Sometime in the second half of 2009 I am hoping to embark on a project called The Emmaus Road Ministerial Association. The purpose of this ministerial association will be to offer services to those that hold to an understanding of fulfilled prophecy that may have caused them to find themselves alienated or unable to pursue certain avenues of ministry which require ordination and licensure.
My motivation for doing this is born out of my own frustration resulting from my transition from one theological paradigm to another. A transition that has left me unable to be ordained through the organization in which I worked for many years and from whom I received my degree in pastoral ministry.
I also want to be able as I am sure others do to be able to sign a statement of faith that doesn't require me to go directly against my conscience and what I believe, just for the sake of attaining ordination or licensure.
I chose the name Emmaus Road because of the story found in Luke 24:13-35. I feel as though my journey from futurism to preterism was very much like the time these two disciples spent with Jesus. I thought I had known the Bible relatively well but until a fulfilled view of eschatology had been revealed to me it was as if my eyes had been restrained just like these two on the road with Jesus. They were with Him...Yet they didn't know Him. And just like these two I wanted to tell everyone about what I had just discovered. Unfortunately for me as with most that hold to a fulfilled view of eschatology, our joy was not met with the same delight as the message the two on the road to Emmaus had.
The first step will be to start a church.
Your prayers are greatly appreciated as I begin my journey down this road.
Michael Loomis
