The wonderful world of Dan's Ordination

Nearing the end of my ordination process, I thought I’d take time to reflect on this marvelous experience. Most churches have a fairly extensive process of authorizing people to be their Pastors. They do this for the following reasons:

- Screening Pastoral candidates (separating the “sheep from the goats”)
- Training their Pastors (usually extensive seminary education)
- Equipping people for ministry (supervised ministry experience)
- and Blessing their Ministers (i.e “laying on of hands”)

Each denomination has its own unique process of “Ordaining” or “Consecrating” their ministers. They usually establish their qualifications, and then set some highly bureaucratic process through which their ministers must perform.

Some denominational standards are very interesting. In some churches, seminary education is of little or no importance at all. I remember reading of one church wherein the pastoral candidate was required to simply stand up in a local church and share his/her testimony, and the church (which did the ordaining locally) then voted to ordain that individual right there during a Sunday morning service. The pastoral candidate was totally under the training and supervision of that particular local church and its Pastor.

The Covenant Church offers one of the most extensive processes in ordaining their ministerial candidates. There are several tracks that ministers can take in being credentialed. A minister can go for one of the following:

Lay Minister’s License License for Pastoral Office
Commissioning for Staff Ministry Ordination

The Lay Minister’s License is for those who have a specifically defined ministry in a local church and are under the supervision of an Ordained (usually Senior) Pastor. These people are usually deemed gifted and a blessing from the local church’s perspective and fill some specific need for that church. Little, if any, formal education at a Seminary is required. This license is renewed annually by the conference.

The License for Pastoral Office is for those who are in full-time ministry (often as a solo Pastor or an Associate Pastor) and are working towards their Ordination. This is the License that I have been working under for the past 15 years. The LPO ministers usually need to have a Bachelors Degree in religion studies or 40 credits of Bible & Theology-related undergrad classes AND have five years of full-time ministry experience. They are under the supervision of a nearby Ordained Covenant Pastor.

The Commissioned Staff Minister needs to have at least a Bachelor’s degree in an area that matches his/her area of ministry (i.e. a teacher or chaplain), and needs to go through the Covenant Orientation Process (15 credits), and take a minimum of 4 theology classes at North Park. Most of these ministers are working in the field of children’s or youth ministry, and serve a specific group within their local church.

Those who desire to be ordained are indeed taking on a high calling. This is usually a lifetime commitment to full-time ministry in a Pastoral setting of a Covenant Church. A Master’s degree at North Park Theological Seminary (or at another permissible Seminary) is a firm requirement. The person has to have the standard Master’s of Divinity degree or (in some cases, as was my situation) a Master’s degree with at least 60 academic credits.

My personal credentialing journey has been both incredibly challenging and personally fulfilling. I’ve got to be honest with you - there were a couple of times when I almost dropped out. The workload at the Seminary coupled with constraints at home more than once almost buried me. Even though our Scholarship Committee here at First Covenant Church (THANK YOU!) helped to pay much of the tuition, I still had to pay for most of my expenses (travel, housing, meals) while in Chicago and about half of the tuition, especially when I took ten (10) classes during the last 2 ½ years. The tuition for each 3-credit class is about $1200.

There is a VAST series of interviews that the Ordination candidates most go through.
- First you’ve got the initial interview from the local church and the Conference Board,
- Then you have the interview from the Seminary to begin your seminary training,
- Then the Conference interviews you every 2 or 3 years to monitor the candidate,
- Then the interview from the leadership of one’s local church for final ordination,
- Then the interview from the Mid-West Profiling Office at the Seminary
(this is the most extensive one involving one’s psychiatric profile & mental health),
- Then you have the final interview from the Conference Ministerial board, and
- Finally the interview from the national Department of Ordered Ministry in Chicago
(this is the one I did last week). Whew! That’s a lot of grilling!

Having gone through all that, can you see how careful the Covenant is at screening their ministerial candidates? If one wants to be an Ordained Pastor in the Covenant, you’ve got to be committed! - in one way or another! Obviously, ordination is a lengthy process, but a very fulfilling and educational one. Last weekend as the entire Board of Ministry (including Drs. Jay Phelan, Glenn Palmberg and Curt Peterson) gathered around me to pray their blessing upon me, I was moved to tears. My best friend (and wife), Karen, deserves an enormous debt of gratitude for helping me through this process. In some ways I don’t think I’m the same person that I was ten to fifteen years ago. Thank you for all of your prayers and support and patience in my calling and development as a Pastor! May God be praised for His faithfulness to complete what he started twenty-five years ago when he first called me into ministry and May he continue to call many others to serve him in this wonderful little church called, “The Covenant!”