IOWA JOURNEY BEGINS

When I contacted Bishop Alan Scarfe about visiting the Iowa Diocese of the Episcopal Church to learn about their experience with Total Ministry, I was warmly received. Today I experienced more of that warmth as we ventured out across the state of Iowa for two hours toward the Nebraska border.

In Council Bluffs, Iowa I met with members of the Western quadrant to learn about how they became involved in ministry and eventually became members of their ministry teams.

At the heart of their experience was a process known as ordination to local ministry.

Essentially what happens is that a parish or a cluster of parishes that need to make a change in their pattern of ministry seek assistance from the diocese in the forming of a ministry development team. With the assistance of the bishop's staff members of a parish are brought together to learn about the ministry of the baptized, spiritual gifts, and the biblical foundation for ministry in the church.

As members engage in the conversation, a time comes when they are all asked to nominate persons from their group whom they believe may be called and gifted by God for ministry in specific areas, including the priesthood.

The bishop contacts the individuals who were nominated to see whether they have heard God's call, and if a group of them respond affirmatively, they are asked to commit themselves to take part in a multi-year training process that will eventually result in their commissioning for ministry as a team, with one of more of their team being set apart by ordination.

Such a process is quite different from the traditional pathway to ordination for most clergy. Instead of leaving home for three or four years of study (after receiving a college degree), candidates are trained together with a group of people from their own parish with whom they will be ministering and developing the ministry of others in their parish.

Also, instead of starting out in ministry with a tremendous debt after attending seminary and heading out on their own into a parish where they will have to develop relationships with everyone there, these priests are able to carry out their roles as ministers in  a place where they have already been trying out their gifts for ministry among people with whom they already have relationships.

There are plusses and minuses in having such a system of preparing people for ministry at a local level. That would take too much space to write about here. But it is a meaningful way to address the issues that exist when churches have small membership and are unable to call or support their own full-time, salaried clergy leader, and it makes possible the continuation of the ministry of the gospel in settings where it might otherwise be impossible.