A friend told me she once preached about discipleship. After the service, a parishioner came up to her and said, irately, “I am not a disciple. I am a member.” Oh well, I guess it was better than no reaction at all, and certainly better than, “Lovely sermon.”

I do not consider myself “a person of faith.” There, I said it. Are you shocked? 

Yes, I attend my parish church regularly. I say the creed without crossing my fingers. I renew my baptismal vows at least once a year. So what could it possibly mean to say I am not “a person of faith”?

I remember seminary students who were hoping to be ordained warning one another of the kind of questions they were likely to be asked in the selection process. “It used to be,” they said, “that you had to say something about the importance of the sacraments.

Will Postma is an adjunct professor at Wycliffe College and the Executive Director at the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), the humanitarian and development arm of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Wycliffe’s Ph.D. program trains candidates to carry out innovative research. Graduates go on to teach in universities, liberal arts colleges, and theological schools. They are also equipped for positions of leadership in ecclesiastical and related organizations, or for academically e