Pastors Told Ordination Important But Not Required for Ministry
From an IAD Release, May 6, 2015: Seventh-day Adventist leaders in the Inter-American Division (IAD) told approximately 1,500 non-ordained pastors who oversee congregations in Central America and the Caribbean to continue their ministry efforts. The message was given during a two-hour special program streamed live over the Internet from the IAD headquarters in Miami, Florida, reported the Adventist Review.
The IAD includes countries from Mexico down to Colombia and across to French Guiana. Islands such as Jamaica, Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Haiti are also in the IAD. The Seventh-day Adventist church in the region has over 3.6 million members in 12,326 congregations, according to the denomination’s Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research. In the IAD there are some 1,900 ordained pastors in addition to those who are not ordained.
“As pastors, we have this blessed opportunity to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by preparing a people,” division president Israel Leito said. “You must prepare people to stay on God’s path and work to keep them there.”
Church leaders reminded the non-ordained pastors that their work is critical to expanding the mission of the church and that they do not need to be ordained to share Jesus. However, Leito also stressed that not all current pastors are called to be pastors, and a decision should be made on ordination in the seventh year of service.
“We want you to continue your commitment in shepherding congregations and work toward getting ordained for greater effectiveness in the ministry,” said Hector Sanchez, ministerial secretary for the division.
Ordination allows ministers to perform weddings, baptisms, and organize and dissolve churches. Sanchez said these activities are significant in advancing the gospel in a division where about 180,000 people are being baptized every year. But, he said, in order to be ordained, “there must be clear evidence of his calling and commitment to God and the church.”
The division’s policy calls for four to six years of service before ordination. The process includes seminary training and working for two years under a pastor who serves as a mentor. If pastors demonstrate a commitment to their calling during that period, they are assigned to one or two congregations and receives oversight from church leaders responsible for the area for two to four years. After completing these years of ministry, they may be recommended for ordination.
Because there are a limited number of experienced pastors available to mentor younger pastors, some of the newer pastors may be overlooked for ordination. Additionally, division leadership does not know how many years the 1,500 non-ordained ministers have been serving.
This breeds frustration in ministers….7 years? why should they wait that long? If you were in Australia it can take between 9 to 15 years because they dont count your theology training in those years.
Nowhere in the NT did those with the gift of pastoral work have to wait that long…at most it was 3 years……the system is broken and needs fixing……
Nearly everything I read about ordination in our denomination gives the impression that the same assumption is being made as is made in the Roman Church and the LDS Church, namely, that spiritual authority is vested in and received from or through a religious organization.
Those who subscribe to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers need to stand up and say so. Those who haven’t given it much thought need to prayerfully study the subject using another doctrine of the reformation–the primacy of scripture.
What has been the average time to ordination in the NAD?
Here is yet more evidence that our present practice of ordination is broken.
In a part of the world where we have a shortage of ordained ministers, we have estimated 1500 un-ordained ministers, who cannot be ordained because we have a shortage of ordained ministers to mentor them?
And that includes only the men. How many ordained men do we have in this region? And what is their priority if it does not including mentoring other less experienced men? And of course if the men do not have time to mentor other men, then what are the chances that they would take any time to mentor a woman?
From other sources I have heard that in this division there is a common practice of setting an “evangelistic quota” for each minister. And there is considerable pressure from the Conferences to meet your quota.
Is it surprising that under these circumstances, ordained ministers would have little or no incentive to mentor other aspiring ministers, because it would tend to dilute their contributions towards attaining or maintaining their own quotas of “converts”?
If you do not get any affirmation for efforts expended in service to existing members, but only for your recruiting efforts, then the results would be exactly what this article implies is happening.
Jim,
For a number of years I have been advocating that pastors should be church planters and that any pastor who does not plant at least one new church every three years should find a different job. Churches should be established with lay leadership so that the pastor is a visitor who encourages and sometimes gives guidance.
The last numbers I saw showed that most pastors across North America have only one church and they are typically shrinking at a rate of about 1% or a little more each year. Where a pastor has two churches they tend to hold their membership numbers, if not grow a tiny bit. Contrast that with Central America and countries like Mexico where pastors often have six or more (sometimes 20) churches. Typically those churches are growing so fast they can’t construct new buildings fast enough.
William,
You of all people should understand that tallying baptisms is NOT the best way to “score” the performance of pastors.
And you of all people should know that conference officials who create incentives to “pad the score” are not doing our church any service.
And when a conference says that their ordained ministers do not have enough time to mentor new pastors what does that tell you about their priorities?
Who is supposed to be mentoring pastors if not more experienced pastors? What message are you sending when you say “Sorry but we cannot ordain you because we do not have the resources to mentor you (code for we do not want to take the time to mentor you), but please do not be discouraged because we value your contributions highly nevertheless (especially because your services cost us less money)”?
Sorry but this message rings hollow if not hypocritical to me. Just calling em like I see em.
When I was in my early teens (that was over 50 years ago), I decided that numbers of people who join our denomination should not be the only way to measure the success of “evangelism”.
I’ve changed my mind. I now think it shouldn’t even be on the list of ways to measure success.
Here are some other ways. In a given area and over the period of time devoted to the evangelistic campaign:
1) How many people who were urging boycotts or campaigning to “take over the government” in the name of “Christian values” are now promoting the doctrine of religious liberty defined as freedom from coercion with regard to religious beliefs, religious practices and religious prohibitions?
2)How many people who didn’t know who Jesus is are now proclaiming that he is the creator of life on our planet and the savior of Adam’s rebellious race?
3) How many people who thought they had to earn or deserve God’s forgiveness are now proclaiming that God’s forgiveness is a free gift; Jesus was treated as we deserve that we might be treated as he deserves, etc?
4) How many people who thought the Bible should be interpreted by a religious organization or by modern revelation are now proclaiming the principle of prior reference–the principle that anything purported to be modern revelation (or “authority”) should be evaluated and interpreted by older revelation?
5) How many people who thought of an organization as “the church” are now proclaiming the doctrine that, while the church may be organized, no organization of the church IS the church–believers (those who are learning to trust the Lord) constitute the church.
A longer list of ways to measure success will be provided on request. You may e-mail me at r.metzger44@gmail.com
Can joining our denomination be evidence of conversion?
That depends. I’d still like to think so but it isn’t evidence of conversion if the person has decided that behavior criteria for denominational membership are criteria for salvation (or for translation when Jesus returns); it isn’t evidence of conversion if the person has decided to interpret the Bible by the writings of Ellen White or by “official” statements by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; it isn’t evidence of conversion if the person has decided that an organization is “the church”. (It is appropriate to refer to a local congregation as “a church” but, even at that level, the organization of the church is not the church–the believers constitute the church.)
We (protestants who call ourselves adventists) need to create an evangelistic association similar to that envisioned by James White when the goal wan’t denominational membership. That couldn’t be the goal because there wan’t any such thing as a Seventh-day Adventist organization.
Ron,
Excellent suggestions! It is imporant to measure the change God makes in a person’s life and sometimes looking back to see how far God has brought us is a refreshing and necessary reminder.
My addition to that list is people being taught to discover and develop the giftedness of the Holy Spirit in them so they will actually be ministering God’s redeeming and transforming love.
Does the IAD embrace the principle of equal pay for equal work?
Are the estimated 1500 un-ordained ministers in IAD, conference employees?
Are un-ordained ministers in IAD paid less than ordained ministers?
“You shall not muzzle a threshing ox.” “A laborer deserves his pay.” Yep – these verses are actually in the Bible and applied therein to those who devote themselves to full-time gospel ministry.
In spite of this we are debating if Women should be ordained. Wonder, if they had to wait 7 -10 years for it to happen how many Women would still be debating this issue.
Many women pastors have been waiting for decades to be ordained.