Women Pastors?

Is it Biblical for a woman to assume the position of Pastoral leadership? This subject has been presented and discussed in written and verbal forums. The difficulty with these undertakings is that one becomes more confused upon reading and hearing the shrouded answers. We are seeing a continual increase of woman in ministry, not only in teaching, but in Pastoral positioning. When you look over the past decades and see the mass exodus of men from dominating roles in the church, you become immediately thankful for the women that have stepped into the vacated roles. The placement of women in the church has saved many smaller churches from extinction, while at the same time issuing an indictment against men who have failed to assume their responsibility in the local church.

The question is not whether women should have an active part in the church, but rather, should women fill the pulpit as Pastors? Should they in fact lead the flock as a shepherd? Should they assume the oversight of the believers?

The extracting of Scripture to reinforce one's bias is to convey an interpretation that makes the Word of God uneffective through humanizing the Divine intent. The Corinthian Church was racked with divisions. (I Cor. 1: 10-13) There were followers of personalities rather than of the message they represented. Another area that seemed to cause confusion in that church was the use of tongues within the assembly. (I Cor. 14) Paul implies that a number of women were adding to the confusion by verbalizing their thoughts on the subject of tongues and, by so doing, were raising questions that were more confusing then edifying. So he instructed that the women were to keep silent in the church and if they wanted to learn about the use of tongues within the church, they were to discuss it with their husbands at home. (I Cor. 14:33-35) Interpreters of the Word must realize the context in which a Scripture is given. Paul wrote to Timothy that in a number of churches there were problems with women that were "usurping authority over the man." (I Tim. 2:12) Here again Paul states that women were raising questions that were causing confusion among the believers. To counter this, Paul said the women were to "learn in silence." (I Tim. 2: 11, 12) Why was Paul so concerned about women having such an active part in the Church experience? He believed man was formed first and then the woman, but more importantly, it was Eve who was deceived and thus ushered in transgression, not Adam. (I Tim. 2: 13, 14) The implication is if Eve had listened to Adam and not the serpent, they would have had an endless life in the Garden of Eden.

What are the qualifications for the role of a Bishop, Elder, or Deacon? (A Pastor would fall into any of those categories.) I Tim. 3: 1-13 and Titus 1: 5-9 contain the major criteria by which a person could be considered a candidate for ministerial leadership. One reoccurring theme is, "the husband of one wife." It is also stated that the person "ruleth" his own house. It also says "that their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." For a woman to meet the qualifications of a Pastor, we would have to stretch the Scripture beyond any justification. There are many wonderful women that are in the role of a Pastor and are doing a fine job in ministering to the people, but to justify success outside the limits of God's Word is to error.

To say the above observations are beyond discussion and introspection is to miss the intent of this article. This is simply a rhetorical verbalizing of a person who wants to share a possible response to the questing saints who desire to know whether it is Biblical for a woman to serve in a Pastoral capacity.

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Venturing Into Completeness of Personality

"To reach maturation, in a Jungian context, it is necessary for a man first to work through his shadow - the negative/evil aspects of chthonic and solar phallos. He then must deal with his inner femininity and its requirements for relatedness. Hidden behind these two enormous psychological tasks is the possibility of wisdom, the knowledge and stature that come only with age and long self reflection." ~Eugene Monick

Grappling with non-Christian content in the development of personality is a challenging reality for the committed Christian. However, I have no doubt that God has called me to integrate other models of truth in order to augment the process of discipleship. A guarded openness has wisdom about it. I wonder if the Bible might never more eloquently described 'the what', whereas many other sources of literature and collective wisdom can help with 'the how' of achieving the completeness of personality - to become more Christlike.

Let us first explore this term, the completeness of personality.

A VISION OF WHAT COULD BE

Self-actualisation is what the secularists call it. Discipleship is what Christians call it. These are the same processes, all be it for different outcomes. On the one hand, secular life calls the person, if they are so interested, to actualise themselves - to become all they can foreseeably be. On the other hand, the Christian is called to pick up their cross and follow Jesus. The Lord, alone, specifies the process of discipleship - through prayer, mentoring, learning, character development, and other spiritual disciplines, etc.

But surely we are talking about the same thing.

It all depends on our goal; it all depends who we do it for; it all depends on what the endgame is. For Christians, the answer to these three is simple: Christ.

The completeness of personality must be realised in wisdom - the prize awaiting all who would venture on Tremulous Road.

Being a process that is never fully realised, but one never more surely blessed, we go on and on into the development of the soul - mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

A CHRISTIAN GRAPPLING WITH THE JUNGIAN CONTEXT

Truth is truth and all of it is God's. Truth and wisdom are interdependent. There is wisdom in Jungian psychology and philosophy. It can be used to enhance the process of discipleship. Eugene Monick's quote, above, speaks from this philosophy. It speaks primarily to men, but women, equally, can draw insight as well.

A broad, and perhaps crude, summary:

We have two tasks to complete in approaching wisdom from our wounded selves. The first is to appreciate the evil in two flesh-propensities we have:

1) Solar Phallos: the desire is to magnify our best, most godly, attributes. But this is often over-achieved and we sin in pride; e.g. ambition for success, the elevation of personal power structures, etc.

2) Chthonic Phallos: the desire is to minimise our worst, darkest evils. For example, for men, it is suppressing erotic desire - some of which we are ashamed of.

Completing the first task is about letting go of the solar; giving up our neediness to want to be seen as gods. It is secondarily about coming to understand and accept that our darkest thoughts and visions come from within. Rather than suppress these, our challenge is to incorporate grace, not deal in judgment. We find ourselves having shameful thoughts - these are to be rejected, but not before we acknowledge God's grace in knowing we are sinners; we are forgiven for such thoughts.

We do not venture with the devil into condemnation. We can agree with the devil in regard to our sinfulness - and, if we cannot be condemned, we render evil power useless. Without God we are hopeless sinners. It is power to know this. This highlights the magnificence of God's grace never more.

It is overall about coming to a real acceptance of our innate sinfulness - acknowledging and accepting, in Jungian speak, the ongoing presence of 'shadow' in our psyches.

None of this first task goes against the process of discipleship. Indeed, it can be seen as picking up one's cross and following Jesus.

The second task goes against the grain of many men, but strangely it may be easier for homosexual men. We are to embrace our inner femininity. Just as women have masculine (harder) components within their personalities, men too have soft parts within theirs. The key test may be can a man be comfortable within all facets of his sexuality? Can a man be comfortable, also, in simple relatedness - with both himself and others?

Both of these tasks are difficult; they will take us, in some degree, the passage of our lifetimes. Once we accept these tasks the gates of wisdom are opened. And all this is achieved through the processes of age and long self-reflection.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

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Productive Audio Streaming - Basic Considerations for Productive Audio Streaming

A desire to excel and attain success in audio streaming would definitely necessitate an appreciation and understanding of the entire subject itself. Clearly, no one can expect to generate wonderful results if one did now know what it is for and how people can benefit from it. So understanding comes into play - and with understanding, one can be well on his or her way to better profits with audio streaming.

Of course, understanding logically begins with acquiring the necessary equipment that is needed for audio streaming. It does not necessarily need to be very expensive, because you can always make do with what is available in the market or borrow equipment from your colleagues - and when you first start making profits then you can already consider purchasing better tools in the future. Keep in mind that a lot of people have a tendency to take short cuts just because they want loopholes around the system. Doing so equates to low quality outputs just so they can save on their money (and by this we mean people who are hesitant to bring out money for initial investment). They forgot to realize that people are looking for quality audio streaming, and this is what is lacking when work is hurriedly done.

It also entails extensive amounts of training using the equipment and your own wits and skills as well. Do not be afraid to tinker around with your equipment and discover the ins and outs of audio streaming - but of course, this comes after a thorough read-through of the entire manual! Productive audio streaming will only take place if you understand the basics and learn to tweak things when you really get to sink your teeth in it. There are also lots of help that you can find in websites that give hot tips on audio streaming. Do yourself a favor and scour the World Wide Web for these treasure troves of information.

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Best Audio Streaming - Audio Streaming - Letting Sounds Make Money for You

Current development in multimedia technology allows both Web-centric and average users to experience and appreciate the wonders that video and audio streaming can do. While videos can eat up a lot of a website's bandwidth and disk space, audios can deliver the same impact that the former has. Audio streaming is very popular nowadays - you see audio clips embedded on MySpace and other social networking profiles and the best thing about it - it's free.

And if you're an entrepreneur and make business over the Net, you might want to try out audio streaming to promote your company and see the growth. You just have to record what you are supposed to write in several web pages. In audio streaming you don't have to worry much about what to write and to how would it fit and some other usual problems you experience in Web content writing. And you don't even have to hire someone just to put up your audio for you - you will only need some scripts and you are off to go.

Not yet convinced? Then here are more reasons on why you should really try it out!

o Just as the same thing that you don't have to fret about the words that you should display in your site, your customers doesn't have to read long pages of explanation on what your business is all about. They'll just click the 'Play' button and hear what you have to say. Also, creating an audio advertisement is way faster than its written counterpart.

o Not a tech geek? Not a problem! Software is available that can assist you in setting up your audio streaming - for a very affordable price and user-friendly environment.

o People will discover and remember faster on what you are talking about than what they are reading about.

Remember, you would want to draw attention to your business to increase your chance of sales. You have to have something that is different and that your competitors lack of. If consumers see that, they will be impressed easily and your effort is not in vain.

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Indoor Outdoor Rugs: Beautiful and Practical Accessories

If you are blessed with living in a pleasant climate, a lot of your time will likely be spent outdoors. This means that your outdoor living area will matter as much to you as the inside of your house.

You will most likely have given careful thought to the décor of your deck, patio and swimming pool area. A beautiful and inviting environment in which you will enjoy relaxing, working, playing, dining and entertaining guests will include attractive garden furniture such as lawn chairs, hammocks, garden swings, day beds, patio table and chairs, and summer seats. You may also have a chiminea, a barbeque pit, a water feature and ornaments. All this enhances the appeal and comfort of your outdoor living space.

Indoor outdoor rugs are an addition to your outdoor décor that you may not have or even have previously considered. These soft yet durable outdoor rugs bring style and design to your deck or patio with their vibrant colors and eye-catching patterns. There is a wide range of sizes, shapes, colours, styles and patterns so you are sure to find something that will complement your existing furniture and decoration.

Looking good

Using outdoor rugs can completely revamp the look of an outdoor area and give it definition. They add color to outdoor furniture that is typically of a more natural or muted tone. If you have solid colored furniture it is a good idea to enliven your outdoor living area with a brightly patterned rug. Bold designs also ensure that it becomes the center of attention. If you already have patterned cushions on your chairs and sofas then a plain or solid colored rug may be a better option. Therefore, it is important to consider the furniture you have outdoors so that the rug you choose will match and set off the outdoor style you have created.

So soft

Apart from using indoor outdoor rugs to enhance the look of your garden area, they also have many practical uses. People love them because they are so soft of your feet, enabling you to move from indoors to outdoors without having to put shoes on. This makes outdoors much more homey and really feel like an extension of the inside of your home. Of course, this makes your deck or patio much more safe and pleasant for children to play on and no doubt your pets will appreciate the added luxury too. Outdoor rugs also create a pleasant ambiance for guests and provide a nice soft carpet for them to move around you as you socialize together.

Protective

As well as adding comfort to otherwise hard surfaces, indoor outdoor rugs also protect surfaces, particularly wooden decking floors, from weather damage, scratches and food or drink stains.

Versatile

Indoor outdoor rugs are extremely versatile so you can place them wherever you want. Because they are durable, many people also use them indoors in areas that are used a lot as they will withstand much more abuse than indoor carpets. Therefore, they are a great solution for utility rooms, garages, children's bedrooms and games rooms.

Combining both aesthetic appeal and practical use, indoor outdoor rugs are a great accessory to your outdoor living area.

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How to Perform Primary Source Verification of Doctors and Medical Staff to Avoid Death Causing Risk

First and on the front lines of the topic, we need to know some facts which can be helpful to evoke us on the serious issue of medical negligence and medical malpractice and they will also help us to understand the importance of primary source verification of our family physicians, doctors or even the hospital medical staff who treats us when we are ill.

Almost 98,000 people die in hospitals annually each year due to preventable medical errors. An interview based survey conducted by the doctors revealed that more than one third of the patients said that they or their family members had experienced medical errors, most leading to serious health consequences. One of the sources also mentioned that in every 10 medical negligence cases 4 people were died, and it's the scariest of all.

As far as the world has developed, the medical advancement is also on the rise but there is a newer pool of diseases had also struck the world in past 3 decades. Many fake medical professionals like doctors, nurses, dentists etc have taken it as an opportunity to fool the innocence of a common man and a patient to make black money, which eventually results in four most common accusations.

1. Failure to diagnose

2. Incorrectly performed procedure

3. Error in diagnosis

4. Failure to perform procedure.

To avoid and restrict these deaths causing accusations a medical employer or even a patient must perform the primary source verification of their doctors and the treating staff.

Doctors and medical staff background check and credentialing through primary source verification methods sound a bit extreme. It is a direct contact with the sources of credentials. For example, this may include, licensing agencies, and specialty boards to guarantee that statements about training, experience and other qualifications are legitimate, unchallenged and appropriate.

Directly contacting a medical school or state medical board to verify education and licensure, respectively, are examples of primary source verification. Primary source verification should be performed on the following core criteria:

1. Professional education, training, Board Certification and experience (e.g. medical school, internship(s), residency(s), board certification)

2. Current Medical licensure

3. Current competence

4. Ability to perform requested privileges (e.g. confirmed health status relative only to a provider's ability to perform the requested privileges).

Professional Qualification, Training and Experience Verification

These elements can be verified by sending letters to each institution individually (professional school, training program, specialty board, etc.). Independent medical background check companies can also be used as their links are very accurate and fast.

Medical License Verification

Primary source verification of licensure status is extremely important. This should always be performed at the time of initial appointment, and at the time of each reappointment and/or re-privileging, and is recommended at the time of license expiration. The following points must be considered while performing PSV:

• Date and time of the license issuance.

• State of licensure, license number, date of original licensure and expiration date

• Name (first and last) of the person initiating the verification call

• Name (first and last) of the person verifying the information

• Are there any current, past, or pending restrictions on the license?

• Are there any current, past, or pending disciplinary actions against the practitioner?

Current Competence verification

This is an element that needs to be assessed by medical employers on the initial appointment and at least every two years thereafter, normally at the time of reappointment/reappraisal. Competency Verification can be sent to the Medical Director or Medical Staff Credentialing office of any hospital that the applicant has been affiliated with in the recent past.

Physical and mental ability to perform requested privileges

Authority must be granted to a physician or dentist by a hospital governing board to provide patient care in the hospital. Clinical privileges are limited by the individual's professional license, experience, and competence.

Conclusion

The primary and the secondary reason for aggressive primary source verification and credentialing of doctors / medical staff is patient's safety!

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