Is Our Ordination Process a Scandal?

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It is too bad that the Methodist Church has made itself into a government rather than into a church for Jesus. In the beginning of the Methodist church, the unordained were capable of sustaining the church with the guidance of a few clergy of the Church of England. Today, if for some reason all the ordained clergy were to disappear, but a few, the Methodist church undoubtedly would survive under the care of unordained pastors with the help of a few men or women who were ordained in the United Methodist Church. If Jesus had not been in favor of this church, it would never have left the shores of England.

I have been serving as a clergy in the Central Texas Conference for 18 years.   The conference I am apart of continues to become more progressive in the way it votes and elects its delegates to General Conference.  I think this progression is a long term conscious decision made by those in authority at the level of the Board of Ministry in my conference.   Let me tell you a story and you decide.  I have heard other stories like mine through the years.  It has taken awhile to forgive and not have an axe to grind.  And I have enough experience in my annual conference and have given enough of my life to building churches in this conference that I am doing this out of love for the church, the United Methodist Church and Wesleyan Theology.  We are being lead down a path here.  My personal agenda in this article is that if we are being led down a path; let’s be open and upfront about the path and own it. 

So I am presenting my story as an example of how justice ministry and routes to ordination are being carried out here.  The year was 1990; I had been attending my home church, the First United Methodist Church of Bedford for many years.  I had been serving in many areas of ministry in the church.  I was a successful businessperson and leader in the church.  I felt a call to the ordained ministry and the church agreed with that call.  So much did the church agree with the call that they hired me to begin clergy ministry as the Pastor’s assistant.  I let go of my career, took a two-thirds reduction in income and began a process I was already committed to.  My pastor tried to dissuade me away from ordination in the Central Texas Conference, but I was naively persistent.  Back then, I didn’t understand that he was trying to be merciful.  

The next step, in accordance to the Discipline was to meet with the District Board of Ordained Ministry to be declared a candidate.  In preparation for the interview, I wrote what reflected pretty basic Christian theology that I believe and had been teaching in the Methodist Church for many years as a Sunday School Teacher.  There was also the battery of personality instruments.  Filled out numerous forms in duplicates and triplicates and turned them all in under the cut off dates for submission.   My pastor looked everything over and I prepared myself as a lay person to have my first meeting with the clergy pastors that make up this District Board of Ordained Ministry.   

The setting was one of the local churches in our annual conference.  I was waiting in what was a parlor with a couple of other ministerial candidates.  I was last to be interviewed.  The other candidates went in and came out smiling and OK.  After waiting for what seemed a very long time to see the Board, the District Head of Ordained Ministry came out and over aggressively backed me up into a corner of the room.  He had this wild eyed look in his eyes.  I will never forget his opening words.  “Let me tell you something before take you in to meet the Board.  I hate your church.  I hate you.  And I will do everything within my power to make sure you are never ordained.  Oh yeah, I have a special mentor pastor that will be assigned to you and wait till you meet with her (smurk, smurk)”   He took a step back and said “I’m ------------, the chair of the district board of ordained ministry.  Let me take now to meet with board.”

As a candidate, member of a UM Church, a father with a family, I was at a vulnerable point in my life.  I had left my career, sold things, started seminary.  I had never met this man in my life.  I was a lay person who had been faithfully serving God and the UM Church for years.  This “Pastor? “, with a definite power differential, just exercised it in an abusive way toward me as an inquiring lay person.  Looking back, I would never let anyone do this to anyone else.  That incident threw me; I am thinking, “God what did you get me into?”  But the Holy Spirit kept saying “Just be still, be quiet.”

The District Board was arranged into a circle with my chair in the middle of the circle.  The head of the board sat in front of me.  My future mentoring elder sat to the right of him.  All of the pastors in my eyesight were grinning like I was to be desert served to a pack of wolves.  The room had a feeling of hostility.    Again, a lay person seeking to enter ministry and this is what I encounter on my first meeting with clergy.  We wonder why it is getting hard to find people who will enter ordained ministry from conservative churches.  The Board Chair began to denigrate my home church (a more conservative church) and reminded me over and over that we were not “real” United Methodist.  He and others on the Board attacked my belief in the Apostles Creed and said they didn’t believe it and asked for my reaction to their statement.  I didn’t have one.  I was just taking it all in.  My future mentor elder attacked me personally because of my use of God as Father.  It was the, right up front personal hostility, that was so surprising.  The Chair and my future mentor were telling me that my church was a fundamentalist church and therefore I was a “fundamentalist”.  I was a lay person.  I had never had to defend that charge.  On the first meeting?   When I ask what a fundamentalist was, they just got madder.  All I learned for sure that day was that “fundamentalist” was the accusation that when called one, there was really no defense.  They didn’t want a defense of anything, they were just name calling.  It was just a term to rally the faithful. 

Then there was something said about abortion.  My future mentor said that “ all United Methodist believe in abortion”.  I told them that my church had participated in the “Walk For Life” for many years.   I felt extreme hostility bordering on hatred from these two.  The others didn’t say a word.  Later I found out from a few of them that the Chair had told them to “shut up” and that he and this other clergy would handle me.  The meeting ended with him assigning me a mentoring elder.  She smiled at me like I was going to be her next lunch.  I was hurt and confused.  I walked away feeling betrayed, intimidated, ashamed that I had let them do this to me, and angry.  The Chair of this Committee was wrong.  Those who sat there and let that meeting happen were wrong. 

Needless to say, my meetings with my mentoring elder were a nightmare.   I was told over and over that my home church was not a real United Methodist Church.  I kept hearing that she and others hated my church and that I was not a real United Methodist and that she and others were committed to seeing me kicked out of the candidacy program.  I heard things like all Methodist were pro abortion.  The Methodist Church was heading Catholic in our beliefs about Baptism and that I had better just get on board.  I was told that we were going to be ordaining homosexual and lesbians and that I had better decide to accept these things now.   I was required to read, “Living in Sin? A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality”, by Bishop Shelby Spong.  In our discussions she said over and over that this is where we, United Methodist were headed.  Later in the process I was required to read “Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism”, by the same author.  This was all being done under the supervision of the Board of Ministry.  All in the name of United Methodism and that I had better get on board. 

Every interview after that was met with some degree of hostility.  When I was coming up for deacon orders, I remember that all the candidates were all waiting in the same area together.  I waited all day until late afternoon.  Again, I was the last scheduled interview and expected to be interviewed like everyone else.  That’s when everyone (BOD clergy) started leaving.  I was confused about my scheduled interview.  The Board Chair came into the room.  He walked over to me with his gloating facial expression on and said , “James we have decided to interview just you on another day.  We have something special for you and will contact you when we are ready.”  I was shook up.  My friends around me were awed.  There was the abusive power differential again.  Total intimidation! 

Well that something special came when I was asked to come to a local church in our district.  The whole board was there.  My mentor pastor led off by attacking me because I was not pro-abortion.  She had me defend my pro-life stand.  I graduated cum laud in Biomedical Engineering, so I used that knowledge.  But, it was when a used scripture as part of my defense, she started calling me fundamentalist again.  Again, it is always the rallying cry to summon progressive faithful to attack.  I ended up sitting outside the door and listening to her screaming and arguing for a little over an hour.  They called me in and told me I passed by one vote.  My mentor was furious.

Later I was passed to be ordained as Elder.  I was feeling pretty relieved and grateful only to be cussed out by the Registrar of the Board of Ministry in the parking lot of First Arlington.  He used “GD and all kinds of hatful words.”  It is crazy.  I just walked away.  It really was pathetic.

As you can guess I have never been asked to serve on the Conference Board of Ministry.   But, two other tragedies occurred in this time frame also.   Two young men with young families, from my home church, felt a call to ordained ministry about the same time I did.  They were both treated the same way by the same people.  They ended up leaving the UM church and are leading ministries at another large church. 

The conference I am apart of continues to become more progressive in the way it votes and elects its delegates to General Conference.  I think this progression is a long term conscious decision made by those in authority at the level of the Board of Ministry in my conference.    It may be happening elsewhere.  As my Bishop informed me, the Chair of the Conference Board of Ministry is the one to approve who serves on that Board.  And finally, the District Chair who gave me so much trouble is now the Conference Chair of the Board.   The Board of Ministry in my Conference and others should be upfront about the types of theology and candidates they are wanting and publish it.  People should not have to wait until they meet with leadership clergy in their conferences Board of Ministry to find out that the way they have been ministering and what they have been teaching is unacceptable and hostile to clergy leadership.

The whole process has turned into a scandal that is destroying people and resources. I can testify to this through personal experience. the problem begins with the local church when a person begins the process, gets put through a ringer that never seems to end, and then may end up beig rejected anyways. There is no way to appeal unless the bishop is consulted; then you become the possible enemy of the district board. Errors in judgement and procedure happen often, accountability is not invoked. Communication is often nonexistant. The victim is left with no place to go except out the door. Worse, some people have been told to complete their education and then find that they have been discontinued without notice. The BOOM in Nashville seems to be a nonsupervising clearing house for the district and conference. If I was to return to the initial process I would take the advise of a minister who told me that things are so confused and controlled that many of the ministers feel they would not pass today; if you are rejected change demonination immediately. Apparently the scandal of being the one to force people away from the church is less a sin than the fear that someone will actually make a mistake about a potential candidate and let a less than perfect person (read politically incorrect) into the club rooms (aka pulpit). I hope I am wrong; but I believe that I am right.

As a minister in Detroit West, I have seen over 20 years of bad faith, lies, and victimization in the process. First, we do not have a UM seminary in Michigan, which drives the candidates out of state or into a confused process which makes use of what is at hand including a Ecumenical Theological Center in Detroit and seminaries in Ohio. How can we expect anyone to travel so far and keep the necessary employment to keep off poverty. Second, DS's often wrote their own rules in the early 1990's which left confusion and loss of candidates in the wake. The victims seem to either leave, change denominations, or keep fighting a system which does not fit into the American Judicial Process. Some churches which could be served are closed because nobody wants to invest in the people and resources necessary keeping a church open although this could grow the demonination. Leadership does not take on the need to give justice and opportunity to those who appeal from bad faith situations; leaving the petitioner being turned into a perceived complainer with little or no opportunities. People on the BOOM's often take the job and have no real understanding or knowledge of the requirements to grow a minister directly from the laity. Worse, they disqualify candidates on a word. I have watched this mess grow without opportunity to provide comment, many of us did not know of the survey being conducted until a extensive search of the internet turned it up. If I was to change the system, I would also get away from the concept of "one pulpit at a time ministry" and "pulpit minister" to expand the openings into such areas as interim ministry, etc. Also, I would locate all the victims from the 1990's and ordain them if they still want the opportunity. The arguements that these people are in some way flawed is a bad personnel position to take; the orginal disciples were not perfect and they were called without a BOOM. Also, give us a DS we can actually work with. The DS concept has been outdated for years and is costing money and resources the local churches need but is used to keep a district office staffed. The churches are being drained in order to pay for too many levels of unnecessary power that often hides behind the Discipline instead of realizing the book needs to be reduced into managable size and updated. Now, Let the people in Nashville take some sort of control and start changes before we loose all our potential evangelical clergy to other demoninations or again tell someone with a MDiv to go away. If I was to change the system immediately I would provide opportunities to grow and learn, not recite politicalized jargon. The demonination is dying a slow death because of the loss of the potential leaders who get angry, get tired, and finally feel forced into getting out.

I am about to be ordained in May (yea!) and I have to say that over the past ten years (seminary + probationary time), I have at times also cursed the process. However, I must say that with it almost over, there are many things that this process has taught me. 1.) I learned I must be very clear in my articulation of beliefs. My interviews with the BoOM for my probationary Elder (now provisional Elder) were what I considered to be brutal. I had to rewrite some things and was miffed to say the least. However, it was a good 'growing-up' process for me. I am not going to go into churches and have automatic credibility and authority merely because I am appointed there. I must be able to speak clearly and with compassion to my congregation who come from a variety of theological places. 2.) In the three year period that I waited, I grew. I am reminded of the story of the butterfly. A man noticed a butterfly in the pupa state with the butterfly struggling to get out. So he helped it by cutting a little on the cocoon. As a result the butterfly ended up having a fat body and small wings, and therefore couldn't fly. I believe that the 'gauntlet' that we are required to run can be looked at two ways - it can be this horrible process that keeps people from going into UM ministry particularly younger people - or - it can be looked at positively as a time to nurture them in the process in a way that encourages growth both in their personal lives and in their ministry. 3.) I am not all that far past being considered "younger clergy." I feel that secular culture has brought about a need for immediacy and people are becoming more and more dependent upon instant gratification. The hard work that goes into something gives you greater joy than something that is handed to you, and it also brings greater growth. I am thrilled, almost giddy, at my upcoming ordination. It is a huge thing for me because I have worked for it and have grown because of it. If we rush things along we will prematurely bypass some wonderful things. By that same understanding, we would be in favor of a process of education for children that would hurry them through the thirteen years and ship them off to college, or skip college into the working world by the time they are what 15? Younger? I think rather than giving in to secular culture, which will change in ten years anyway, to hurry up and move the process along, we need to embrace the fact that this makes us different than other denominations - not worse, just different. Celebrate that difference. I too believe that there should possibly be some reworking of the process, but to the degree that the Board is accountable for its decisions and not simply some tyrant wielding power to be feared. I believe that we should be positive about our criticisms. The young people going to another denomination or a non-denomination are not doing so solely because of the process, but because there is a bunch of negative, nasty people who are bitter about their experience. Who wants to join that? We also have somethings that other denominations and non-denominations do not have that are just as appealing as no accountability. I don't know if I were sitting in a pew I would want a pastor who didn't want to be held accountable. As far as seminary debt is concerned, that is a problem with me as well as all of my friends. I think conferences can go a long way to eliminating that debt. For example, one idea that I have heard of is for the conference to give the loans for seminary, and then for every year of appointed ministry in that conference, a portion of that debt is reduced, with the possibility of it being completely reduced in a determined number of years. As far as Local Pastors are concerned, they have a valid ministry, but it should not be a ministry without accountability. Blessings! Rev. Sonja

After reading all of this bickering and bantering, I feel that I must give my conference a pat on the back when it comes to the work of the Board of Ordained Ministry. My experiences with the Mississippi Conference's BoOM have been nothing short of amazing when it comes to affirming and encouraging the discernment of my, and countless numbers of other's, call to ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church. I won't go on much more, but I feel sad and sorry for those of you have had negative experiences with your boards. However, I also feel that the bantering and bickering and countless typing fervishes of angst accomplish nothing - except the breeding of a generation of church leaders that do nothing but sit back and complain to each other instead of working toward a solution for the unity of the church. Adam L. Gordon, Probationary Elder MS Conference

Having gone through the "process" well over 40 years ago, it is obvious that there has not been any improvement -- if anything, the creation of more "pigeon holes" into which candidates are assigned. Another factor is simply the "politics" in this game, mainly determined as to how you measure up "theologically" before the awesome BOOM which is made up mainly of individuals who have their own problems with God's special revelation to us -- I encountered that in one interveiw when up for elder, but will not give details here. And a few years ago a member of the BOOM in my conference expressed great frustration with me due to my publishing photos of aborted children on my web site and indicated his wish that he would have been on BOOM when I came through the process. I tried to be kind when I wrote back and told him that when I went through the process he was still in training pants and his mother was teaching him how to brush his teeth and wash behind his ears! That was an effort to help him get a little perspective on this thing. My sympathy goes out to all who have to leap through many, many hoops now as they deal with a thing known as BOOM!

i have read these comments and agree that it is a flawed process. i also try to avoid all or nothing thinking. i posted a blog entry on this subject, and talked about the issue of authority. the umc is a system with a great deal of resources and a great deal of authority. both can be blessings and curses. i have sat on theology committees, listened to brilliant candidates and wanted to cheer. i have written them personal notes afterward. i have thanked their theology professors with personal notes. i have seen a very gifted 30-35 year old worship leader give years of his life to a new church start (non-denom), and then to be relieved of his duties (that day, with no due process) by the unilateral decision of the founding pastor. this is authority too, and this is abuse too. all processes have flaws. when i chaired the bom in our conference i was very aware of how much power that office held, and i tried to be very careful with it, knowing that with the measure i judged i would also be judged. i can also say that in every round of interviews there is a candidate or two who should not be ordained, and there are personnel issues (some for the protection of the candidates, some for the protection of others) that are and must be confidential. if candidates will show the same respect for the bom process that they show for their graduate education, and if they will seek out mentors who will read their materials prior to the interviews, and coach them on their verbal answers to questions, they will be much more prepared. most bom processes also include feedback from a number of sources,most of which are independent of each other (field ed supervisors, pprc committees, superintendents, cpe supervisors, sr. pastors, bom visits). it is amazing how feedback from a variety of sources can elicit similar judgments. the bom journey is fundamentally a process of evaluation of the candidate; the candidate is the subject. it is also emotionally exhausting and personally conflicting to defer a candidate; almost every bom member has a full plate of life and ministry (sermons to write, hospital patients to visit, administrative issues to untangle)and they take no pleasure in someone not moving forward; if they do, that is a sickness and a sin. in our bom we pray for the candidates, phone them ahead of time, stay in touch with them following, because we need every good candidate who comes to us. ken carter

If the situation that Will describes is the norm, then our system is broken and is in need of a major overhaul. What has been described is more akin to a fraternity hazing than a process for discerning and shaping ministry. While the Board is charged to serve the Annual Conference, it does not have the right nor the authority to treat candidates like pledges. Wayne Cook Sand Mountain UMC Holston Conference

Are you saying that the BOOM exists to serve the candidates for ordination? If so, you are mistaken. The BoOM's primary responsibility is to the annual conference and the congregations it exists to serve. I'll grant we do not have anything close to a perfect process. It has certainly become much more byzantine since I went through it. And members of any given Board are perhaps not the best persons for the job. It seems to me that the BoOM must serve both the process and the people.

I will agree the process is such that it is far easier to go nondenominational or do a new start. Many of these churches are looking for staff, are ok with bivocations so you can somehow attempt to dig out from debt. (good luck)And the hoops to jump through are not nearly as high. Theology is simpler, but it makes your education that much more valued. And they actually have resources!! Imagine a supply room that is current and stocked!! I have debated back and forth as to whether I should continue the process versus planting a new start independent of the UMC that embraces UMC values and worship standards. There are simply better and faster ways without the pain of the ordination board to getting Christs kingdom broadened. I appreciate their work and they do a valuable service, but I question the whole system of seminary training, internship, ordination process, and then dealing with the Connection politics so you can stay on the DS'good side while trying to pastor! At this point, and it may change, I am content to being active in my home church and looking for an opportunity to start a new congregation. I have many peers in my age group (30-35) who have chosen to not pursue ordination through mainline to strike out towards new starts and non denominationals. They are still UMC'ers(amongst other mainlines) working hard and doing great ministry. But they are doing it in another context.( in some cases while still attending their home denomination!) Loyalty is ultimately to God and His Church and not the communion itself.

A scandal? I'm not sure if it is a scandal, but it is a problem when people who are clearly well qualified are deferred for strange reasons. A friend in Florida has been deferred twice because of having significant student loans, all of them for his M.Div and Ph.D. work. That conference does not want to put him forward for ordination because he owes money for school. Another person I know was deferred apparently for being too intelligent. I was deferred the first time out because during my board interview that I was unable to be with a dying church member overnight because of needing to complete coursework for divinity school. I was obviously not committed enough to the church. So, here we have a church that won't ordain you without an expensive graduate degree, then won't ordain you because you borrowed money to pay for that degree and, in the process, got some smarts about theology and the Bible and dared put them on display for the very people who are supposed to evaluating your ability and effectiveness. Yet, this stuff is bound to happen in any system. My real problem is that the system we have does not necessarily put forward those with real gifts for ministry, but only those with the gift of patience for bureaucracy. Since it appears that bureaucrats are what the UMC really wants, then the ordination system works for the system, but not necessarily for the cause of Christ. Matt Charlton

what I tried to communicate is that the Board itself is a stumbling block on the path to ordination because our boards serve the process not the people. -Will