I am a United Methodist licensed local pastor who eventually hopes to be both an associate member and an ordained elder in the denomination. As such I try to follow the news items that deal with ordination and ministry. Recently there has been a report issued by The Study of Ministry Commission and/or General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) with recommendations for the General Conference to examine and vote on at the 2012 General Conference being held in Tampa, Florida. Today as I looked at the news release and read the items the links led me to I had a range of reactions.
A few of the recommendations are not so bad such as separating ordination and full conference membership or trying to educate and build up the different ministry orders. Some didn’t illicit much of a response, and several just made my blood pressure rise. I also believe that some of the recommendations, while couched in “reality”, are included out of fear or desire to make things easier for those in supervisory positions. And, if what I saw where the links took me is the totality of the report, I am irate as there is nothing new. Instead it is a re-hash of many news bites and previous reports but it now seemingly bears the seal of approval of the GBHEM. To me it comes across as the outcomes were in need of meetings to be approved.
Some of the more onerous items:
1. Local, licensed pastors are still treated as second class citizens even if they continue onto associate membership. Associate membership is essentially a glorified local pastor who agrees to itinerancy, and currently, is guaranteed an appointment in the annual conference. They are not allowed to practice ministry to the world as they are licensed to the community. When they retire they are stripped of their ministerial authority and privileges. There is no discussion about ordaining associate members or doing away with the probationary period if the associate member applies for full connection and ordination as an elder. Even though an associate member has completed extensive educational requirements and served at least two years or the equivalent of in full time appointments and often many more, and agrees to live in the itinerancy system the requirements to become an elder from associate membership are the same as someone who is just graduating from seminary. I also believe there is some educational snobbery involved in the recommendation in keeping the associate membership category and encouraging LPs to become AMs. The reason for my thinking is that many see the Course of Study (COS) as being inferior to actually going to seminary. Notice in the report there is no push for LPs or AMs to be ordained even after completing the educational requirements.
2. The call for the elimination of the “guaranteed” appointment. Pure and simple this is a reaction out of fear couched in the terms of reality. If we were out making disciples and winning souls for Christ then this would not be an issue. There is also no talk in the report what so ever about ineffective churches or supervisors (district superintendents and bishops). Bishops and district superintendents are still members of the Order of Elders. The blame for the denomination not meeting its missional goals is laid solely at the feet of the pastors who are serving faithfully in the local congregations. There is little or no discussion on how or why pastors become ineffective, how to support those who are in difficulty, or the issue that there may be other factors involved that are not church related that are making a pastor seem ineffective.
Once again a report coming from a General Board or a group commissioned by the General Conference calls for effective pastors but fails to define what an effective pastor is. The report calls for limited, standard fitness standards and then leaves it up to the annual conference and Boards of Ordained Ministries to define effective. This might be acceptable, but it does not take into account the difference between each appointment, the fact many times the DSs do not know the whole story or dynamics in a congregation, or the fact that it opens the door to having many different missions in the denomination. It potentially has the ability to make it more difficult for pastors to transfer from one annual conference to another by having different definition of what is effective, i.e. one annual conference may insist that to be effective a pastor has to be in a certain type of ministry while a minister who is led to go the geographic area of the annual conference may not be able to participate in good conscience thus limiting the effectiveness of ordination to the world.
I also believe doing away with the guaranteed appointment will hinder the prophetic voice of the local pastor and concentrate too much power in the hands of district superintendents and bishops. As a local pastor who is not guaranteed an appointment there are subjects I do not willingly bring up because I am afraid of what may happen to my appointment. I have been told I should not be very visible or should be seen and not heard. I have heard of a bishop who kept a little black book in his office of those who had disagreed with him. Whether or not this is true, but just the rumor of it is disconcerting. A pastor could be set up to fail, and while this may not be likely the church is made up of people and it is a political organization, and be eased out. There is also the possibility of the older ministers being forced out before becoming eligible for retirement or the medical bills become too high. Some may call these ideas too conspiratorial, but we have been moving more toward a business model instead of a spiritual model.
As I mentioned earlier there are a few items that are good. I wish there was more. I also wish there was more meat to it and there was a call for more study on exactly what ordination is and our understanding or it. While there is a call to integrate theology and practice of ordination I believe we need to figure out what we believe about ordination. It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be to the report.
Link to General Board of Higher Education & Ministry Website article concerning Ministry Commission Report: http://www.gbhem.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lsKSL3POLvF&b=6471015&ct=9105463&sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4d53182d2a02faac%2C0
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