Welcome to our virtual parish.
I’m a virtual pastor. Technically I’m an elder, the management half of the church leadership team. However, I also serve in the priesthood role simply because no one else is doing it and I have been trained for it. Two different religious agencies have at one time in the past ordained me, and Oklahoma recognizes that I am a clergyman. I do actually get to officiate as clergyman now and then in meat space.
Did I use enough confusing and overlapping labels there? Since this whole thing is in virtual space, I’m not sure it makes one bit of difference. There is really darn little to manage except the teaching. That’s something either of the two primary offices could do. Frankly, it’s the elder that would do most of the counseling in the original concept of the church.
A recurring theme in the teaching and counsel here is the moral elements of romance and marriage. We are plodding through Song of Solomon chapter by chapter and I’m trying to point out how God’s moral character is expressed in godly romance. I take some of my behavioral science facts from the manosphere or “game” sites, red-pill sites, but the moral framework on such sites is usually not good. We emphasize the Ancient Hebrew intellectual understanding of things, while most of the manosphere is overwhelmingly Western.
Here, women are treated with a bit more respect, even as we disparage Western feminism. For example, I am utterly convinced we see in the New Testament women in church leadership. No, I don’t mean pastoring in the priestly role, but as elders, and most certainly as deaconesses. A church is fundamentally a spiritual family in the Ancient Hebrew tribal sense, an extended family household. No household is complete without a spiritual mama. Men don’t know everything. We know what we are wired to see and experience, and the wiser among us realize how limited that perspective is. Without a feminine input, even a bit of feminine contradiction, as it were, you would not get the full revelation of God.
I often note that we do not use a test of orthodoxy here, because systematic theology is merely one person’s intellectual speculation. It’s not revelation and it’s not Scripture. Narrative theology is simply a rewording of the Bible, which leaves an awful lot of intellectual queries unanswered because intellect isn’t that important. So the membership of this virtual parish is very diverse, including folks who aren’t Christian or even religous at all. The content of my teaching is very plainly advisory, not prescriptive. It may be rude to argue with me, but I fully expect you would disagree with me on some things.
That’s how real families work. Were we to gather physically in some location, we would need a strong coordination for our meat space activities. That’s a major element in eldership. But we meet here in virtual space, so precious little of that is needed. Thus, we are left emphasizing a broad variation and flexibility. Technically, we really aren’t doing anything at all.
As I continue exploring the implications of godly romance and marriage, I want to include at least one other voice, a sort of spiritual mama. My wife is not a writer, but she’s there behind the scenes supporting this ministry. Instead, I rely on someone else to provide that feminine balance for this blog. Readers may recognize Wildcucumber as the online nickname for that motherly voice. Her blog is called Falling into Grace. She won’t say exactly what I say and you might even perceive a bit of disagreement here and there. It’s not an issue. What matters is how the underlying frame of moral reference is close enough to get the job done. So I recommend her comments on life in general, but in particular I treat her as the balancing gender viewpoint for this virtual parish.
Oh my, what a grand privilege! Heh. Don’t swamp her blog; that might freak her out. Would I include others on our imaginary church leadership staff? Sure. Participate meaningfully and contribute to the discussion and if your voice sounds like you are leading along the same broad moral terrain, I’ll include you just the same.
Let’s be family as much as a virtual setting will permit.
