My White Board at Church

Some of you know that I am a seminarian full time. In fact, my primary occupation is that of a seminarian. Recently, I was feeling insecure about how I spend my time and wanting to better use my time and resorted to listing the obligations of certain roles that I fill. There are of course roles I neglected to write about – hopefully someday I will consider those as well and craft an exhaustive list by which I can measure my behavior (hopefully resulting in the peace of knowing I have played my part well).

The reason that I am writing down the list before it is complete is because I need the space. When I wrote it, I used the white board at church but now I need that space for something else. I still want to keep the lists as a good starting place for this project to be addressed later. Thus, here it is:

• Because I am a Christian, I should lead a healthy…
  • spiritual lifestyle by praying, fasting, reading, considering, serving, memorizing, and loving well.
  • physical lifestyle by eating, sleeping, exercising, and doing hygiene well.
  • intellectual lifestyle by reading, writing, and talking well.
  • financial lifestyle by striving to live on less than I make, intentionally considering each recurring cost to ensure they reflect my values, considering major purchases to ensure they reflect my values, saving for future expenditures I can imagine incurring, investing the margin wisely, keeping good records, and giving generously.
  • social lifestyle by maintaining a relational schematic and honoring the social roles that I have agreed to fill.
  • mental/emotional lifestyle by seeking out and investing in therapeutic practices/relationships, vacationing/honoring the sabbath and tending to self care to prevent burnout.
  • romantic lifestyle by insisting on defined romantic relationships and functioning faithfully as a lover within defined boundaries.
  • vocational lifestyle by regular considering how to spend my time, regularly tending to my habits, and regularly create and manage goals and aspirations.
• Because I am a seminarian, I should…
  • watch my faith and practice closely; live as a healthy Christian.
  • pursue my certification through diligent, faithful, academic work.
  • prepare for the pastorate by:
    • considering what it means to pastor
    • developing my systematic theology
    • developing my historic theology
    • developing my biblical theology
    • develop my understanding of ecclesiology
    • practicing discipleship
    • practicing evangelism
    • memorizing God’s Word
    • fostering relationships that will be useful to future ministry endeavors
    • engaging in the languages of the original scriptures
• As I consider what it means to be a pastor, I have determined that a pastor should…
  • watch his faith and practice closely; live as a healthy Christian.
  • teach his flock, which requires:
    • having a developed theology
    • expositing God’s word regularly
    • creating or sharing resources
  • shepherd his flock, which requires:
    • having a developed ecclesiology
    • arranging for regular preaching of the word
    • arranging for discipleship of membership
    • arranging for church discipline
    • modeling and teaching Christian service to persons in and outside the flock
    • raising up and empowering elders, deacons, and members to the calling of the Lord on their lives
  • equip the saints to protect and manifest the gospel
  • develop or maintain a healthy duplicating church