Tag: methodist

The United Methodist Ordination Process, Part 2: Redefining Fairness

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”  (Matthew 20:1-16 (New Revised Standard Version)

If the United Methodist Church is going to take reforming its ordination process seriously, we’re going to have to take the concept of fairness seriously as well.  I’ve heard it over and over: “what we do for one candidate, we have to do for everyone. It’s only fair.”  This definition and understanding of fairness is part of what has turned the UM ordination process into such a mess.  Everyone abides by the same process, everyone completes the same requirements, everyone goes through the same obstacle course if they want to be ordained.

And, in the interest of fairness, the obstacle course keeps getting bigger.  In a well-intentioned attempt to make the process comprehensive and produce complete, well-rounded ordinands, we add more and more requirements to the mix.  For example, all candidates in at least one conference have to take a basic literacy exam, whether they failed to complete high school or have a Ph.D. Every. Single. One.

Why?  Because if one candidate has to do it, they all have to do it. That’s only fair.

In our conference, a Ph.D. psychologist would have to take CPE in order to get through residency.  Why?  Because some candidates really need some clinical training, and if some have to do it, all have to do it.  That’s only fair.

Except it isn’t fair. Not at all.

In the above parable from Matthew, Jesus rips apart that concept of fairness. When some workers complain, “We worked longer hours, how are they getting paid the same as us?” the manager answers, in essence, “I made a deal with you, and I made a deal with them. What business is it of yours?”

Fairness does not mean that everybody does the same work and receives the same reward.  A better theological understanding of fairness is that everyone gets what they need.

Under the better definition of fairness the Board of Ordained Ministry would receive each candidate and work to discern their gifts, graces, skills, abilities, and needs – and address them.  Each candidate’s strengths could be built up even stronger.  Potential issues could be assessed and addressed.  Each candidate can be given what he or she needs in order to become the Elders we would all like to see ordained.

What if we were to categorize several facets of a pastor’s job and assess each candidate’s abilities?  Preaching, teaching, Sacraments, evangelism & outreach, pastoral care, time management, administrative duties, running meetings, conflict management, worship design, wedding planning, funeral planning (to name a few).  Some pastors are excellent preachers and pastoral caregivers but lousy administrators. Some are great administrators and good preachers, but need to learn skills for pastoral care.  Others may be excellent at pastoral care and administration, but their preaching needs help.  Think about the pastors you’ve had in your life: they weren’t all as well-rounded as we’d like to think our current process makes them, were they?

The Conference BoOM should absolutely have the authority to require CPE of candidates who need skill-building in pastoral care.  No question.  But they should also have the authority to require that some candidates take an additional course or shadow a mentor in preaching, time management, business & administration, or deeper study of sacramental theology instead.

This can communicate to the candidate, “We think you’re going to be a great Elder for the church, so we’re going to help you get what you need to make it so.”

The official document Services for the Ordering of Ministry in The United Methodist Church, 2013-2016 presents a theological understanding of Ordination in the United Methodist Church.  Here’s an important passage from the document:

Ordination is chiefly understood as the act of the Holy Spirit. As a liturgical act,
ordination is also understood as the public prayer of the church confirming the
Spirit’s call to individuals and asking for them gifts and power for the ministry of
deacon or elder (presbyter in some churches).

The rite of ordination is the climax of a process in which the faith community
discerns and validates the call, the gifts, and effectiveness for apostolic ministry
by agency of the Holy Spirit. Always more than a single liturgical moment,
ordination is a full process in which all of the baptized share. The process begins
with the church’s discernment of God’s call to individuals for service as ordained
leaders, continues with support and scrutiny as they prepare for this work,
culminates in electing them to the office and work of a deacon or an elder, and is
celebrated and enacted liturgically in the service of ordination.

I wish our church understood it that way, or at least understood this bit more deeply.  It’s my jaded fear that ordination is not understood in the UMC as an act of the Holy Spirit, but rather an act of the Board of Ordained Ministries based upon a candidate’s successful completion of items on a checklist while managing to not tick off anyone important or rock the boat in any significant way.  Or perhaps it is understood both ways to some degree.

Lest I come across as a cynical, far-too-jaded, bitter man with an ax to grind, let me say this:

  • My cynicism is not as deep as it seems.  I’m not a pure cynic. I’m far closer to a romantic idealist whose heart has been broken.
  • I know lots of people on our Conference BoOM, and I think they’re wonderful people, excellent Elders, and are sincerely trying to do the right thing.
  • I love the United Methodist Church, and I love being an Elder.
  • I think the UMC has ordination problems, but those problems are far from irreparable.  We can fix this.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t say anything.
  • It is my intention to be constructive.  If I don’t come across that way, remember first that I have not yet fully made my case, and second, that redemption and reconstruction often begin with a call to repentance.

The United Methodist Ordination Process: Picking at Old Wounds

I blogged my way through the United Methodist ordination process up until 2010, when I actually got ordained as an Elder in the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference of the UMC.  I stepped on a few toes along the way, and stomped on a few others.  I received tremendous support from United Methodists all across the country.  There were incredible ups and downs.

Then I stopped blogging.  The process had been emotionally draining.  The primary purpose of that blog was to document the process, even though I often just blogged about my interests and whatever was going through my mind at the time.  But I completed that journey on June 4, 2010.  That’s reason #1 I took a break.  Reason #2 was that my marriage fell completely apart and I got divorced within two months.  I didn’t want to blog because those emotions and experiences were better dealt with out of the public eye.

But let’s begin with why I’m writing this.  David F. Watson, Associate Professor of New Testament and Academic Dean of United Theological Seminary, put up this tremendous blog post about rethinking the entire United Methodist ordination process, and it has sparked incredible discussion (at least in my little corner of the Facebook world).

Watson, in his piece, identifies two massive problems with the process:

  1. In Watson’s words:  “…the biggest problem with our ordination process is that it is not undergirded by a clear theology of ordination.Begin with ¶ 301 in the Discipline. There is considerable discussion of what the ordained should do. There is little or no discussion of what ordination is. How can we have a fair process or ordination when we have no agreed upon theological understanding of what our bishops are doing when they ordain? It’s no wonder that our process is given to arbitrary criteria that can vary from conference to conference, team to team. As a church, we need to get clearer about what ordination is.”
  2. Again, in his words:  “…clergy burnout. As a seminary professor and dean, one of the most common problems I see among my students is that they don’t know what the parameters of their jobs are. Too often, young pastors think that their job is everything. It isn’t. The primary role of a pastor is to bring people into relationship with God, to bring the Holy into the ordinary lives of women and men. Without without a clear sense of the ministry into which they are ordained, pastors will be much more prone to leave the ministry.”

Now, I’d be the first to tell you that we need a serious reformation of the ordination process in our denomination.  Our candidates don’t fully understand it.  Our boards don’t understand it.  Our congregations don’t understand it.  The process is so time- and energy-consuming, so cumbersome, so difficult to navigate that it causes burnout on its own aside from the day-to-day stresses of ministry.

Here’s a brief summary of my frustrations with the experience.

  1. We (my ordination class) were required to participate in a Residence in Ministry program that, to be fair, was in its infancy, and the representatives from the Board of Ordained Ministry who were running it did not have clearly defined goals, objectives, or vision of what the program should entail.  They were making it up as they went along (because they kind of had to), and the cracks were definitely visible to those of us in the program.  There was too much time spent on exercises that had little to do with ordination, and not enough was spent on the things that would actually help us (like understanding their expectations for our written work and our interview skills).
  2. My required psychological evaluation was lost.  Twice.
  3. A representative from the Board visited me in seminary once in the four years I attended.  Did they know I existed?
  4. I submitted an appeal to my Conference Board of Ordained Ministry to waive my Conference’s CPE requirement in my case, because I was a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, with nine years of clinical experience under my belt.  I wasn’t a pastor who needed training in clinical skills; I was a licensed clinician becoming a pastor.  My appeal was denied twice.
  5. Re: #4: I spoke to several members of the Board privately, all of whom agreed that making me take CPE was ridiculous. To my face.  When the time came for the Board to address the issue, I wasn’t invited to the meeting to attempt to make my case to them.  I didn’t even know when the meeting was.  The secrecy made it feel creepy, and there’s something simply unjust about being unable to represent or defend yourself to a board making decisions about your life.
  6. Re: #4 again:  I completed CPE.  The director of the CPE program asked me at my interview why on earth, with my clinical experience, I would need it.  I told him that my board required it.
  7. By the end of my residency, it became obvious that the Board was more interested in the process than in the candidates who were part of it.  I felt neither supported nor encouraged.  I would describe my relationship with the BoOM during my residency as adversarial.
Elder Willie
First time serving communion as an Ordained Elder, at the service at which I was ordained.

Honestly, it was an emotionally wrecking experience.  I don’t expect our Conferences to mollycoddle us through the process, but it shouldn’t feel like The Hunger Games, with the game makers (BoOM) throwing up obstacles and additional hoops for us to jump through, either.

We’ve got to reform this process.  And when I say reform, I don’t mean tweak it.  I mean clean out the fridge.  Take everything out, scrub the fridge, and start putting back only the bits that belong.  And throw everything else onto the compost heap, down the garbage disposal, into the trash.  I’ve seen the UMC lose good candidates to other denominations because of our entirely-too-cumbersome process and our devotion to it.  I’ve seen it breed bitterness and cynicism among those who have completed it.

So, yeah, I’ve got an opinion or two.