I was wondering what some of you who have completed this process thought of it. I was wondering what the pros and cons are. I'm currently in the Inquiring phase of the process, and hope to be into the Declared phase by fall. I have a mentor, and I've sent my $$$ for the book to begin the Candidacy Guidebook with my mentor. I know looking at the process on paper, it seems to be overwhelming and a bit burdensome (did the early Methodist preachers have this many hoops to jump through). How does our process compare with other denominations, and what is the average time it took for you to go from a Inquiring candidate to a Local Pastor? I would love to here from as many as possible your stories and opinions on this subject.
Scott
P.S. I was also wondering is there a future for an evangelical, conservative, Bible believing Methodist in the UMC?
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I'm just starting it, myself. Fortunately, my pastor has a passion for the mentoring ministry, and his advocacy has been crucial.
My impression is that the length of time varies from Conference to Conference. I'm in Florida, where it's known as vigorous.
Hey, what happened to your blogroll? I thought that I saw the automatic Methodist blogroll on your old template.
You ask, " is there a future for an evangelical, conservative, Bible believing Methodist in the UMC?"
It depends on where you are. If you're in the Southeastern or South Central Jurisdictions your chances are better. There are evangelical UM pastors in every jurisdiction, but some places are definitely more friendly than others. There is also constant change, with some places more friendly than they used to be, others less so. the CAl-Nev conference went through a purge a while back during the last years of Bishop Talbert. Cal Pac is pretty liberal too - they complain about feeling marginalized after conservative victories at General Conference. Yet they don't seem to recognize that evangelicals in their conference feel completely marginalized by their monopoly on power.
From my point of view, the UMC needs more evangelical pastors - with a clear call from God to tough out the hard times and be used as instruments for revival. You're not in it alone.
If you want to talk to some evangelical, conservative, Bible believing Methodist Pastors I can point you to two of them. My father and a friend of his are. They both live in Texas.
I think a lot of it has to do with were you get educated. I know from what I have seen around me, the pastors coming out of the local seminary no far from conservative. All it does it remind me that I don't want to go to the seminary near me.
Good luck on your Candidacy Process and God Bless your every step.
BTW you are not the only Conservative Methodist out there...I have lots of friends who are!
Richard H and Iamnettie,
Thank you for your words of encouragement for my candidacy process. I'm excited to see how God works in both my life and the UMC. I know I was reading a blog about how the percent of UMC Pastors who believe in the basic conservative teachings was the lowest of any denomination. That was sad, but I believe that many in Gen. X and Y may help to move us back to the basics of the Christian Faith and away from the "Social" gospel of previous generations.
Scott,
I do hope and pray you are right. I am the youth director of my church and I can tell you what I see in the current youth is scary when it comes to it. But I am doing my part to try to wake up the next generation to the fact that we have to get back to the basics again.
...I know I was reading a blog about how the percent of UMC Pastors who believe in the basic conservative teachings was the lowest of any denomination....
You've got to watch those polls. Some of them define conservative/"bible believing"/evangelical in such a way that it equals "Calvinist." There are differences between Wesleyan evangelicals and Reformed evangelicals.
As to actual percentages, I don't know about other conferences, but here in the Texas AC, it appears that pastors are more conservative than they were 20 years ago. Of course, in some conferences they run off almost all the conservatives.
Post a Comment