Frustration

I know I am called by God to work for the Church.... I just didn't realise it would be so difficult to get through the door :-)

I remember some of the questions raised by our now General Secretary, Martin Atkins, during his presidential year. One in particular strikes me now, he was musing over some of the people he had met and conversations he had had with ex Methodists who are now in Ministry in other denominations- in essence he was wondering why, and feels we absolutely must address, why they decided against Methodist Ministry and jumped denominations.

I must admit to feeling frustrated and dissilusioned of late over my attempts place in Methodism and could easily see how tempting it would be to move elsewhere. It is only my love of Methodism and its core values that stops me doing so. Let me list some of my frustrations:

1. Limited routes into ministry: There only seems to be two routes into 'secure' Methodist ministry, Presbitual or Diaconal - both well grounded, but also both with defined academic routes 'in'. There is no clear path for a missional ministry. Dont get me wrong, both Presbitual and Diaconal can, and do, fill this role, but that is a consequence of the person rather than the role? I think, perhaps confussingly, what I am trying to say is that these routes require you to be trained into ministry, and there is no route for being in Ministry and trained.

2. The time it will (can) take to become an ordained minister. I was a litle shocked when I realised that it would take up to seven years to complete all the training and probationary periods necessary to become a Methodist minister! Whilst I have no issue with education, training and testing - it seems like an awfully long time. I am currently 31 and would like to be making a impact on an age group whilst I am still young enough to identify! I would rather the Church took the risk and didn't insist on candidates being fully acredited local preachers, (I would rather a more vocational stream - but failing that...). As it stands I will need to spend the next two to three years struggling to manage existing Church commitments, work, a family and local preacher training before I can even consider full time Methodist ministry.

I know that these are some of the reasons I am finding the Methodist Church frustrating, so I can well see why others have found the same and entered into ministry elsewhere. I also know that changes are afoot in the Church, lets pray for a re-energised and relevant Church that can affirm the gifts and callings of many more before they trickle away to share their gifts elsewhere.

God Bless