Be Proud of Church

I was browsing YouTube recently and noticed a clip of a sermon.

It was from a Hong Kong Evangelical Free Church.

The speaker was someone I briefly met years ago.

Back then he wasn’t ordained a Reverend yet and hadn’t started that church which now put up this “interesting” YouTube clip.

I suppose that Reverend is still an upright guy and it probably wasn’t his own idea for that “interesting eye catching” clip.

What was that?

It was how that Reverend was addressed as speaker of the sermon: “XXX Reverend Doctor”.

What caught my attention was the rather conspicuous overload of titles.

Since when a single Reverend became insufficient in a church setting?

No, not for a seminar on environmental protection, but for a church sermon?

That notion kind of really irked me.

I’m not being pedantic.

I already pled guilty in ‘Inflation’.

Now, I am being disappointed that a solid denomination like Evangelical Free could have become so devoid of thoughtful and serious people as to describe their preacher in a church sermon with a weird animal such as “Reverend Doctor”.

First, forget exactly what “Doctor” degree this Reverend graduated with.

My article referred to above deals with that.

Now this is talking about something more serious.

Years ago I had a colleague who was a matured Christian, upright, sincere and lived very simply as evident from his clothing.

He had a Ph D in some science discipline.

A senior official.

Also a dedicated and trusted senior member of one of the largest Christian denominations, perhaps a Deacon or Elder.

I don’t recall if his church described him as “Dr XX” or “Deputy Director XX” for an occasional sermon he delivered in church settings.

If I ever were in a position to decide, I’d absolutely go for “Elder XX”.

A church ordained Elder, or for that matter an ordained Reverend, has a much weightier ecclesiastical authority to address a sermon to a church congregation, than a Doctor, Director, Professor, or even Chancellor!

Should HK churches begin to grow back a backbone in refusing to concede ecclesiastical authority to secular mathematics of honor and shame?

Why would a Reverend have to yield the ecclesiastical authority to a Doctor when he preaches a sermon to his own congregation?

I could understand, and even agree, if say Chris Patten were to speak in a church organised event on the history of Hong Kong, or an evangelistic outreach, that the event be billed as “Former Governor Chris Patten” Lecture.

Or similarly if Professor Joseph Sung were to deliver a seminar on Internal Medicine to a church meeting, then the Doctor, Professor, or even “Former Vice-Chancellor” would be appropriate.

Because those are relevant to the subject matter!

But for a church sermon I’d need a Doctor degree to beef it up?

When will HK churches rediscover the pride they have in their ecclesiastical history and authority?

When will Hong Kong pastors guard jealously the God given weight of their title “Reverend” or “Pastor”?

When will Hong Kong Christians stop yielding their congregational ordination authority to an academic institution?

When will congregations reclaim their pride in their churches and their church ordained Reverend?

Or will they ever?