Living (and working) to rule

No, I'm not trying to organise industrial action, I'm trying to get people to realise that they need a rule of life and once they have one, to live by it!

When one is ordained there are a number of facets on the gem that is Christian ministry, namely:

We accept the Holy Scriptures as being the source of everything we need to know about eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
This means that the Bible is not a second thought and puts paid to all the universalist tosh that gets peddled. We preach Christ, and Him crucified, risen and alive and teach obedience to the word of God (written and living, logos and Logos!).

We will be active and consistent regarding prayer and in reading, and studying, the Bible and other stuff that will deepen our faith and help us to be witnesses to the truth of the gospel.
If we can't, won't or don't do this then we should never have taken the shilling. Without this we are not 'fit for role' and should remove ourselves from ministry. We are all called 'to stir up' the gift of God that makes us the living witnesses spoken of later - living in holiness and grace.

Believing the doctrine of the Christian faith as received (and practised) by the Church of England and teaching it.
Amazing how many people (many with dog-collars and some in purple) struggle with this.

Being a living witness, a type of Christ in the place you find yourself, living through teaching and example to make Christ's love and life known.
Amazingly, there are many who fall down on this one too!

Caring and serving those 'in the household of God' in the same way Christ came, as a servant, not the dog-collar whom must be served and have status.

Caring and serving, living in and running our own families as an example and as a discipline.
An old Vicar once told me that if you couldn't run your own life and the life of your family, you had no chance with a church!

Working together for the building of the whole Church, making disciples and displaying the unity of the Church across denominations and groupings.
We need to seek where we can share and be united rather than look for the things that separate us for being Church. Too many people taken up with their piddling little gatherings at the sake of a wider, and more effective, Church unity (which if present builds ALL the churches by making disciples and setting the conditions for growth).

Submit to those in authority.
This is a key point and makes sense of the fact that we need to be careful whom we entrust leadership (at all levels) to. Some of those who disregard all the above elements make themselves extremely difficult to obey or respect, for some are (sadly) barely Christian! Yet, there is still the question of rightly placed authority to be considered then!

There we are - everything that the ordinal (the ordaining rule book) requires from Christians not just for ordination but for those who truly wish to live their baptismal calling too!

Pax