The Long Road to Ordination
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
What if the biggest obstacle in responding to God's call to ordained ministry turned out to be the church itself?And what if, with the very best of intentions, the church was ironically hampering its own witness and compromising its own future in the way it had laid out the path to ordination?
For a lot of candidates for ordination in the United Methodist Church, this worst case scenario seems anything but far-fetched. I've heard scores of stories over the past few years about the difficulty of pursuing ordination as an elder or deacon in the UMC.
I am convinced the ordination process can be reformed. And the change that have been made in the past couple of years only reinforce that conviction.
In my current column in the UM Reporter, I look at reform of ordination candidacy in two forms: the need for a change in structure and the need for a change in personal attitudes.
The willingness to change our structure - as outlined in the Book of Discipline - seems to finally be underway. Last year's General Conference legislated a number of long-needed changes, some of which I mention in the column. There are more changes that need to be made, and it's my hope that the 2012 General Conference will continue that crucial work.
The willingness to change attitudes (which I'll look at in the next column) is no less needed but also a bit more difficult. We've allowed ourselves to shift focus from people to process, a move that largely reflects the wider culture's growing belief that virtues of bureaucracy. But layers of organization and piles of paperwork cannot do the very human work of discernment, and the Holy Spirit doesn't work as well through standardized tests and surveys as he does through personal mentoring relationships.
I know a lot of this blog's readers have personal experience with the UM ordination process. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on what is needed the most to improve our ordination candidacy.
Also, here are some other ordination-related articles and posts I've done in the past:
"Can't we simplify" (UM Reporter, September 9, 2009)
"Reflections on the ordination process" (blog post, July 9, 2008)
"The devil's in the details with ordination process" (UM Reporter, October 3, 2007)
"Ordination problems ... uh, process" (blog post, August 15, 2007)
Labels: Orders of Ministry, Ordination, UMC
posted by Andrew C. Thompson at 8:45 PM
8 Comments:
As a certified candidate for elder, I am right in the middle of the ordination process. While the process itself has not turned me off (I'm still in it and committed to it), I did change conferences in part because of it. I had been considering a move for a year or so and might have done so anyway. But the communication difficulties I had to slog through at home, ones that were not reflected in my current conference, made the decision that much easier.
District Superintendents need to be very intentional about the pastors they appoint to head Boards of Ordained Ministry and to be mentors. Those individuals need to be in settings that allow them to devote the necessary attention to up and coming ministerial candidates so that they do not feel lost in all the red tape and jargon of the United Methodist Church.
My husband was rejected for commissioning the first time around, after great expense (of money, time, and mental health). He passed the second time around, but this is all simply insane. Assuming all goes smoothly from here, he will have been in ministry 13 years--under appointment for 8--before getting ordained.
BOM will use your warm body to fill a pulpit, but take pride in withholding their stamp of approval.
Andrew,
I'm going to go the other way on this one, at least with my own experience. I think what might be missing is mentors, DCOMs, and BOMs actually following the process. Here's some highlights from my process:
-Receiving a mentor two years before I went to seminary who walked through the first book with me.
-Receiving another mentor one year before going to seminary who walked me through the three-ring binder.
-My second mentor retiring while I was in seminary and receiving a third mentor who saw me through the rest of the process and know talks on the phone with me every other week. I love my current mentor.
-My DCOM chair calling me at school each year to see how I'm doing and to ask what he can pray for me.
-My DCOM scheduling special meetings for me while I'm home on vacation from seminary so I don't have to fly home while classes are in progress.
-My D.S. giving me tips through the BOM process and asking for various other info from me.
-My BOM registrar hosting an orientation for candidates which included a CD with everything necessary on it.
-My mentor, previous boss (a pastor in a UMC) and the pastor of the church I was being appointed to all reading and commenting on my BOM papers.
-My BOM day including being prayed for regularly by the BOM and then at the end of the day asking about what they have done well and what they could have done better.
-My first D.S. meeting with me one-on-one (at my suggestion) to get to know me in my first appointment.
None of this is to say that there weren't any hitches or bumps along the way, but overall, I felt that they really did focus on me as a person and saw the process as a way of getting to know me and supporting me. I came away from my BOM commissioning day quite excited to be joining an order of elders asking me the kinds of questions they asked me.
Peace,
Tom
P.S. If anyone wants to know, I'm in the West Michigan Conference and my DCOM was the Grand Traverse District and my current district is the Lansing District.
John, Jessica, & Tom -
Thanks for sharing those points of view. The three perspectives you all offer provide a good collective example of the wide differences people experience in ordination candidacy.
Obviously, what I'd like to help the church move toward is getting more people to have something like Tom's experience. And notice what it is that made his experience so affirming and nurturing along the way: mentors, district superintendents, and district & conference folks who took the mentoring aspect of their positions seriously and treated their responsibilities as real opportunities for ministry.
So Tom, thanks for sharing that. Given the system we have - structurally - it is of the utmost importance that we have pastors who realize the vital role that they play, personally, in assisting candidates through the process. And that is exactly what my next column is going to focus on!
- AT
Andrew,
Thanks for mentioning in your article the recent change with regard to membership requirements before starting the process. As someone who's felt called to ordained ministry since May 2008 but didn't feel called to the UMC until a year later, knowing that I can start the process before I enter seminary next year is a huge relief.
In my discernment process, I looked at several denominations, but most seriously at PC(USA) and the UMC. In reviewing the ordination process of UMC, I actually thought it was much more personal and less formal than PC(USA). In the UMC process, it seems like a much greater emphasis is placed on discussing one's own understanding of what it means to follow Christ. In PC(USA), on the other hand, much of the process is very formalized, with 6 tests that give candidates the opportunity to provide very stock answers without a whole lot of depth. Maybe I'm a little naive with regards to the UMC process, but my point is, I think it could be worse, and I'd rather have a process that required difficult and throughtful discernment than one that didn't really scrutinize candidates that much.
Blessings,
Joe
"No meathead upperclassmen shouting insults"? You clearly haven't tried to get ordained in the TN Conference!
My perception is there is wide variation from place to place. I get the impression that some bishops and district superintendents are much more intentional about managing the process than others.
I don't know how you fix or change the problems, though, without more open conversation and some sort of accountability.
My experience has been a bit different. I came to the UMC from another Methodist Denomination. I had already been ordained 20 years, but,was required to serve 2 years under my own credentials; do the entire probationary paperwork and interviews; was recognized as at the Deacon level; was required to serve an additional 2 years before writing papers and interviews in order to be recognized at the elder's level. The BOD allowed me to be brought in directly as an elder after completing History, Polity, Doctrine but because of prior issues with people coming from other denominations, I was required to complete the entire process. My response? It was a long process but I learned alot about the UM process and appreciated the much more professional process than in my former denomination. I am now a D.S. and don't regret going through that process. It was worth it.
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