Candidacy, Seminary, Ordination Oh My!

Jess: Wes and I have been lame on doing our blog, and we couldn't really think about what to write. Our lives are pretty similar to the beginning of the summer. One of our wonderful friends suggested we write about, "Truth and meaning in vocations outside/beyond the church...or just how the process sucks...just some random ideas..." So here goes.

I believe that any vocation has meaning both in and out of the church. Paul says in Corinthians, "To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines."

There are some who are called to do God's work in the church, and there are others who are called to do God's work outside of the church. Wes and I have both discerned our call to to God's work in the church as ordained ministers. Some of our friends have discerned their call to be teachers, musicians, parents, and police officers (you know who you are). Each one is going to live out the call God has placed upon their heart, regardless of where they work.

That said, the process Protestant denominations (or demoninations, like I almost wrote) put their candidates through is long and sometimes painful. At points during my candidacy, I have felt attacked, as if my candidacy committee is my enemy. Instead of feeling uplifted through emails and meetings, I sometimes feel like I have to fight for the right to follow God's call on my life. The same is true of the process itself. The candidacy process started when single or married men whose wives didn't work were the vast majority, if not all, of candidates for ministry. They were free to move cross-country at a moment's notice, then move back again the next year. For those candidates who are married, women, older, parents, etc. the process is difficult and seemingly impossible.

Despite all these difficulties, God has placed a very strong call on our lives. When times get difficult, we are reminded to pray, and then to listen. There is nothing about being Christian that promises that our lives with easy. Even following God's call means nothing in that area. Abraham followed God's call, and he almost had to sacrifice his own son. Joseph was thrown in a well, sold into slavery, and put in prison. Jesus died on a cross...but God was with each of these people. This seems like a small comfort at times, and that's why God has given us wonderful people to cheer us on along the way. They support us, love us, pray for us, and remind us that our lives have a God-given purpose. So thanks to everyone who does that for us!

Wes: So, I have this friend who started out at TLU as an education major. After a number of classes in theology and after getting heavily involved in campus ministry, she finally got tired of people asking her the same question over and over again: "Have you thought about being a theology major?" She changed her major and is now pursuing a vocational career as a youth minister. Another friend of mine started out as a science major, but after hearing that same question over and over again, he too changed his major to theology and is now trying to figure out if he is being called to go to seminary to become an ordained pastor.

Another friend of mine is a math major right now, and even though she is heavily involved in the ministries of both her church and college, she does not at all feel called to change majors or pursue a vocation in ministry. Yet another friend changed majors from theology to dramatic media while at TLU, deciding that though he thought his call was in full-time ministry, it was probably not the best fit for him at that time.

I grew up being told that there was no higher calling in life than to do the work of the Lord. Being a pastor was the best thing that I could be, because it was the holiest of all jobs.

Honestly, I think this is a pile of bull poo.

My dad was in the Air Force for most of my life. He made the decision to enter into service because he knew it would bring stability to our family and job security for the future. Since he enlisted, he has been on a number of temporary duty assignments all over the globe, has moved his family across an ocean twice, spent my entire Jr High and High School career commuting 2 hours from home to work so we could live in a safe community, and has completed 3 tours into hostile countries. There is no higher calling than to choose the wellfare of your family over the ease of civilian life.

My mom is a high school English teacher who over the past 8 years has supplemented her bare-bones teaching salary with up to three other jobs on the side just so that she could provide for her children the best way she could. We didn't have everything we could have ever wanted, but we also never missed out on opportunities, never went hungry, and always had a comfortable bed to sleep in. She puts up with the laziness, apathy, and sometimes outright hostility of her students because she loves imparting knowledge and she wants to see the young people of today flourish when they are adults. There is no higher calling than to care for not only your children, but the children of your community as well, doing everything you can to equip them for life.

I don't say this to make it seem like my parents are superdad and supermom. They are, but that's a different blog post. I say this to show that that anyone's vocation--that thing which God calls us to do full-time to earn our living and give back to the community around us--is the absolute highest calling one can have. Pursuing a career as a doctor, teacher, or salesperson is just as important and divinely inspired as me pursuing my career as a pastor. The trick is to make sure that whatever you are doing, you are doing it for the Lord. My math major friend that I talked about above wants to be the best mathematician she can be and be the best youth ministry volunteer she can be. That is what she feels God is calling her to be, and there is no higher calling for her, because that is God's calling for her.

Most of those who are called into ministry as a vocation must go through a process called candidacy. Each denomination has a different process, and each one is geared toward helping candidates for ministry discern whether or not God really is calling them to this vocation. It is much easier on a person to find out they are not truly called to be a pastor if they find out before they are working full-time in a church, and it is much easier on the church as well. This can lead to some frustration on the part of the candidate, because it can easily seem like the church is making us jump through hoops to make it to ordination.

I have been lucky in that I have not dealt with many of the struggles that Jess has faced, but I know of many in the United Methodist Church who have not had an easy time with it. There are a number of steps, and it can be a very complicated process. Like the cogs in a clock, if one person or party drops the ball on something or isn't lining up with everyone else, the entire process can ground to a halt. It can be very frustrating, and I know a few people who have actually felt that their call to ministry was attacked by their candidacy committee, which should never be the case.

I think that we as a church need to seriously evaluate our candidacy process and refine it as much as possible. Yes, we should have something in place that helps people truly discern a call to ministry to make sure that ordained ministry is right for them, but it should never come at the cost of the work of the Kingdom. I also think that candidates need to be able to recognize that sometimes, the collective wisdom of other pastors is worth listening to, especially in a case like this where the final outcome impacts not only the person, but whole congregations of people.

So, yeah. Vocation. Candidacy. Awesome.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on these things! What is your calling in life, and how can you do it in such a way to bless God? How would you handle the candidacy process if you were in charge?

Good night (or good morning or good day, depending on when you read this), and God bless! You stay classy, World Wide Web!

-Jess and Wes

Babies...it's criminal

Jess: Wes and I have been terribly bad at keeping up with our blog recently. I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to all of our loyal fans, and I hope that you can still trust us to provide you with regular entertainment. In the way of excuses, we don't have a lot, except that Wes was super, super sick two weekends ago--as in, emergency room sick. By the time he was over that, we were almost to the Fourth of July weekend, and were too busy for blogs. But now we're back and ready to talk.


As most of you know, I worked at Starbucks just one short year ago. About this time last year, I had started looking around for new jobs. I was getting to the point where I was going to get all postal worker on that job. So my first choice was to look around at some other retail jobs, where I could hopefully move to a position that I deserved, rather than being stuck at the same level for eternity. Then I quickly learned that I had no desire to continue working in retail, and that the problem extended far beyond Sbux Hopewell.


Then I thought about what I had always loved...babysitting. I babysat all through middle school, high school, and college. I had even taken a babysitting job to supplement my work at Starbucks. And so the search began. Within a month, I had a new job, some free time, a schedule I loved, and what felt like a new outlook on life.


Sometimes I've worried that I just get bored with certain things and then start giving up on them: a class I don't like, a movie with a bad plot, or a job. Yet almost a year later, I am just as happy--if not more so--than I was when I quit Starbucks and started working for the Vesseys. I'm always amazed at the gifts God gives to people, and I rarely see them in myself. It took me about 5 years longer than it should have to discern my call to ministry, but my desire to spend time with children has never given me a second's difficulty.


At Mom's wedding, I met Chris' 2-year-old granddaughter, Alina. Even though she was slightly nervous about the big crowd to which she was introduced, she immediately took to me. We wandered around the restaurant, talked, and traded shoes (yeah, that was interesting). When she was semi sick and crying during the wedding photos, all I had to do was say her name and smile, and she laughed through the rest of the picture taking. As someone who can regularly spot others' gifts, but rarely see my own, I know one thing is true: God has given me the gift of loving children and having them return that love with almost no effort on my part. While this has come in handy through babysitting, and no doubt will be a great asset to me in motherhood, I have yet to discover what this gift will do for me in ministry, and I can't wait to find out. 


P.S. Look at this baby!

Wes: Babies are weird. That’s why Jess has to take care of our kids until they get into Jr. High. Then I take over.

On a more serious note, I thought I’d update all of you on my summer internship at the Albert C Wagner Youth Correctional Facility (heretofore designated as Wagner). I’ve been working since the middle of May as a Chaplain Intern at the youth correctional facility and have had some great revelations about my faith, my ministry, and the world I live in. Here are a few of them:

1. I have been horrible at stereotyping all inmates as being hardened criminals who would rather rip out my heart than greet me as I walk past them.

Going into Wagner, I was extremely nervous that I might never come out. I thought about movies like The Rock or The Longest Yard or the Shawshank Redemption that show prison as an every-man-for-himself kind of environment, where gangs determine whether someone lives or dies or worst. I thought about people getting prison tattoos and making shivs and shanks out of plastic forks or toothbrushes.

I was stupid.

Every inmate that I’ve met so far has been nicer to me than any random New Jerseyan that I might pass on the sidewalk. They make eye contact with you, smile at you, and actually take time to ask you how you are doing. Yeah, some of them are in there for some scary things, but most of them would rather put it all behind them and make a fresh start. They are smart, funny, and genuine, and even though it seems that society (including, even, the institutions that house them) would make them out to be monsters, they are decent human beings whom I have been blessed to meet.

2. I have a long ways to go before I will be able to get a grip on ministry.

I went into Wagner with the mindset that I would be bringing the light of Christ into one of the darker parts of my world. I thought that I would be teaching the inmates basic stories of the Bible and trying to relate them to their circumstances even though I knew nothing about them. What I encountered was a group of guys that know their Scripture better than any of my parishioners. They were quoting passages to me by heart that I was not immediately familiar with, making theological connections that my fellow seminarians had argued over this past semester. They were regularly practicing spiritual disciplines and engaged in worship so genuine that I could not help but be drawn in. In our small group time, they were asking me pointed questions, not just for their personal growth but for mine as well.

They were ministering to me.

And I had the audacity to think that I was the one bringing them the Gospel.

3. Sometimes the only way to fight injustice is to suffer through it with the people it is focused upon.

In the time that I have been working at Wagner, I have witnessed more injustice than any other place or time of my life. From the general atmosphere of the facility to the fear of the custody staff to the way that the inmates are treated daily, it is evident that the Albert C Wagner Youth Correctional Facility is a breeding ground for injustice.

In the last week, I have witnessed two specific events that left me feeling cold and numb. The first was during a one-on-one counseling time in the chaplaincy office, which is located directly off of the stairs and directly under the detention tier. As I was talking to a brother about his time in the prison, there was a message over the loudspeaker that the prison was in lock-down. My friend informed that this was common, and most likely meant a fight either between a guard and an inmate or between two inmates. Soon, he said, we’ll see them taking the inmates involved upstairs to lockout. A few minutes later, I watched, dumbstruck, as six officers carried an inmate up the stairs while another beat him repeatedly with a baton. My companion shook his head and told me that this happens all of the time…

The second event happened just Tuesday, when an inmate was falsely accused of doing something that warranted not only time in detention, but up to 360 days in solitary confinement. The guard who accused him of this not only had no evidence to back up her statement, but her timeline did not match up with anyone else’s, and no one believes it to be true. But since a report was filed, this inmate is in detention, awaiting a sentence, and will probably go to solitary for something he didn’t do and no one believes he did.

Apparently, this kind of stuff happens all of the time in Wagner and in other places like it. It’s ridiculous, and it hurts my heart.

Jesus said that we should visit our brothers and sisters in prison. My supervisor told me that sometimes that visit, even if you don’t know who you are visiting, can mean the difference between life and death for some inmates. They feel lost. They feel abandoned. They just need to know someone cares for them enough to walk into Wagner for them.

This ministry has been rough on me. It’s been something that has weighed me down. But it has also changed something inside me and opened my eyes to something I had not seen before. I will continue to volunteer at Wagner even after I am done with my internship. I will continue to visit the prisons wherever I am doing ministry. And I will continually urge the people in my church and community to visit the people in prison.

Hopefully, God will use us to change lives. Hopefully, God will use us to right wrongs and bring justice where there is only injustice.

Well, that’s all for today! We’ll be back on soon with another post. God bless!

You stay classy, World Wide Web!

-Jess and Wes