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BOOM! I am a Provisional Elder
Today I met with the Board of Ordained Ministry of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. I was recommended as a Provisional Elder with the conference. This is the point to which I have been working toward since beginning the process to ordination with the United Methodist Church in 2008. This is a big step. But, I know that many are not very familiar with how the process of becoming a pastor works in the UMC.
The first step, when someone feels calls to ministry, meets with their pastor. The pastor hears there call, and also directs them to meet with their district superintendent. For us in Orlando, Dr. Wayne Wiatt (best D.S. ever) helps to start the process of candidacy. The candidacy process is formatted to help someone better understand their call through reflection and conversation with others. For my process, I meet with a candidacy mentor (Randy Strickland – Conway UMC) for about a year to discern and understand the details of calling and ordained ministry. This process involves reading, writing, psychological and personality tests, and even a session with a licensed counselor. All of this is designed to help the individual feel confident in their call.
After meeting with my mentor for about a year, I applied to the District Committee on Ordained Ministry. This group is tasked with confirming the call of the individual. It is made up of local lay and clergy reps. I was blessed to have some great people on my DCOM, like Emily Ann Zimmerman. She is the wife of Gene Zimmerman, a retired clergy member from Florida, and former pastor (and current member) of First UMC Orlando. Emily Ann serves a lay member of the board. I think it is great that we have members of our local churches helping to make new pastors for our church. I became a certified candidate through his committee. This stage recognizes that God is calling me to ordained ministry. They DCOM gives “contingencies” to candidates as ways for growth. These can include reading, meeting in a directed study, counseling, retreats, etc. One of my contingencies was a semester as a Chaplain, working in the hospital.
Seminary is only one part, though a big part, of the overall process. As I came to the end of seminary, I had to write my “paperwork” to present to the DCOM. This involves expanding on topics such as leadership, theology, personal growth, and proclamation/preaching. My paperwork came to about 100 pages. It is like a Master’s thesis. From this paperwork, I interviewed with the DCOM. They are looking to see if I am reading to apply to the state level conference for ordination. They want to see I can articulate my call, and my understanding of God, and that these fit within the UM theology and practice. At my DCOM meeting in September, I was recommend to apply to the Board of Ordained Ministry, or BOOM, for short.
The BOOM is made up of clergy and lay people from across the conference. Ages range from young adult to retirees, and demographics vary as a way to allow the diversity of the conference to be represented. My senior pastor, Tom McCloskey serves on the board. Though, he cannot sit in during my interview, to ensure there is no bias. A key part of this group’s responsibility is interviewing candidates (like myself) who are pursuing ordained ministry.
The BOOM reads all the same paperwork, and then has the choice to set up an interview. This brings us back to today. I meet with a small group, about 8-10 people, who ask follow up questions to the paperwork submitted. This lasted about an hour. Then, the full BOOM, about 50 members, meets and has a chance to ask me questions. They can ask about theology, personal growth, preaching, and leadership. I leave the room, and the group discusses and takes a vote. The best way I have heard it described, is the BOOM is looking for ways to pass the candidate. They want to see the church grow, not keep people out. The BOOM has the option of three responses; a recommend which is what I received, a continuation which says everything is in order but more experience is needed, or a discontinue, which means they person may not be called to the UMC. They recommended that the conference make me a Provisional Elder, which receives a final vote at the upcoming annual conference this summer.
Over the next three years, I will continue to grow in my gifts and talents in ministry. I will then have a chance to apply to the BOOM again to become a Full Elder. I explain it to people like this. Professors are hired at schools, but on a probationary basis (Provisional Elder). After several years, and demonstration of the long-terms gifts, receive tenure (Full Elder).
I found the process, over the past few years to be quite long and often challenging. There were times when I thought it would be easier to find a different denomination to do ministry in. But, I sensed God was calling me to the UMC. This call was constantly re-affirmed in my meetings with my mentor, the district committee, and finally, the BOOM. The process we have in place is challenging. I literally gave blood, sweat, and tears. We have to do a health physical, so there was a blood test. But, this ensures that the churches of the UMC, and especially the Florida Conference, are sent the well trained, called, and thoroughly prepared ministers who know they are in the place God would have them be.
I hope this helps to explain how pastors come to be in the UMC. I am grateful to God for his presence with me through it. I am thankful to the family, friends, and countless church members who committed to praying for me today. I felt God’s peace and presence with me during the interview, and I could ask for no more than that.
Resources:
- ExploreCalling.org A site for calling in the UMC
- Who are some of the people on the FL Board of Ordained Ministry? Link
Lectionary Part 2: Devotional
Earlier this week I posted about how and why I use the lectionary in my preaching. In this post, I wanted to look at the lectionary as a devotional guide. Now, this is not the only way to read scripture devotionally. If you are looking for a variety of different plans, I recommend you check out YouVersion. The site has a great compilation of bible reading plans that vary in their length of time and scope of biblical books.
But why try a lectionary pattern? Here are several reasons:
- Sunday Preview: In a church that uses the lectionary, you will have a chance to read and think about the scriptures before hearing them in the service. This will allow you to do your own reflection and prayer around the scriptures.
- Connecting Various Scriptures: Each week the lectionary presents an Old Testament book, a psalm/proverb, the gospels, and from the New Testament letters. 4 readings from across God’s revelation over time. I enjoying seeing how these unconnected passages might shed light or speak to the others. It gives you a picture of the story of God over time.
- Christian Calendar: I found this graphic (above) of a liturgical calendar from blogger Internet Monk. The church calendar presents another view of our lives. It is not the linear calendars we are used to that tell us what we are doing. Instead, the church calendar tells us who we are in God’s story. It’s the difference between what we do, and who we are. We move through the year, through times of celebration in advent to solemn times of Christ’s death and burial. We encounter the risen Christ and move into Ordinary time or Kingdom-tide. This is the current season we are in, Kingdom-tide. It is a time to focus on the ministry and teaching of Jesus on the kingdom of heaven, and the gospels call on our lives.
How to do it: You can use your own method, and if you have one that works, please share it in the comments section. For me, I found it works to read one of the four passages each day during the week. Then, at the end of the week (Friday and/or Saturday) to look at how all four are connected. The focus in each reading is to see what God’s action is in the scripture. What is He doing, where is He working in the lives of His people? Then, look also to find how your story, your life, is connecting with the story in scripture. As with all scripture reading, prayer is the way we understand the scripture and discern how God is speaking to us.
Do you use the Lectionary in your own faith and devotion? If so, how? If not, why not? Leave a comment below please.
Related Blog Posts:
Lectionary Part 1: Why I Use It
The United Methodist Church does not have a required format or focus for the individual churches to use each week. Pastors are free to preach as they feel lead. That being said, one of the common tools of the trade is the Lectionary. This is a resource that breaks down the Bible so that in the course of three years, and individual or church can read through the whole New and Old Testament. For example, for this coming Sunday, the readings are from Genesis, a psalm, Romans, and Matthew. These readings also connect to the Church calendar.
Many other faith traditions would not even touch the lectionary. I confess, at times, I really struggle with its use too. When I am only presented with 4 scripture passages to preach from, there can be a sense that I have limited the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is one reason why UM pastors are free to work outside of the lectionary. But, one of my preaching professors in seminary advised that preaching from the lectionary was the best discipline for a young preacher. I am starting to agree.
The lectionary forces me to preach from passages, stories, and books of the Bible I might otherwise not land on in my sermon study. My tendency is to move toward familiar passages in scripture that I have heard a good sermon on, or are my favorite. This past week I preached from Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestles with God. Two weeks ago, I came to the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13. Both are great stories, but neither were on my radar during preparation. But here lies the spiritual discipline part. The purpose of spiritual disciplines is to form us into Jesus-likeness in our actions and our relationship with Him. The lectionary discipline challenges and stretches me. In the cases of my first two sermons at First Church, I began the week looking at a scripture and wondering if it was the “right” one for the congregation. Did this scripture contain the specific message God wanted to communicate? In both cases, by Friday, I looked at the finished sermon and was amazed. God had worked through the lectionary text and lead me to form a sermon that I felt really connected the congregation’s story to God’s story. Now, don’t hear me wrong. I am not in the category of saying it is the only way to preach, but for me, this discipline is teaching me.
There is a stream who says the lectionary limits God’s work in the church. I am seeing just the opposite. Its use does not limit God, but really opens all of God’s Word to us over the span of time. Plus, difficult and challenging passages which typically would be avoided are brought out and served to the congregation, precisely because they happened to “come up” on the lectionary calendar. In my ministry, the use of the Lectionary is forming me through scriptures that I may not have otherwise considered.
The next post, part 2, will look beyond preaching the lectionary, to its uses in our devotional lives. Stay tuned!
(Image taken from the “Lectionary” iPhone app…which is FREE!)
Cell Towers and the Church
I found out today our church steeple (pictured above) has a cell tower inside of it! Further reading online told me many communities have strict restrictions on towers being added. Cell carriers had to become more creative in their placement to service important areas. Many churches are located close to the heart of neighborhoods, making them prime locations for service. A win/win for the cell company and the church, is to install the tower inside a steeple. Good reception for the community, and revenue for the church.
The mission of the United Methodist Church is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” The local church provides the most significant arena for disciple-making. The the local church building is a place to transmit ministry into the world, and a place to receive new disciples. Like a cell tower, this is not a one-time transaction. Calls are received and transmitted thousands of times per day through one local tower. The ministry of transmitting and receiving is the call of God for the local church in any given community.
But, do you notice cell towers as your drive? I don’t, they tend to blend into the landscape. We enjoy the convenience of mobile life without giving much thought to the towering hardware which enables our conversations.
Do you notice church steeples as your drive? Ideally, looking at a city landscape, one could identify the church location amidst other buildings. Steeples often go unnoticed, usually dwarfed by taller buildings. This fact reminds us the church of Jesus Christ is not identified by a steeple, but by a people. Each disciple is called to be a steeple; a signpost, beacon, and identifier of God’s work in the world. But, you are not attached to a building. You are a mobile cell station. Able to go to all corners of the community. Providing 5 bars of signal strength to connect people to God. Jesus is calling, how can we help people get the signal needed to answer? This is the mission of the church, God’s people.
