How About Planting a Church?

That’s what Allan Bevere suggests as the ordination process, based on his experience in Cuba.

I find the idea attractive, at least for certain types of ministry. There might be other ways to test various gifts. It does relate to a problem I’ve noted amongst United Methodist ministers, many of whom come out of seminary with a decent theological education, but much less practical knowledge than they need.

Note that I’m not a pastor, so I hardly can speak here as an expert from that perspective. But from the perspective of a theologically educated person in the pews, I think I have some basis for comment. Unfortunately, I think that my main comment goes back to my post from Monday. The first thing we need to do is rethink the pastor’s job description. Right now what we expect of pastors is insane.