| Bishop's CornerSeekers and Sages
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 Recently I was reading the catechism,
or instruction in the meaning of the Christian faith, for adults
preparing to join an Orthodox Church in the United States. In the
catechism, “The Living God,” occasionally there are dialogues
between a “Seeker” and a “Sage.” The “Seeker” asked
questions that are answered by the “Sage.”
In the Protestant churches during the last
generation there has been a lot of attention given to seekers. The
seekers are usually identified as young persons with no or little
experience in a Christian church who are looking for some meaning and
direction in their lives. Many churches have responded to the presence
of these seekers by offering worship and ministries that are more
likely to get a response from them.
Perhaps during the period of the next generation
the churches need to turn their attention to sages as much as to
seekers. According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, a
sage is “one (as a profound philosopher) distinguished for wisdom.”
What I mean by a sage is a woman or man in a
local church who has a mature Christian faith and has had experience
in doctrinal training and in various ministries of the church. This
person would be qualified to serve as a mentor for someone who is
seeking a faith or is just beginning the Christian faith.
The churches have persons who qualify to be
sages, but we do not use them very much. We are not using our sages
because we have not instituted a process of formation for initiating
people into the Christian church. In ancient Christianity every seeker
was required to go through a long process of formation before he or
she was baptized and received into the life and mission of the church.
There are churches today that have recovered
this process of formation as a normal part of the life of the
congregations, such as The Methodist Church of Cuba. The United
Methodist Church has a “Christian Initiation Series,” which are
“resources to help congregations as they create settings where
seekers can discover God’s welcome and participate in an accompanied
journey that brings them to the waters of baptism, life in the church,
and discipleship in daily life.” This series, which was developed by
Daniel T. Benedict Jr., is available from Discipleship Resources. In
this collection of resources there is emphasis upon every seeker
having a sponsor to be his or her mentor as the seeker enters a period
of study, worship and spiritual formation leading up to baptism. I
call these sponsors “sages.”
If the church is going to be effective in making
disciples of Jesus Christ in truth, rather than merely in name, then
we shall need to give more attention to providing spiritual formation
for seekers. Seekers will need sages. Perhaps one of the greatest
by-products of establishing a process of formation for seekers is that
churches will discover their sages and liberate them to use their
knowledge and experience of life in Christ to help others. |
