Out the Door

A Graduation Party Like No Other

As a pastor I've been invited to hundreds of graduation parties.  On Saturday I attended one like no other.

Two senior girls who are members of our praise team decided that they wanted to include a time of praise and worship as part of their celebration.  So following the traditional cake and punch, they, along with our youth praise team members which includes another senior girl, set up their equipment in the city park and sang for about a hour. 

Julie & I took our lawn chairs and sat right up front.  I glanced round a couple of times and would guess that there were about 100 people sitting around the park listening.  Kids were running in and out, part of the time playing on the playground equipment and part of the time dancing to the music as only little children can (or will).  Someone told me they heard the music several blocks away.

At first I was simply into the music, singing along and applauding the performers.  After a while however, I became aware of what an awesome thing was taking place.  In front of me were three senior girls joined by four other high schooler and a 7th grader along with a couple of adult musicians very publically proclaiming their faith.  When it hit me what was happening, I sat back in amazement.  Here were these girls on the Saturday night before their graduation who could have been off drinking and partying, as I'm sure some of their classmates were, but instead they chose to worship.  Their level of faith and spiritual maturity inspires me and gives me hope.

Ordination, the UM version of Survivor

This week I'm going to be meeting with a group made up of Board of Ordained Ministry members to begin looking at the handbook we provide for those who are seeking ordination.  Eventually, we will be considering how people move through the entire process.

I've been a clergy mentor for a couple of ordination candidates.  The way they describe the process is much like someone might describe being a contestant on Survivor.  It's all about who can make it passed the challenges without getting voted off the island.  Ordination interviews are more stressful than any physical challenge.  I referred to the "hoops" which are a part of the process at the last BoM meeting.  The establishment members didn't like that too much, but I believe it's how most candidates look at the course that leads to ordination.  The steps along the way are looked upon not as stepping stones which are means of helping one along, but as stonewalls which must be overcome.  If one can survive and outlast all the challenges, one wins the right to be ordained.

Somehow, we need to make becoming ordained a time of discernment.  The Church must discern whether or not an individual truly has the calling and gifts for ordained ministry.  The individual must discern whether or not he/she has been called and if the UMC is where the place to live out that calling.  I'm a firm believer that if someone can do anything else besides be a pastor, he/she should do that.  The job of a pastor is too demanding and too important to be done by anyone who isn't completely sold out to their calling. 

If we aren't able to do this, we will continue to find it very difficult to recruit young, gifted pastors.  For example, we talked at our meeting about one young man who had dropped out of the ordination process because he became involved in a ministry setting and was finding success there.  He saw no correlation between spending years in seminary, accumulating thousands of dollars in debt, jumping through the ordination hoops and doing ministry.  I think he has some valid concerns.