Human Promises

Human Promises
LEVITICUS 27: 1- 34

A distinctive feature of my seminary in the United States compared with my seminary in Britain is the high number of students who are “pastor’s kids” or “missionary kids.” I have wondered what lay behind this difference. It raises a question raised by other aspects of U.S. students’ relationships with their parents: that is, whether they are tied to their parents for longer than is the case in Britain. If so, it could be read negatively (i.e., they take a long time to find their independence, partly because their parents are likely to be much more involved in funding their education) or positively (i.e., their family relationships are closer and they are under their parents’ authority in a way that is also the case in a traditional society like Israel). There may, however, be a more specific reason for the higher number of U.S. students with parents who are pastors. Perhaps pastors here dedicate their sons and daughters to God in a way that we don’t in Britain and pray for them to follow their parents in ministry or mission. I don’t remember us praying that for our sons, and they didn’t follow me into the ministry nor Ann into medicine...