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Yesterday, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church voted to end so-called “guaranteed appointments” for ordained pastors. Read more in this article at ministrymatters.com. Guaranteed appointments for ordained pastors began more than fifty years ago to protect the appointments of women and minority pastors. Today, the concern about guaranteed appointments is that it limits … Read more
A few weeks ago, we completed a long journey when we were ordained in the UMC. Now that we’ve had some time for it to sink in, we can start thinking about life beyond “the process” (i.e., the ordination process). For many years, the process has been such a central part of our lives. In … Read more
Joleen and I met in 1992. We were both students at the Church of God Theological Seminary, following God and preparing for God’s call on our lives. We began dating at the end of 1992 and were married in January 1994. Before we committed to marriage, though, we talked about what it would look like … Read more
In the days and weeks leading up to last Saturday’s Ordination Service, I prayed for a “double portion” of God’s Spirit (a reference to Elisha’s request at the anticipated exit of Elijah). It’s also a play on words, a celebration of the fact that both of us were ordained! Last Saturday, we were ordained elders … Read more
We are at annual conference this week. It’s an annual conference that will forever be engraved on our hearts and minds. It began Wednesday morning and will conclude tomorrow afternoon with the Ordination Service where we both will be ordained along with several others. I had hoped to blog during annual conference, but this has … Read more
Over the weekend, I remembered that after this Saturday’s ordination service, we will receive a certificate stating that we are ordained elders in the UMC. It made me wonder where our other official certificates/diplomas (mainly, academics degrees) are. What I found struck me as kind of funny. Our M.Div. diplomas remain in envelopes hidden in … Read more
We learned today that some of next week’s sessions of annual conference will stream live from the conference website, a first for our conference! Annual conference begins Wednesday, June 8 and goes through Saturday, June 11. Of special note for us is that the Ordination service will stream live! Ordinands will also be involved in … Read more
Over the last few months, I’ve been reviewing and reflecting on the historical questions that those being ordained have been asked since 1784 in the American Methodist church (see Wesley’s Historic Questions and The Historic Questions 2.0). Today, I spent some time reading through the liturgy for the ordination of elders as printed in The … Read more
As I mentioned in my recent post, 30 Days Till Ordination, we had two final requirements for ordination to complete: 1) a retreat with the Bishop for those being commissioned or ordained, and 2) one last session with our regional Learning Covenant Group. We completed both of these requirements within the past week! Last week, … Read more
We have been thinking about ordination for a long time, of course, but recently, I’ve been pondering what happens at ordination, spiritually (see Theology of Ordination for more reflection on the meaning of ordination). Practically speaking, ordination will take place at the Service of Commissioning and Ordination, the final service of annual conference, which meets … Read more