I am a ruling elder, not a minister of word and sacrament, so I don’t have any of my own stories of pursuing a pastoral call as the candidate. Having served on my presbytery’s committee on ministry, and been the COM liaison to several pastor nominating committees, I have stories from the other side. But with the increase in blogging there are numerous first-hand accounts of candidacy and seeking a call.<\/p>\n
Adam Copland is regularly writing about his experience in seminary and his progress towards a call and ordination in the PC(USA). He has a monthly “Seminary Reflections” piece on Presbyterian Bloggers<\/a> (Adam’s contributions from October<\/a>, November<\/a>, and December<\/a>). He usually also posts these on his own blog, A Wee Blether<\/a>. Beyond the Seminary Reflections series he has other posts on his blog regarding the process and situation, including a recent post<\/a> about “The huge problem of the clergy shortage that doesn’t exist.” In summary the PC(USA) has roughly twice as many clergy as churches and while the number of churches is declining, the number of clergy is stable. For churches-seeking-clergy and clergy-seeking-churches, it is not really a pure supply\/demand problem, but a distribution, affordability, and experience mis-match. And don’t just read the article, keep reading the comments<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another blogger who is just finishing seminary and has been keeping us updated<\/a> on his journey is Benjamin Glaser who writes the blog Backwoods Presbyterian<\/a>. While his blog is usually very theologically oriented, there are good insights into his journey as a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<\/a> and Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary<\/a>, also in Pittsburgh. He is under care of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church<\/a>.<\/p>\n I also enjoyed the account by “Danny” of her time as a probationer in the Church of Scotland<\/a> and the task of “hunting a charge” in her blog “Rumors of Angels?<\/a>” There are more great stories in that blog than for any other candidate\/inquirer\/probationer I can think of. One that I have bookmarked, and can totally see happening after my time on COM, is her story<\/a> about doing a neutral pulpit at a church for one pastor search committee, and being a “small world,” another search committee that was considering her out caught word of it and showed up as well. I can tell you a bunch of similar stories about confidentiality not being kept and news getting back to home churches and presbyteries before the candidate. As Danny puts it:<\/p>\n I mentioned the difficulties with confidentiality previously … about The church Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well… While Danny has been successful, there are others who are not, and “Cavman” over at Cavman Considers<\/a> has been between pastorates for a while and been giving us discrete glimpses of his search. In a recent post<\/a> he tabulates the churches that have rejected his application but are still without a pastor. He concludes:<\/p>\n So, 5 churches think it\u2019s better to not have a pastor than to have me [With no judgment on Cavman’s situation, let me say that filling a pastoral position is not like filling a corporate position, it is a “God Thing,” a discernment process where both the search committee and the candidates are trying to sense the will of God and who He is calling to that position. I can’t speak for any of Cavman’s rejections, but I have my own stories (from the other side) that I can and will share another time, about where I am certain God was, and was not, calling individuals to particular positions.]<\/p>\n And finally, if you think your candidates’ committee or denomination has unusual requirements, here is one that would keep a few pastors I know out of the pastorate. I leave you with this: A news item<\/a> about the Mizoram Presbyterian Church<\/a>‘s highest governing body, the Mizoram Synod. In the meeting this week they have passed a requirement that:<\/p>\n \u201cFrom now on someone who is tattooed will not be allowed to be ordained [For background, the Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod is a constitutate member of the Presbyterian Church of India General Assembly. Mizoram State is in the far northeast corner of India and through missionary work in the late 19th Century the population is predominantly Christian and the Presbyterian Church has a major influence. Please keep praying for the violence in other parts of India where the Christians are a minority.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am a ruling elder, not a minister of word and sacrament, so I don’t have any of my own stories of pursuing a pastoral call as the candidate. Having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,90,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-human-interest","category-polity"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nbeing discussed on the golf course… in shops… and via the \u2018old
\nboy\u2019s\u2019 network. Well add the dentist to that list!<\/p>\n
\nwhere I was preaching (for reasons of confidentiality) did not know
\nuntil this morning that I would be preaching instead of their regular
\nminister, but one of their members overheard all the details of what
\nwas going down last Tuesday while in the dentist\u2019s waiting room… hey
\nho! I felt quite sorry for the interim moderator who was doing it all
\n\u2018by the book\u2019 and trying her best to look after the interests of \u2018her\u2019
\nnominating committee… meanwhile this second committee were discussing
\nme all over town.<\/p>\n
\nif nothing else you have to laugh… and so we did! For some reason the
\nthought of my being discussed in the dentist seems hilarious… surreal
\neven… when I go to the dentist I am too worried about potential pain
\nand discomfort… injections, drills and fillings… to talk to anyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n(and the other 50 applicants) as their pastor. Interesting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nas Probationary Pastors (of Mizoram Presbyterian Church).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n