Today I received an electronic questionnaire as part of someone's DMin research.  It wasn't asking the questions I'd thought it would, but none the less it poses interesting (and relevant) questions.  I have in the past undetrtaken this type of research and know how difficult it is to phrase questions so that they are adequately unambiguous, so I'm not being totally mean in what follows.

As I went through the questions, I found myself wanting to ask 'what do you mean by....  'sacrament' 'charistmatic annointing' (or even 'charismatic' and 'annointing') and so on.  It might not have altered my answers all that much, but at least I'd have been clearer what I was responding to.  Too much post grad work of my own, perhaps?

Does ordination ontologically change the person?  Is it 'indelible'?  Is there such a thing as 'ordination grace'?  Does the Holy Spirit come down afresh on the person as certain words are said?  And if so, what is our basis for believing any of the above?  Really good questions (these are the ones that popped into my head, not the ones printed on the sheet).  But I was expecting questions more about practice - what a minister does.

Of course the two are intimately related.  How I understand what a minister "is" affects what I think a minister "does."  I'm sure the ontological quesiton ought to drive the practice question, I'm not sure the connection always gets very well worked out.

I wonder, too, how much ontology and discipline issues are actually related (they both appeared in the questionnaire).  Can a person do something to invalidate their ordination?  And what does that mean if you see it as a sacrament or as being indelible?  Can a person be called 'for a season' as well as 'for a life time'?  I have always assumed I was being called for life, and nothing has changed that view, but maybe others have a different experience.  What happens if an ordained person loses their faith - as happened to a friend of mine this year?  Was their ordination never really valid?  Or are they still ordained and just don't know it?  What if a person commits "gross misconduct" and then is truly repentant?  Or if the church later redefines what it means by that term?  What might have happened if God had 'struck off' Moses or David?  How does grace feature here?

The questionnaire raised some interesting thoughts for me, and it will be intriguing to see what the outcome of the research is.  Amost as intriguing is the suggestion that there exists a normative Baptist view on this - I thought everyone knew that where there are N Baptists there are N+1 opinions!!  (And you have no doubt spotted that I'm keeping quiet about my answers, thinking (I hope) ordinance theologian that I am)