A Big Change
Many of you know that I'm the "youth director" at our church while working at WVU and studying as well. Obviously, I would like to serve in the pastoral ministry at some point and last week, I am happy to say, that some point is coming soon. I got a promotion of sorts, from youth director to assistant pastor of youth. It is still part-time, which is perfect for our situation, but the key is that I will take ordination exams in the coming few months, and if I pass, I will be ordained as a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
There's a lot of hard work that goes into this. To show that I understand hermeneutics, I need to repolish and turn in an exegetical paper and a theological paper from my seminary days. In addition, I will take five written exams: theology, English Bible, church history, church government and sacraments. After that, I will meet with a committee of pastors and elders, who will give me an oral exam, mostly based upon questions I didn't do so well on in my written exams, and in other areas. If I do well enough, I will go before the Presbytery for a "floor exam," meaning anyone out of the 40-100 pastors/elders there could ask me a question. After that, they will be subjected to a 20 minute sermon by me, and then (hopefully) approve me. Then, a few weeks later, we will have an ordination and instillation service at church and I will officially be Reverend Bobby G. ., though I will still be the same person and could care less about the title.
I realize that many may read this process and think it's too cerebral. Why should anyone be tested so thoroughly because ministry is about people, not knowledge. To that I say that I understand, but the exams will not simply be academic, but also have many, many ministry type questions. Saint Peter said that we must be ready to answer for the hope we have in Christ. I think a vetting process like this is a good process. I know pastoral work isn't about who is the smartest, but I also think that if we want our accountants, attorneys, doctors and mechanics to be "tested," shouldn't we want the same from our ministers? It seems reasonable to me that a minister should be tested for their knowledge, not to show off, but to insure they can answer basic questions concerning the Faith.
There's a lot of hard work that goes into this. To show that I understand hermeneutics, I need to repolish and turn in an exegetical paper and a theological paper from my seminary days. In addition, I will take five written exams: theology, English Bible, church history, church government and sacraments. After that, I will meet with a committee of pastors and elders, who will give me an oral exam, mostly based upon questions I didn't do so well on in my written exams, and in other areas. If I do well enough, I will go before the Presbytery for a "floor exam," meaning anyone out of the 40-100 pastors/elders there could ask me a question. After that, they will be subjected to a 20 minute sermon by me, and then (hopefully) approve me. Then, a few weeks later, we will have an ordination and instillation service at church and I will officially be Reverend Bobby G. ., though I will still be the same person and could care less about the title.
I realize that many may read this process and think it's too cerebral. Why should anyone be tested so thoroughly because ministry is about people, not knowledge. To that I say that I understand, but the exams will not simply be academic, but also have many, many ministry type questions. Saint Peter said that we must be ready to answer for the hope we have in Christ. I think a vetting process like this is a good process. I know pastoral work isn't about who is the smartest, but I also think that if we want our accountants, attorneys, doctors and mechanics to be "tested," shouldn't we want the same from our ministers? It seems reasonable to me that a minister should be tested for their knowledge, not to show off, but to insure they can answer basic questions concerning the Faith.
posted by Bobby's blog at 8:03 AM
2 Comments:
Sheesh. That's the one thing that still blows my mind about the presbytery. There are so many checks and balances and levels that a person needs to go through. It's better than the pope or a dictator (not all of them are) from an IFB church but man, I always think of it as red tape sometimes.
plus, well... you never know when you'll get to go on jeopardy and are lucky enough to get the BIBLE category. that's my favorite!
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