Those who regularly read this blog have probably realized that over the last year, posts have been rather sporadic. I took a long break between Memorial Day and Labor Day and haven’t posted very regularly since coming back to it in September.
I thought I would take a few minutes to tell you what has been consuming my time.
A couple of years ago, I became convinced that I should pursue licensure to preach in the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), the domination to which I currently belong. The reasons for pursuing this were two. First, it was an opportunity to sharpen both my knowledge of the Bible and my theological understanding. And secondly, it would qualify me to be “on the bench” for the PCA churches in our area, some of which are small church plants that do not have multiple elders who are qualified to fill the pulpit.
The PCA has adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith along with the two Westminster Catechisms as the definitive statements of their belief. These were documents to which I had no exposure prior to moving forward toward licensure. And, while I have a graduate degree in Biblical Studies, that degree was obtained more than 25 years ago, so I was more than a little rusty in my knowledge and it took a lot of time and effort to gain the required familiarity with these documents to pass the licensure examinations. This preparation consumed the time that I would otherwise have invested in posting to this blog.
I am happy to say that last Saturday, February 18, the final step in the process was completed. I am now officially licensed by the Eastern Pennsylvania Presbytery to preach in the churches of the PCA. I am relieved that the process is over and am excited to see what opportunities present themselves to preach. I am also happy to be able to spend some time writing for Attempts at Honesty.
Before starting this process, I would have told you that I am really bad at memorization. I envy those who can read something a couple of times and regurgitate it word for word with little effort. My brain is not like that. But, I did find out that even though it requires a lot of effort on my part, I can indeed memorize and have memorized about half of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
If you are convinced that you cannot memorize Bible verses or anything else, I encourage you to not give up. The effort will be rewarded by the quick recall of what you have memorized.