Earlier this week, the Board of Ordained Ministry conducted two days of one-hour interviews with those seeking ordination as elders and deacons in the United Methodist Church. As a member of this board and being part of this process, I am reminded that our spiritual journeys are not one-time qualifying interviews or once-saved-always-saved professions of faith. Spiritual journeys are an ongoing and intentional seeking to be more Christ-like.
When we complete our interviews with ministry candidates, they all receive a letter with affirmation of them as servants of God and specific suggestions on what they should work on to become even better servants of God in their positions. This is not so different from John Wesley's small groups which he called "classes" where the beginning question of one layperson to the other was, "How is it with your soul?" This was followed by group suggestions, prayer and support to love God and others with more and more heart, mind and soul. This was Christian accountability; how did one's life and witness square with the witness of Jesus? This was the only standard; this was the first identity as I have been saying in our sermon series.
A newly elected group of leaders will be meeting in person at the church on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, and then virtually with others around the Conference on Sunday, Feb. 6 (register for that webinar here). They will learn nuts and bolts of church leadership. But before that, they will be reminded of what always comes first: loving the world through FUMC Plano as God first loves us; this is the journey of our salvation.
Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,
PS:
Fraud alert: they're at it again. If you receive an email from pastorreqdesk@gmail.com talking about prayer sessions or asking for Amazon gift cards, just delete; it is not from me. Thanks.