By designating this as

a 'writing blog', I have set myself up for a fall. I'm too intimidated to post anything! So...I'm just going to type up something that I've been thinking about lately, and it will have to do.

I've been talking with various people about authority recently, although kind of in a round-about way. Mostly we've been talking about excommunication, and what it means to be an elder (as in, to hold the office of). These conversations have taken place over about 3 months, and because of a few things: my questions about membership vows to a specific denomination, the hullaballoo in southwestern Virginia, and a sexually immoral person* attending my church. There are a couple of other happenings as well, but the internet is not the place to speak of them. All of these things have shaken my world of 'spheres of authority'; that's not to say that I don't believe in spheres anymore, just that my ideas have been and are still very ill-defined.

I've thought quite a bit in the past about the government's role in society, and while I'm still learning, I think I've a pretty good idea of what they should be doing. I also feel pretty solid on the family's authority, although I do still have some questions (as I will ever). The church, however, I haven't thought about nearly as much, and now, I suddenly have all of these questions that are befuddling me. I believe that part of the problem is not being able to separate them into coherency; I don't even know what questions to ask sometimes! There are, however, some wise older people I know that are very willing for me to sit and ask about one thing after another until I know exactly what I want to know. This is very helpful.

Here are some of the things I've talked about with these wise older people:
1. Who has the authority to administer the sacraments?
2. What do we do about denominations? What does/can the 'one holy catholic and apostolic church' look like?
3. What authority do the elders hold?
4. Same question for the congregation.
5. How do we define orthodoxy?
6. What is excommunication? Is it 'merely' barring from the table, or does it include the other means of grace as well (hearing the Word, fellowship, &tc)?
7. What is membership in a church? Should churches require vows to their denominations?

These are challenging questions, and I don't know how to answer all of them. Some seem pretty obvious, and I'm thankful for those. They give me hope that the others will be answered eventually.

Anyway, just something I've been thinking about...I suppose I'll post some of the answers to these questions at some point.

*That is to say, this person is currently in open rebellion, committing a public sin.

The Word-That-Has-Struck-My-Fancy for Who-Knows-How-Long...

...known in other places as the "Word of the Day".

paynim- n. archaic
1. A non-Christian, especially a Muslim.
2. A pagan or heathen.

From the Middle English 'painim'; from Old French 'paienime', meaning heathendom; from Late Latin 'paganismus', from 'paganus', meaning pagan.

syn: gentile, heathen, infidel, pagan, seed of the serpent, child of darkness.

*****
Also, a reminder, even though my gentle readers should know this already, seeing as how you all live in the same house as I do currently: I'll be away from the internet until 20 March, at least.