Here's a new one for me. We received a form today from one of our parishioners, a "pastor's recommendation form" for a local Christian elementary school. I've signed a bunch of these kinds of things already. But this one was different.
Are the X family members of your congregation? (Y/N)
How well do you know them? (1-5 scale)
Indicate their level of spiritual hunger. (1-5 scale)
We believe that... [here was included a neat one-paragraph summary, complete with scripture references, thankyouverymuch, that all have sinned and Jesus saves].
and, waaaaait for it:
Are the X family born-again Christians?
Father___
Mother___
Prospective Student 1___
Prospective Student 2___
Run that by me again? You're asking me if the 9-year-old is a born-again Christian? On the application form for 3rd grade?
let's just pause for a moment and ponder that, shall we?
That's so wrong on so many levels that I'm momentarily rendered speechless with anger and disbelief.
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OH MY! That is so wrong on so many levels. But, I have to admit that it gave me a much needed laugh.
I'm glad to know that I don't live in the only place in the world that doesn't know what to do with the children. sigh.
Maybe a kid would be better off *not* being someplace that asks that on their application. Also, that "Assess their level of spiritual hunger" question strikes me as rather bizarre, as well. Sheesh.
Sometimes it can certainly seem that these things get out of hand. One Sunday several years ago I had to be driving, in this case from Memphis to Kansas City – a full day. I decided that since I couldn’t be in church, at least I could listen to sermons on the radio. From county seat to county seat, through eastern Arkansas and into Missouri, I listened to one preacher after another. Most were good, and some were bad, and some were simply appalling.
However, none caught my attention like a Missouri Synod Lutheran congregation in the Missouri Bootheel. I had missed the sermon, and was now listening to the institution of two new teachers in the parish school. In front of the congregation, and in the presence of the Board of Deacons, they were asked a series of questions, to which they were expected to give assent.
“Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?” Well, it was a Lutheran school, after all.
“Do you accept the Holy Bible in the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God?”
Do you accept the Christian faith as the Lutheran Church has received them?
Do you accept the Christian faith as described in the works of Martin Luther, including the Greater and Lesser Catechisms, the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, and the Treatise in the Primacy and Authority of the Pope?”
At which I thought, “Wait a minute. Do these two women even know of all these? And after all, they’re just being hired to teach second graders to read!”
Hard to gauge Morgan's spiritual hunger. She does prefer snack, lunch and recess regularly to most other subjects.
I bet you have to make a 'statement of faith' too.
Goes much beyond the Niocene Creed from what I understand...
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