ziggy29
Moderator Emeritus
I think I mentioned a while back that my wife was in a training program which provides an opportunity to pursue an alternative or "non-traditional" path to the ministry. It looks like this ***might*** be about to bear some fruit.
There's a potential call to two different small congregations, about 10 miles apart, a couple hours east of here. They currently have an interim pastor who is looking to retire and whose contract is up at the end of the year. He and his wife are going on vacation for six weeks in late July and all of August. In a couple weeks we'll be meeting with him and representatives of each of the two congregations to talk about things. Unless it goes bad (for whatever reason) she may be serving these congregations for those six weeks as a "trial" period, and if it seems like a mutual good fit at that point she could be installed there in January on a more or less permanent basis. She'd be in a more intensive ministry training program which could, in a couple years, lead to the alternative path to full ordination (like the alternative certification process for teachers with four-year degrees but no post-baccalaureate study in the field) at which time she would be a full ordained pastor even without the seminary degree.
We talked with the pastor in our current church (he knows what's going on as much as anyone in the region) and he said this was a good possibility and good environment (he's warned against other "possible" leads in the past which didn't turn out).
I can work anywhere there's a reasonably fast and reliable Internet connection and a telephone, so that's not an issue. (I'd actually be a bit closer to Megacorp's regional office in Austin.) DW was getting frustrated with the lack of progress and possibilities despite the open calls around us, but now it looks like some wheels are finally turning.
Not being too presumptuous about it all, but cautiously hoping for the best here.
There's a potential call to two different small congregations, about 10 miles apart, a couple hours east of here. They currently have an interim pastor who is looking to retire and whose contract is up at the end of the year. He and his wife are going on vacation for six weeks in late July and all of August. In a couple weeks we'll be meeting with him and representatives of each of the two congregations to talk about things. Unless it goes bad (for whatever reason) she may be serving these congregations for those six weeks as a "trial" period, and if it seems like a mutual good fit at that point she could be installed there in January on a more or less permanent basis. She'd be in a more intensive ministry training program which could, in a couple years, lead to the alternative path to full ordination (like the alternative certification process for teachers with four-year degrees but no post-baccalaureate study in the field) at which time she would be a full ordained pastor even without the seminary degree.
We talked with the pastor in our current church (he knows what's going on as much as anyone in the region) and he said this was a good possibility and good environment (he's warned against other "possible" leads in the past which didn't turn out).
I can work anywhere there's a reasonably fast and reliable Internet connection and a telephone, so that's not an issue. (I'd actually be a bit closer to Megacorp's regional office in Austin.) DW was getting frustrated with the lack of progress and possibilities despite the open calls around us, but now it looks like some wheels are finally turning.
Not being too presumptuous about it all, but cautiously hoping for the best here.
)
