Creation, Covenant, and Authority
Monday, November 27, 2023
7:22 AM
The Preamble to the Design identifies God as "maker of heaven and earth" and as the author of the "covenant of love" that binds people of faith to God's self and to one another.  In the final affirmation, those who say the Preamble "yield ourselves to God" and commit themselves to "serve the One whose kingdom has no end."   While the preamble is not inherently Trinitarian, it suggests three affirmations that we can connect to the first person of the Trinity:  That God is Creator, God is Covenant Author, and that God is sovereign and has eternal authority.  
Creator
Most ministers can describe their sense of being called to the ministry.  It may have happened in an instant or over a prolonged period of time, but most ministers have a call story.  What most Disciples ministers will not tell you except in whispered conversations, is that they struggle with the implications of saying, "I am called."  When ministers say that we are called to ministry are ministers saying, "I am called and you are not?"  Does God only select the professions of ministers and leave everyone else to freely choose a career that seems right to them?  Does God have a particular career in mind for each person and people either do or do not find career satisfaction based on how correctly they discern their careers.  OR is there another way to understand calling. 
Disciples Theologian Kristine Culp reflects on the idea of coram Deo--life before God or life in the sight of God.  While she acknowledges that the idea is often associated with Luther and Calvin, in truth it is grounded in the ministry of Jesus Christ who welcomed "strangers and outcasts."  Yet, speaking of the reformers understanding of coram Deo she wrote, "There was no secular exclusion, no place that was farther from the presence of God; neither was there any place, any church structure, authority or ritual, that could be said to possess or control the presence of God.  God's grace and glory ought to be proclaimed and made manifest particularly in Christian life and ministry, but all life, from the depths of individual conscience to the breadth of public life, from the misery of betrayal to the marvel of love, exists before God" (Vulnerability and Glory: A Theological Account, p 5). Relying on Culp's development of life coram Deo, I would suggest that person's career choices similarly belong within this space.  
The church can and should help each person assess their own strengths and capacities 
Covenant
Authority
The language of God's universal authority and sovereignty is expressed in some manner by most Christians.  In the language of the ecumenical creeds God is identified as Pantokrator.
It is notably absent from the Preamble to the Design. In Alexander Campbell's Christian System, there are references to God Almighty in a compilation of texts but no extended reflection on God as Pantokrator.
The affirmation of ordination as having a universal quality recognizes that God has a will for the whole of creation. This vision involves human thriving, justice and peace within and between geographic communities, the restoration of creation, and  adoration directed to God from each person and from all creation.  The ordained recognizes that each person is entrusted with partial responsibility  God’s vision. People’s professions, their stewardship of material resources, the ways they build their personal lives both as solitary persons and within families and communities, their attention to personal health, their engagement with social governance, and any other nameable aspect of human life is a realm where people are granted freedom and where God desires for people to freely choose submission to God’s authority.  
Unless we acknowledge that ordination empowers the ordained and that authorizing ministry grants authority, we will continue to struggle to understand the embedded racism within our ordination practices. Currently, we treat ordination as an accomplishment and ordinations as individualized graduations and extended services of personal affirmation.  