Lowering the Requirements
So, I have blogged in the past about my denomination rewriting of what we call, “The Order of Ministry”. It passed at our last General Assembly on a voice vote that should have been required to be a standing vote. I’m not bitter, anymore, as much as I am concerned about the future of our little frontier movement; of which I have given my life in ministry. Namely, this is not the frontier anymore. The world is more complex, more diverse, more gray than black and white and our denomination, that has a history of encouraging education of laity and clergy alike, just proclaimed that an educated clergy is no longer the norm. That is something of an overstatement, but not much. The rewrite essentially creates an alternative track to ordination that does not include a post-graduate degree nor requires an undergraduate degree. One Disciples seminary is rushing to corner the market on offering a non-residential, non-classroom educational experience that Regional Ministers can send the “alternative track” person for their education or require those that wish to be “Commissioned” (formerly Licensed) ministers to for more education. For me it involves some basic concepts.
1. Ministry is relational. The value of sharing a classroom with others that don’t believe just like you believe is the opportunity to learn language and people skills. How do you teach pastoral care and counseling or preaching online if there is no streaming video. Ministry is not mine or yours. Ministry is something that followers of Jesus participate in together and it can no more be “my ministry” than the air you are breathing is “my air”. Ministry is not a consumer product, but it seems like that is one way it is viewed today rather than vocation.
2. Disciples ordain persons into the Christian ministry and not simply our brand of Christianity. Are we now joining the great ocean of non-denominational congregations that are suspicious of education? Are Disciples becoming anti-intellectual? It seems to me that we must now change the liturgy of our ordination services to state that we are ordaining persons for ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and not into the Christian ministry.
3. Since we continue to ordain persons into Christian ministry, if someone is going to participate in the Search and Call process across Regional lines, then they must be required to have an MDiv degree from an accredited seminary. I don’t have any problem with our existing polity, if it can be claimed as such, that congregations may ordain whom they wish as a minister, their minister, but that person must meet criteria to be considered a minister in the wider Disciples denomination. That is our safety net and our common covenant with one another and all of Christendom. If a person wants to serve Gunny Swamp Christian Church the rest of their life, then I can understand that an alternative track to ordination or a commissioned ministry track is appropriate, but once one decides that a calling to ministry includes the wider Church, then MDiv must be required as a baseline, more than a gold standard, for our common covenant in ministry together.
Somehow Disciples of Christ have been altered by an anti-intellectual culture and many that have come to Disciples from other denominations for our “freedom”, but have not left their pre-Disciples baggage at the door of the church. Disciples don’t have sacraments, we believe in an educated clergy and laity, and remembering that Mary Magdalene was the first to proclaim the risen Christ we embrace women in ordained ministry. Some congregations are waking from the dream of reconciliation to a practice of reconciliation that embraces more than race and gender.
3. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has to reclaim the spirit of our founders and remodel our denominational structures that serve congregations and those serving in ministry. The “corporate” model is failing and crumbling all around us. Systemic change is needed if the General and Regional manifestations will exist in 10 years. Seminaries will need to alter curriculum, but not bend to the consumerism that is presently driving culture and Christianity as if we were cattle. It is a question of honoring our founder and builder generations by becoming the very best version of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) right now so that the Chi Rho youth today can learn what it means to practice Christianity as a Disciple rather than a generic form of Christian or Baptist or non-denominational flavor of the month.
Fredrick Schmidt published words at Patheos that argue the point I’ve argued ever since the Nazareth consensus document first appeared. His words are worth a read. Here are a couple of paragraphs. Click the title to read the entire article.
Is It Time to Write the Eulogy?: The Future of Seminary Education
by Fredrick Schmidt, | Patheos.com | March 21, 1011
Our seminaries are dying and the Master of Divinity degree has been discredited. Will we make the necessary changes to better prepare leaders for the Church, or will we limp and wander into the future?
A large number of the mainline seminaries are selling their buildings and property, cutting faculty, and eliminating degree programs. Those that are not, are competing for a shrinking pool of prospective students and rely on scholarships and lower academic standards to attract the students that they do have.
The church uses seminarians to fill the chinks in its clerical armor, appointing them to serve in churches long before they have completed the education that is needed to do their work safely and with integrity. Denominations have left seminarians to pay for their educations, saddling them with debt that they cannot comfortably repay because beginning salaries for clergy are often below the poverty level. And, at the same time, they have offered alternative routes to ordination bypassing seminary entirely, leaving those who do go to wonder why they worked so hard to accomplish the same goal. What we will never know is how many prospective clergy are lost because they conclude that if the ministry is something you can do without preparation it isn’t really worthy of their attention.