Ordination

[Anna]

In Matthew 7:1-20 Jesus talks about knowing a tree by its fruit. I believe that one reason why it is so important that the person being ordained is already fulfilling their calling is that it helps us as humans make the right decisions. If the person being ordained is fruitfull in the area in which they are called then we are simply working with God and confirming what God is already saying about this person, and what He is doing in and through this person. We are working with God.

Ordination is not something to be taken lightly. I want to make sure that what I am doing is part of God’s calling on my life and that I am going through ordination for the right reasons. I wouldn’t want to be ordained into a work of my own hands. Prayer, meditation, and listening to God are all part of the process of confirming God’s call on one’s life, as well as in the process of confirming a person’s ordination.

[Zach]

Fulfilling their ministry is so important when considering someone for ordination because ordination is a human recognition of a God given call. The recognition of the call means that God has graced that person, and as a community it is being recognized, and recognized by recognized authority within that community. In this way I believe Jesus remains functionally the Head of the church, as the church is led by those with grace from him to do so, and is safeguarded by those who look for that grace. Personally, I have often considered the importance of ordination for these very reasons. In a time when influence is often more sought after than genuine spiritual authority, ordination is so valuable to the body of Christ as a way to continue to recognize and release those graced by Jesus to serve this way, and not let this vital aspect of the church life be turned over to political expediency or opportunism.

[Jaylen]

I suppose I don’t fully understand why these titles are extremely important/fundamental, maybe they aren’t saying they are. I see the value in the sense that without structure in an organization there is just chaos, so simply in order to run things efficiently its good to have distinctions between things so we can wrap out minds around them. I believe there is also value in empowering people who are already doing so well with God, and propelling them into even more!

[Kimberly]

It is important for candidates to already be fulfilling their call because the ordination is mean to affirm their calling. Ordaining a person is seeing that they have a calling, and are actively living it out, and the church is affirming that this person is fulfilling their ministry call in an effective way.