Ordination: It Takes A Church

by The Rev. James Beavers
Canon for Ordinations

Unsure. Unsettled. Unsuited.

That’s the way I felt during much of my journey toward ordination. Ask other priests or deacons; you’ll discover that most experienced the same.

We recall how Saul of Tarsus received his exceptional call to ministry: a brilliant light from heaven drove him to the ground where he heard—in Hebrew—his name, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul could only utter, “Who are you, Lord?”

What came next jolted Saul like a close clap of thunder: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting….” Acts 9 records that the thunder-struck Saul spends three days in blind darkness, neither eating nor drinking. We can only imagine the questions and fears that roiled his heart and mind.

Even with such a stunning call, Saul was helped forward by two men whom God would send to speak to and for Saul: Ananias and Barnabas.

In a vision, Ananias was asked by the Lord to lay hands on the most feared person of his day. Ananias had heard the reports of the evil Saul had done, but God stilled Ananias’s fears by telling what He was doing in Saul, so, Ananias goes.

Ananias’s first two words to Saul are touching: “Brother Saul.” With those two words of acceptance and welcome, warm light began to flood Saul’s inner darkness, even before the scales fell from his eyes.

Later, a man nicknamed Barnabas, “Son of Encouragement,” recognized God’s hand on Saul’s life. It was Barnabas who would present Saul before a skeptical leadership council, urging them to embrace this most unlikely convert.

Are we not all indebted to these two servants of Christ for their words to and on behalf of Saul?

Words from others feature prominently in the stories the Ordination Committee hears during its interviews. We seek to both listen and hear: listen to what the applicant tells of his/her journey meanwhile asking the Holy Spirit to help us hear what He is doing at this time in this life.

There are inner and outer witnesses shared by those seeking ordination, the big and small moments and messages, the still, small whispers which move them forward. Some of those witnesses are inward: spiritual senses or nudges from God that seem to point toward ordination. Equally valued—probably more valued—are the witnesses from outside, the words of family and friends, fellow church members, and even sometimes strangers that strengthen the sense of calling.

A call to leadership and perhaps ordination is not the work of a few; it is the work of the whole church. First, by praying that God would raise up servant-leaders for His Church. But also, by speaking words of encouragement to those in whom we recognize—albeit in nascent form—gifts of teaching, pastoring, and leadership.

Proverbs teaches, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Prov. 25:11 ESV). You may never realize the extraordinary value of simple words of encouragement to an unsure, unsettled soul battling questions of being unsuited. Those golden words speak through the ordination process and well beyond.

Jim and the Ordination Committee interview the men and women who believe they are called to ordained ministry in the Diocese. Those made postulants by the Bishop meet with the Examining Chaplains who determine further training toward ordination.