"Will you seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love?"
- The eighth of nine vows that all PC(USA) members must take when being ordained to the ministry of the Word and Sacrament, found in section G-14.0405 of the Presbyterian Book of Order.
So this past Sunday I had the great honor of being installed as an associate pastor of the United Presbyterian Church of Seattle. It was a beautiful service, with a number of people both from our church and our presbytery contributing, and my family and I felt extremely blessed. It was a reminder to me that this calling is not only between me and God, but also between the church and I, as well as the church and God.
As part of this installation service, I had the chance to repeat the vows that I made at my ordination service in Minnesota a few months earlier, including the one that I quoted above. Actually, this particular vow has always stuck out to me, perhaps because it includes the word "imagination." My guess is that most of us wouldn't think to connect the words "vow" and "imagination". Vows are serious matters, involving commitment and responsibility. Imagination, on the other hand, doesn't seem like something we can really commit to or be held responsible for. Not everyone is born creative, right?
Looking back on my first five years of professional ministry experience, however, it is clear that serving with imagination is not just icing on the cake. Imagination, I think, is what we give to the things we love. While some of us may have more of it than others, it is clear that all of us have some of it, and what we have we give when something is really important to us. In ministry, vowing to serve with imagination means promising not only to respond to God's call responsibly, but passionately.
Yet this is not a word only for ministers, but for all who follow Christ. It is Jesus who teaches his disciples, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends...I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another." Laying down our lives for one another begins by giving of what we have, and nothing characterizes this quite like serving one another with the time, effort, and vulnerability it takes to do something with imagination.
When does your imagination come out? When are you at your most creative? Let it be said of every follower of Christ that our creative juices flow most freely when we attempt to love and serve others.
3 comments:
hey pastor ben,
i was wondering if you have read Erwin McManus's Book, 'The Barbarian Way'.
Is there a limit to imagination?
Should there be a cap?
haha, sorry to not have included this in the previous comment, but congrats!
i wish i could have been there!
It's actually really awesome to see that imagination is in the vows somewhere... that is an interesting concept though... about imagination flowing in loving and serving others... and I think thats key in making good retreats, events and activities.
*this is grant btw.
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