In 2000, I began a journey to become an Ordained United Methodist Minister. It was the beginning of a long, long road which has been filled with excitement, sadness, and a great deal of hard work. However, it has been worth it! It has been an amazing adventure and today was (hopefully) the last hurdle that must be cleared. Let me give you a timeline of how this worked:
2000 Informed my pastor (Jerry Sims) that I was interested in the ministry. After meeting with the District Superintendent, I was assigned a mentor (Dallas Culver) who helped me explore my call. This process can take anywhere from 6 months to two years depending on the individual. As I was working for State Farm full time, I took my time doing this.
2002 In February, I went to License School at Camp Sumatanga to receive my license to preach. It was there that I first met Robert Mercer. Robert has become one of my best friends and I think he is one of the finest people I know. We would later be roommates in seminary.
In June 2002, I was appointed as a Student Local Pastor to Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Decatur. The people of Chapel Hill are some of the best people in the whole world. They gave me the ability to grow as a pastor. I listen to some of my Chapel Hill sermons and think, “Those poor people had to sit through this horrible sermon.” Their encouragement and support helped me become the pastor that I am today.
In August 2002, I began Memphis Theological Seminary. I did not want to go and hated the fact that I had to go back to school. However, this became one of the highlights of ministry career. Being in this environment truly helped me grow in my spiritual walk like never before. It was some of the best years of my life.
In January of 2005, I was appointed Latham United Methodist Church in Huntsville.
In May of 2006, I graduated from MTS.
In February of 2007, I went before the Board of Ordained Ministry (BOOM) for interviews in regards to being Commissioned. The three main areas of focus are Theology and Doctrine, Called and Disciplined LIfe, and Practice of Ministry. My total paperwork for this was close to 70 pages. Then went to Camp Sumatanga for the interviews in each of the three main focus areas. I was commissioned a Resident in Ministry.
In the Fall of 2007, I completed Level 1 of Clinical Pastoral Education at Huntsville Hospital.
In the Fall of 2007, I also began work on starting a new church called The Bridge.
Late summer and early Fall of 2009, I began working on the paperwork for the BOOM in regards to Ordination and turned this paperwork in to the Office of Ordained Ministry in November.
The final step of this long process (hopefully, explain more about that in a moment) happened today when I met for interviews with teams having the same focus as the teams for commissioning. This was different though. Now they were looking not as much at my theology, but how do I apply it in the course of my ministry. I found this to be a very affirming process and one that while stressful was very rewarding.
Once you reach this point, there are several options the BOOM can take.
- Vote to ordain you.
- Not approve you and give you another year to be brought back for the same process next year.
- Completely reject the Resident
- The BOOM also has other things that can be done such as elaborating on answers contained within you paperwork.
This is the end (hopefully) of ten long years in this process and if all goes well, I will be ordained an Elder in the Methodist church during Annual Conference in June.
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