by James Carmichael

James serves as the chairman of our Board of Ministry. The Board provides an important service in our tribe as they guide men and women along the path to vocational ministry. We thought it was important to share their task so that you can understand the process and pray for them with insight.

Let’s Talk

The Board of Ministry helps men and women who feel a call from God to serve in vocational ministry through a credentialing process that sets a standard for gifting and doctrine in our conference’s churches. We help discern, equip, and deploy servants of the church for the work of the gospel in our conference and onto the mission field. Our churches will be best served by credentialed ministers who have a theology and doctrine that follows the traditions of the Wesleyan Arminian faith.

Discern

Knowing the call of God on your life is rarely a simple process. It grows, it changes, and sometimes it’s rather surprising! When we first meet with ministerial candidates we always want to hear about their sense of calling. Someone going into vocational ministry is choosing a challenging and stressful path, so that calling needs to be rock solid. It can be a process that a person experiences over time, so we help that process through a Ministry Affirmation Process (MAP) that will assess a person’s gifting and experiences and suggest areas of growth and possible ministry opportunities that could be very fulfilling.

Equip

Once a person has a strong sense of calling, they need to be equipped with the skills to do great ministry. As culture changes with increasing speed, the minister does well to have abilities in a variety of areas. Through formal education, board-guided educational opportunities, and early career coaching, the board has been able to give new pastors and missionaries a head start into a ministerial career. We are even having conversations about the possibilities of continuing education, as not many of our retiring pastors received any early education on the controversial topics at the center of the public discourse today.

Deploy

The relationship between the Board of Ministry and the Superintendent is key to the deployment of pastors in our conference. For pastors just starting out, the Board is able to have conversations with the Superintendent to help newly credentialed ministers find a perfect fit. More and more frequently, the Board is also serving local churches through doctrinal interviews with serious pastoral candidates from outside of our denomination. We do our best to help identify possible issues of doctrine and practice, to save local churches from future headaches from mismatched hires.

Before You Go

The Board of Ministry wants to maximize it’s contribution to the future of our conference, by developing the most gifted and sound candidates for ministry in our local churches. If we can help you, your church, or future ministers you know, send them our way!

To contact the Board of Ministry, please email the secretary, Gary Englert.