be difficult to explain nearly all the aspects of faith quoted in the scriptures.

References

Prazwal Jasper. Theological epistemology: the role of scripture, tradition and experience and their authority in Christian theology. 2013. Online< http://www.academia.edu/4308552/ >
James Swindal. Faith and reasoning. 2012. Online < http://www.iep.utm.edu/faith-re/ >
Libreria Vaticana. The relationship between faith and reasoning. 2004. Online< http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.html >
John Jefferson. The role of theology. 2012. Online
 

Theology (Church History) Sample Essay & Outline

Name:

In the early days, the ecumenical councils were councils of the church that developed the matters of the church doctrine. The ecumenical councils would convene and discuss issues of the church’s importance such as the direction of the church and interpretation of the Bible. The formation of the councils was a bureaucratic agenda. Before the ascertainment of a certain decision, there were many bureaucratic activities that the members had to conduct such as complex voting even on the slightest of the issues. Initially, there were seven ecumenical councils. The decisions of the ecumenical councils were known as cannons, and they determined the development of the church and the other perception that it had on the development (Davie, 59-86).

There were seven councils in the history of the church. First Council of Nicaea was responsible for the affirmation that Jesus was God, and he was equal to the other elements of the trinity. Frist Council of Constantinople affirmed that Jesus was a man. They faulted the first Council of Nicaea on the deity status of Jesus (Beintker, 45-58). Their conclusions are largely used by the eastern and oriental orthodox churches. The Council of Ephesus asserted that Jesus was one person, and the Virgin Mary was the mother. The Council of Chalcedon claimed that Jesus was a person composed of two distinct natures.

The second Council of Constantinople accepted and seconded all the decisions of the previous councils. It also refuted the other claims of the religions and the deity status of Jesus. The third council of Constantinople agreed with previous assertions that Jesus was composed of two natures; human and divine (Davie, 59-86). The second council of Nicaea was mainly responsible for the restoration of some of the icons. It also marked the end of the iconoclasm. It accepted ad rejected some of the Protestant groups that had condemned the veneration of the icons.

The councils played a vital role in the creation of the deity of Jesus as it is known today. The deity of Jesus is an essential doctrine that is the determinant of the religion. It is the foundation of Christianity accruing to the doctrine; Jesus Christ is the incarnate of God. The Christians' belief in Christ is linked to the belief in the existence of the all-knowing God that was responsible for the creation (Frazee and Tretjakewitsch, 529). The ecumenical councils were responsible for the teachings on the deity of Jesus. As indicated before, they were responsible for the development of the deity status of Jesus. They developed the theory of the status of Jesus being different from the common person.

They also affirmed that Jesus was not a common person but was a person born of a virgin through the interventions of the Holy Spirit. The theorists believe that the process of coming up with the deity of Jesus was necessary. They established the additional writings that validated and canonized the decisions. Therefore, the belief of the modern Christians in the deity of Jesus Christ was founded on the cannons (Davie, 59-86). Some of the most notable canons include the cannon proclaiming that Jesus is a reincarnation of God through Virgin Mary and the veneration of the icons such as the cross. They were also the first councils to propose the belief of reincarnation.

The satisfaction theory is a theory of incarnation and atonement that was advanced by Anselm. The theologian viewed the coming of Christ to the earth as the ultimate sacrifice to satisfy the offended honor of God the Father. According to Anselm, there was no way that the human could render unto God more that the things that they owed him. They were just incapable of satisfying the needs of God (Burrows, 132-133). Therefore, God the father had to offer the sacrifice as a self-satisfaction move (Frazee and Tretjakewitsch, 529). However, the sacrifice had to make the satisfaction for the humans. Therefore, there was a need for the actual person sacrificing to be human. Since no normal human being was good enough to attain the satisfaction needed by god the father, there was the need for a bridge between the human nature and the godly nature. To attain this, incarnation of God took place in the form of Jesus Christ.

The theologian argues through the penal of substitution that Jesus Christ bore the burden of sin on the behalf of the sinners that were united to him by faith. Therefore, for one to receive the attainment for sin, he or she had to indicate their willingness to believe in the Savior. The death of Christ was an act of obedience that gave God the honor while according to him the right to be atoned for his sins. The process of the reincarnation death and atonement of sin was not an act of obligation by Christ (Frazee and Tretjakewitsch, 529). On the other hand is an honor for him to die for the attainment of the sins of humankind and the glory and honor of the father.

Therefore, the incarnation of Christ was a necessary sacrifice since the humans could not have any form of sacrifice that would be sufficient to please the maker. God had to offer his son to die for the sins of men (atonement) while giving him honor. The atonement of sin could only be possible when the people confessed that they believed in the Savior.

References
Beintker, Michael. 'The Church Of Jesus Christ: An Introduction.' Ecclesiology 1.3 (2005): 45-58. Web.
Burrows, William R. 'Jesus Christ In World History'. Mission Studies 28.1 (2011): 132-133. Web.
Davie, Martin. 'The Church Of Jesus Christ: An Anglican Response.' Ecclesiology 1.3 (2005): 59-86. Web.
Frazee, Charles, and Leon Tretjakewitsch. 'Bishop Michel D'herbigny SJ And Russia: A Pre- Ecumenical Approach To Christian Unity.' Russian Review 51.4 (1992): 592. Web.