First Church Family:
It’s interesting to note people’s responses when I tell them I am a Christian pastor. Some people immediately begin to tell me about their churches, and/or their niece or nephew who is in seminary somewhere; while other people “clam up” for fear of exposing some hidden sin.
People who know what pastors do sometimes shake their heads, wondering how any one person could get it all done; while others ask what we do all week. I’m going to write about ministry over the coming weeks.
The call to ordained Christian ministry is one of the most incredible experiences a person can have. That person is truly “set apart” by God for special tasks that only God can name.
And in the United Methodist Church, ordination is a “big deal.” It requires four years of undergraduate work (complete with a bachelor’s level college degree,) followed by three more years of graduate school, after which the individual receives a Master’s of Divinity degree.
But really that’s only the beginning. An individual United Methodist church must recommend the person to the annual conference for ordination, only after the person has had at least a year’s worth of service in that church.
Then a District Council on Ministry, made up of fifteen pastors and laity, spends at least a year trying to discern whether or not the person actually has gifts for ministry in the United Methodist Church.
What follows is the requirement of sixty pages of written work answering questions of the faith; and then two hours of defending those papers in front of a dozen pastors and lay people. Manuscripts and videos of the person’s sermons too are examined.
When a “would be” pastor’s work is approved, that person reaches “probationary status;” meaning that if he/she stays the course for the next two/three years as a probationer, he can write 60 additional pages answering similar but deeper questions, and submit new sermons, before going again before the Board of Ordained Ministry in defense of answers.
When, and only when, every one of those requirements is completed and the pastor again is approved, can he/she move forward to be ordained. Truly, that is the “cliff-notes” version of the full process, which is even more convoluted.
Now, those stringent requirements are not met in many other denominations.
Actually, in today’s world a person can apply online for ordination this afternoon, immediately (for a fee) receive and download an “ordination” document, and legally perform a wedding tonight, without any further steps or oversight.
Of course, that is not the same process that every one of your past and present ordained pastors has followed.
What all that means is that our denomination takes seriously: training one’s mind through education, taking steps to make certain candidates are actually “fit” for the lives they will lead; and the fact that it is God who truly directs persons toward a final outcome of serving Him as ordained ministers.
Now of course, those pastors aren’t perfect! One year, when newly ordained pastors stood onstage in front of both the bishop and the annual conference, the bishop turned to the 2,000 people assembled in Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska and asked the question: “Do you know why I know these candidates aren’t perfect?”
After an uncomfortable silence, he responded: “Because they came from you and your churches, and Good LORD, we know that you aren’t perfect!”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard more raucous laughter anywhere! As they say: “Laughter is truly the best medicine.”
Blessings on you,
Pastor Dave