Brothers and Sisters,
Summer has brought a lot of changes to the Ginn household! Olivia recently left her job as a Speech Pathologist in the public school system. She will be pursuing private care in the home health field. Lord willing, she will be pursuing a job with one of the local companies that provides speech services to younger children in their homes.
I am going through my last six months of seminary. This summer, I plan to finish two of my catechism tests and the English Bible exam, followed by my five remaining classes in the Fall semester. What a ride this seminary time has been! As I get down to final buzzer I am thankful to God for His grace and care for us. So many times we have been totally lost as to what to do next, or how we would live, or where we would find work, but God has always provided for us faithfully. We look forward to having even more testimonies about His faithfulness and love!
As we prepare to finish seminary, we look to the future. God has put on our hearts to go back to the Midwest and pursue pastoral ministry there in the Presbyterian Church in America. The Father has put it as a burden on us to see the continuing reformation of the Church in the Midwest, specifically in Chicago metro area and southern Wisconsin. There are many potentially open doors before us.
Would you please consider praying for us specifically in your prayers? Our most urgent prayer requests are for employment for Olivia and a strong finish in seminary for me. Looking towards the future, would you please pray that God open a door for me to pursue His call on my life to preach the gospel? We are also looking for clarity in the potential choice between pursuing church planting (the starting of new churches in unreached areas) or pursuing pastoral ministry in an already-established congregation.
If you are able to pray for us, please let us know! We so appreciate being prayed for by our many beloved friends and family members. Going into the future knowingly covered in the prayers of God's people would be such a wonderful encouragement to us. And let us know how we can be praying for you! Much love to you all!
+ Blessings in Christ +
"Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel." (1 Corinthians 9:13-14)
Preaching is violent. Preaching is when God takes the razor-sharp, two-edged sword of His Word and cuts people apart. I've often felt uncomfortable when sitting under sincere, upfront preaching. It hurts sometime. And that's not a bug, but a feature.
Old Covenant sacrifices were violent. There was fire and blood, animal guts and severed heads, smoke and the continual stench of burnt flesh. If you read about the temple and picture the still silence of a medieval cathedral, you're not reading properly. The place was loud, smelly, and gory.
In spite of what your eyes might tell you, your local church is filled with just as much violence on a given Lord's Day, perhaps even more. Paul makes a direct correlation in the above-referenced passage between the Old Covenant priestly service at the altar and the New Covenant pastoral ministry of the gospel. Levitical pastors are charged with a ministry of sacrifice. We often hear about the priesthood of all believers and think that this means the removal of uniqueness from the pastoral office. This is a mistake. Old Covenant Israel was a kingdom of priests (C.f. Exodus 19:6) and yet there was a special setting aside of the Levites to serve in the tabernacle/temple and the sons of Aaron to serve at the altar. Your pastor's job is to preach the gospel to you, to cut you up with the sword of God's Word and prepare you for sacrifice, even as he is offered up a living sacrifice.
(As an aside, this is one of the main reasons that women are not permitted to be pastors. Just as it was not their job to take up the Levitical priesthood, so it is not their job to take up pastoral ministry. The ministry of the gospel is not like being a CEO, which a woman is able and allowed to do, but like being a Levitical priest, which she is not.)
The Levitical pastor is one whose job is that of preparation. His job is not to run a business, nor manage a company, nor even to keep a church operating. His job is to serve at the altar; to remain at his post and to offer the sacrifices of God in and through Christ. His calling is to preach the gospel, and by so doing prepare the living sacrifices of God's people. His job is to cut you up and put you on the altar of the gospel of Jesus, that you might be consumed by the ever-burning fire of the Holy Spirit, and ascend up into fellowship with the eternal God. The Levitical pastor takes as his greatest blessing in life the call of God, "to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:16)
+ Blessings in Christ +
