Seven Quick Takes

Hello, loyal fans.  A million apologies, I'm really really out of the loop with writing these days, and it is completely not intentional.  Let me fill you in on a few of the exciting things that have been happening around here these days...

1.  Samuel is being weaned.  He's almost two and a half, and for many reasons it's just time.  Now, you can't just wave a magic wand and wean a two and a half year old, so we've been resorting to a lot of bribery and diversion to cut down the nursing.  So far we've put in place a few ground rules that he is still testing on a daily basis, but we have the actual nursing sessions reduced to 2-3 times a day.

2.  Unfortunately we can't say the same about night time nursing, because Samuel has developed nightmares, which he's having pretty much every night now.  Lots of crying, lots of nursing, lots of showing up in our room and wanting to sleep with us.  No one is getting much rest.

3.  David has another preaching opportunity, this one is pretty exciting because after all the pulpit supply he did in a local Anglican parish he finally has been asked to supply at a Wesleyan church!  It's scheduled for August 12th.

4.  And that's not the only ministry news.  David's student license was renewed and he also recieved notice in the mail that he has finished the 6 core courses necessary for ordination and is able to progress to a district license.  These are both great pieces of news.

5.  My bronchitis cleared up after 10 days of antibiotics, Clara got her two month shots and David apparently needs new glasses AND a new prescription.  We've started to work with Samuel on his colours (since he doesn't consistenly know any of them) and are still heavily into decluttering.

6.  And David's parents are coming to see their new grand-daughter from August 6-16.  I don't know exactly what we've planned for those days, but we're sure to have plenty to do.

7.  Finally, and if you're friends with me on Facebook you'll know this already, I've started a running program!

So you can see, I'm really not trying to ignore this poor blog, I'm just in a season of being overwhelmed right now.  Check out Jen at Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes.

Ministry Update for July

It's been quite some time since I did a ministry update post, and I'm not even sure at this point what I have to say that's new...but here goes.

1.  David finished section 1 (15 pages) of the three sectioned course he's working on.  He's probably about 1/3 done section 2 and 1/2 done section 3.  It would be really great if we could get this all done in the next week.

2.  He's also sucked it up and gone ahead and written his driver's exam.  We knew he'd need his license for most pastoring positions, but still, it cost almost $100.

3.  He's still working as the communion co-ordinator at our church, but that has slowed down in the past few months as Summer comes and communion is less frequent. 

4.  There haven't been any further offers to do pulpit supply.  We figured this would be the case.

5.  We recently got our ministry resume updated, including posing for a new family photo.  Our friend Amanda then edited it for us, so it looks very nice, I think.

6.  District conferences are this month, but with work schedules being what they are, we are not attending any of them.  One day, maybe.

I think that's it!

Lilacs...

Here's where I'm thinking we may try and pose for our new resume photo.

Those pants are so small.  Sorry about the diaper cover.  But a nice locale, eh?

Taking A Family Photo - High Maintenance, OCD-style

My good friend Laura has offered to take a few family photos for us, and so we've been looking for just the right spot, and I may have found it on one of our walks.

We are probably a bit more mindful of family pictures than the average person, but that's because as a family in ministry, and searching for a pastoral home church, we need to keep our ministry resume (which includes a family photo) up to date. 

Maybe I over-think the family photo-taking procedure, but we just, well, we just don't tend to be the family that can throw together the children, toss on a few trendy, cute outfits, and jump in front of the camera and get the whole business done in 2 minutes.  To get our most recent photo, taken in November when I was pregnant with Clara, we had such great out-takes as:

The one where I'm staring at my shoe.



The one where I look like a vampire.



The one where both gentlemen are looking in different directions.

 

The one where David was going to kiss me.



The one where we discover where Clara gets her chins.



The one where Samuel gets suspicious of something off-camera.

And so on.  You want to look normal in your ministry photo, I've been told.

I wonder if Laura knows what she's getting herself into?

Ministry Update For Mid-March

1.  Yesterday was David's District Board of Ministerial Development (DBMD) meeting, in which he gets interviewed and, theoretically, has his student level license renewed for another year.  There was a lot of fuss in getting this meeting set up this time because, although the District insisted they sent us an email, we never received one, and so our paperwork was late!  But all's well that ends well.

2.  Yesterday we also sent off our third resume of the hiring season.  Our resume is looking a-MAZing, I think, but we haven't had any bites yet.  We're still hoping that God has a plan for us this Summer, but if it doesn't involve ministry we're not sure what that plan might be!

3.  David preached last weekend as a guest speaker at one church, and has another sermon lined up at a different church this coming Sunday, bringing his total guest preacher dates up to seven, I believe!  This is great news for us!  The more opportunities he can get to practice, the better we'll look to prospective boards.

I wish there was more to report, but we're just keeping on keeping on.

A Ministry Update for February to March

1.  David's ministry license renewal is scheduled for March 13th in the afternoon.  If you remember from last year, since his license is a student license he has to sit through an interview process to renew it annually.  Once he progresses to the next level of licensing, a district license, he won't have to do this.  The only way to get a district license, however, is to get hired at a church.  Chicken and egg, chicken and egg.

2.  I'm not concerned about this meeting, though, for several reasons.  First, David has the license already so it seems unlikely they would take it away for no reason.  But more importantly, he's been very productive this past year.  He's acquired a position at our local church as communion co-ordinator, he's started attending the men's prayer meetings and has been meeting frequently with both of the senior pastors at the church.  He's preached five times and built up a lot of relationships.  In fact, the only thing he hasn't done is complete two courses.  He's enrolled in one, but he hasn't completed any.  Still, it is what it is, we don't have hundreds of dollars just lying around and we're not willing to go into debt so that's that.

3.  On March 18th David has been asked to preach again at an out-of-town church he's preached at once before.  He's been giving his services to these churches free of charge, but it would be nice to start building additional relationships with other local churches so that he could start to get paid for this work.

4.  The jobs are being posted!  We've seen several we're interested in, and heard of others through the grapevine.

Ministry Update January 29th

1.  We got the first round of editing back on our ministry resume and the page was RED with corrections!  Eeek!  But, a lot of the suggestions were valid ones, and once we put our own stamp on the resume again, instituting some of the new stuff as well, it really does look a lot better.  The corrections do mean a bit more work for David in terms of writing (all I do is format and spell/fact check) but he should be done them by tomorrow.

2.  Today was a communion day at the church, which meant an especially early morning for David.  He did get a chance to speak to the assistant pastor, who we've never really gotten to know very well, and find out that the Men's Prayer Group is meeting tomorrow evening.  This is something that David has been debating getting involved in for a while now, but all too often with our schedules he can't manage something extra like this.  However, tomorrow night he is free from work, and so he's going.  I'm praying it will be a time of encouragement for him.

3.  No Canadian jobs have been posted on the Wesleyan website since the last time I wrote an update.  We're hoping February will truly be a starting point for this.

Ministry Update January 25th

1.  We've learned that most of the Wesleyan churches will be holding their annual votes in February, which means that if a minister doesn't have the congregation's vote they will start resigning after finding out.  Sooooo...that gives us a bit better understanding of when, exactly, we'll start noticing more job postings.

2.  We finally have a resume finished and sent off to one of the Wesleyan pastors who have offered to proof read for us.  The last step in getting this done was to write David's Statement of Ministry, which proved to be the most complicated paragraph I think he's ever had to write.  Now that it's done, and sent, we're just going to have to wait for the first round of corrections/suggestions to come back before deciding whether to have the document edited a second time.

Ministry Update for Mid-January

{I'm determined to give these more frequently now, as it seems as though I'm getting asked, more and more, "what our plans are".  I wish I knew what our plans were; at least I can share what we know!}

1.  It finally happened; the very first Canadian job posting went up on the Wesleyan Church website on January 10th.  We anticipate that the pickings will be slim as the season revs up, in fact this particular job is not even one that we can apply for, but at least there is a tangible Canadian presence on the site.  This is encouraging!

2.  David met with our pastor last week to discuss the next communion service at the church.  It was encouraging to see my husband getting all excited about the service because they're trying something new.  Every time David is allowed to discuss and analyze church details he gets all happy and pumped up, which makes me happy and pumped up!

3.  Today was the 'sermon Sunday' that I mentioned in my last update a week ago.  It almost turned into a fiasco because I foolishly gave David the wrong readings and so he ended up preaching on a text that wasn't scheduled for this Sunday!  Samuel and I were planning on going to hear him but on the way Samuel, who hadn't been feeling well, started throwing up and so David and I agreed that I would take him home and put him to bed while David continued on to church, and so we missed church altogether.  Apparently, at the end of the service one of the congregants turned white and almost fainted and an ambulance was called!  After everyone had left David turned to the church elder and said "well, that certainly wasn't the reaction I was hoping for!"  The sermon topic?  Repentance!

4.  Over supper last week David told me that he'd realized that to maintain his Student Level Ministry License he needed to take at least two courses every year, and that the deadline for this year was coming soon.  We had been so overwhelmed with expecting the new baby, balancing two work schedules and managing tandem-but-never-together parenting without having to resort to daycare that, honestly, it had completely slipped my mind as well!  And so we agreed to re-enroll David in the Leadership and Church Management course that he hadn't finished yet as step one.  We got that done and he's working away on it.

5.  It's a great, optimistic step that I'm taking in planning for a move that may not happen, but I'm buying storage containers, purging our clothing and toys, etc. just in case.  You never know, right?  So, every time plastic tupperware containers go on sale somewhere, there I am, buying more and spending hours washing, sorting, and organzing clothes, jackets, baby stuff, stuffed animals...

6.  Over the meeting with our pastor one of the things that came up was the question of whether there was a supply preacher list for the Atlantic District.  We'd been told that there was, and that David could put his name on it and then get called for preaching experience whenever a spot needed to be filled.  Well, Pastor R. got right on the phone to district headquarters and asked them, and they said no, that list didn't exist.  This really hurts, because that was going to be one of our possible steps for getting more preaching experience under our belts, but ultimately it's good to know.  On the plus side, Pastor R. did contact the Wesleyan churches in the area to let them know that David was available if they needed him.  It is very unlikely they would call a complete stranger, but it was a nice gesture.

7.  And, finally, we've heard of another possibility in the past few weeks - a longer-term substitute pastoring position in a different denomination.  Apparently the Baptist and United churches around here are having a terrible time keeping up with filling their pulpits and are hiring Wesleyan pastors to work short-term.  It's not ideal, but it IS a pastoring position and something to start us off.

A Ministry Update for the New Year

{I haven't written a ministry update since the end of October, and so I feel like I should 'catch everyone up' so to speak.  I wish there was more to report.}

1.  Our family photo that we had taken for our ministry resume was getting old.  We had taken it in early Summer, 2011, with the intention of using it until Fall/Winter.  But with my pregnancy, and Samuel's haircut and my hair growing out etc. etc., we needed an updated one a bit sooner than we'd thought.  So, we chose one of the pictures from our 2011 Christmas photo shoot.  Now our ministry resume will be a bit more updated-looking until at least April/May, when we'll have to replace the photo with one that includes our new daughter.

2.  David's work as the volunteer communion co-ordinator is still going strong.  He's probably helping organize and prepare communion at least once a month, on average.  Although we're happy that he has this ministry, we can't help but feel that our current church could be helping him acquire more ministry skills by letting him accompany a pastor on visitation or perhaps lead a small group.  Even though he's been licensed now as a Wesleyan minister, he's never even been invited to speak, even at a prayer group.  This is disappointing to us.

3.  David does, however, have another preaching opportunity through the Anglican Church where I work.  He'll be preaching on January 15th and this will be, I believe, his fourth sermon at this church.  There's a good congregation here, and they're very supportive and encouraging to us, so I have no doubt that we'll enjoy the experience and the inevitable conversation afterwards!

4.  I've been watching the Wesleyan website like a hawk for any opportunities, but so far, nothing has come up in Canada, only in the States.  We had discussed going to the US for work when we first started our ministry journey, but I think we've decided that at this stage of our lives it wouldn't be prudent.  With two Visas to acquire we've been quoted $4000 and at least a six-month waiting period, and that's on top of the hardship of being in another country, the paperwork, the lack of family and friends, the expensive move, etc. etc.  It's sad that we have to cut ourselves out of these jobs, but on the other hand, it's nice that the decision is firmly made and we can move forward.

5.  Finally, and this idea is very much 'still in the works' so I'm not sure how much to expand upon it in this space, but we've been wondering if God isn't calling us into an internship opportunity.  The idea of forsaking a paid ministry job for another year, in favour of an unpaid internship at a church, isn't appealing on several fronts.  To start with, there's the lack of money, and then the lack of benefits, insurance, etc.  Plus, it's another year without a church.  On the other hand, if David was appointed in an official capacity at a Wesleyan church, the time he spent there would count towards his ordination requirements (there's two years of appointed in-church work required for ordination) which would be helpful.  He would also get the experience he's so desperately lacking at our home church here.  As an unpaid assistant minister, he would be building his skills in leading services, visitation, Bible study leadership, etc. and that could only improve his chances at getting a job when and if one comes up in the next year.  We have a church in mind to approach, but as I said, we're still very much in the preliminary stages of thinking about this.  If you feel moved to do so, though, we've love your prayers!

That's about it right now.  It doesn't seem like very much for almost three months, but those three months were slow ones.  Now we're beginning to enter the resignation/hiring process period of the year for our denomination and, I hope, things will start to look up.

Thoughts on Ministry

It has been raining all morning, but it was truly pouring at 6am this morning when Samuel woke up with a soaked-through diaper, diaper cover, pajamas and blanket.  So David and I worked quickly to dry and re-cover everything and then we sat in the dark in Samuel's room while he nursed and cuddled himself back to sleep, and we had a conversation about where, exactly, we were going with the whole ministry thing.

It's remarkably hard in a denomination that doesn't 'place' its pastors to not be disheartened by the 'job hunt'.  Part of you can feel very abandoned by everyone, especially when you look around at how many of us unemployed ministry couples there are, and how few jobs.  Some of the couples I know have taken themselves out of the race, so to speak, by working through a district to church plant.  Although this gives the rest of us a bit of a fighting chance, there is still not enough work, and too many workers.  I just counted to see how many Wesleyan churches exist in Canada, and the numbers aren't encouraging: we have 107 churches in Canada, spread over 7 provinces and 2 districts.  Of those 107, maybe, if we're very, very fortunate, 40 or so will be looking for a new pastor of some sort this coming season.  Maybe.  Now, the vast majority of positions will be filled by a pastor leaving one church and joining another, which just re-arranges the gaps a bit, but let's say, just for the number's sake, that there are 40 openings this year.

10 of those openings will be for senior positions, which we won't be able to compete for.  So that brings us to 30.  At least 10 of those postions will be for worship leaders or accountants or something that we don't have the skill set for.  Now our numbers are cut to 20.  Those 20 positions will be like water to a thirsty traveller.  There are many, MANY more than 20 of us needing a job.  Many.  And the pool keeps getting bigger and bigger every year as more pastoral graduates come into the hiring circle from the Bible colleges.  Some job seekers will go on the missions field, or take work with a travelling evangelist or perhaps they'll try for a job in a sister denomination.  Some of them, many of them, will make ends meet like we do, with dead-end jobs that pay the bills.  At least two 'ministry' families I know, while waiting for a job to appear, are working at McDonald's.

When we do get a job offer, it will almost certainly be bi-vocational.  David will work at a church for an 'advertised' number of hours, which is almost certain to be drastically less than his actual hours, and then he'll work another job after work, probably at another dead-end place like the gas station, all over again.  A pastor friend of ours recently took his first job, as a part-time youth minister in a small-town church.  The hours of the job are 24 a week, but he works almost full-time and is expected to be on call for the youth day or night.  This will last for years, maybe, until he proves himself willing to do anything and be anything to anyone while racking up incredible mileage on the car and doing the back-breaking work of whatever a parish dogs-body does.  After that, if we're very lucky, David will get a full-time job as an assistant, or maybe a senior pastor at a small rural church.  He'll work for peanuts, because they all do. 

I don't say all of this to complain.  Ministry isn't something you go into because you want to make millions or live a luxurious lifestyle.  It requires hard work and dedication, much like any job done well.  On the other hand, this sort of slog, this kind of painful, uninspiring life is not a draw to anyone.  What healthy young person wants to do this?  What will I tell my son if he announces that he wants to join the pastorate?  What will I say?  And what kind of life can this denomination be offering its followers and its pastors if they say "Come, we will train you and tell you wonderful stories about how much good you can do in the world and how great everything will be and then, once you graduate, we will leave you high and dry.  You will not be able to have a family or children easily because you won't be able to afford them.  If you're single, we have nothing to help you with to live a healthy life or find a spouse, providing you can find a normal person who wants to spend their lives in the same predicament you are in, and your job?  Well, we can't promise you a thing.  We can't promise you a single, solitary thing.  You're on your own."

Believe it or not, I don't say this because I'm disappointed, although I am.  I also am not saying this because I feel hopeless, because I don't.  I feel abandoned by the church, though.  I feel as though this is the worst possible way to treat the men and women who you claim are your leaders.  As though they are commodities.  And I can't believe that the church is agast at the shortage of leaders!  Why, who on earth, other than someone crazy or completely convinced of God's call on their life, would ever take this job in a million years?  I'm not in the least surprised at the lack of enrollment in the Bible colleges, because who would consider a job in the ministry?

I remember reading once that before the middle of the last century, lower-middle class Catholic communities often considered the priesthood as a perfectly viable career choice for subsequent sons.  Naturally, some of your sons would join the family business or apprentice themselves to a trade, but for the academically-minded, with no real educational options because of limited funds, the priesthood provided an invaluable opportunity to join a community, acquire an education far beyond what your family could otherwise afford, and have a safe job prospect until retirement, and then a safe, loving elderly period where you would be well cared-for.  I imagine the same was somewhat true for daughters entering religious communities.  Education, happiness, communal living...no fear of being a 'lonely spinster', of not being useful or being forced into factory work because that was all you could get.

I think that to some extent the denominations that have worked in a similar way have always been the most effective at recruiting new blood.  Who wants to join a group that promises you nothing?  That says, effectively, that you're on your own, we can't help you.  We won't help you.

Thoughts?

Ministry Update For the End of August

I've really enjoyed bringing you these ministry updates for the past year, and I've equally enjoyed watching how we've slowly progressed forward in our search for the church God wants us in!

Here's our update...

1.  Regarding David's course.  He's fallen behind but continues to assure me that he will be finished by the middle of October.  I think we'll both be very relieved when this part is done.

2.  Regarding further ministry opportunities.  David did try to get onto a visitation list so that he could get some experience with that aspect of ministry, but so far there hasn't been a lot of luck in that area.  In addition, his opportunities for preaching have come to an end now that Summer is over and regular ministers are back in town.  However, our church did post a volunteer position for a Communion Co-Ordinator which David applied for, and got accepted to.  So, he is now the communion co-ordinator, in charge of purchasing everything necessary for monthly communion, training the servers, setting up the church for communion, etc.  He's already got new ideas for family communion, where the head of each household would be the one to hand the elements out to his individual family members.  The minister seems very excited about all of this, so we're happy that God has put a task in our way to complete.

And so far, that's it.  We are in a holding pattern right now.  David has several aspects of ministry that he needs some experience in to be a viable job candidate, but on the other hand, we could prepare forever!  With preaching and communion down, though, and his six mandatory courses finished, he'll start working towards finishing his BA this year.  This Leadership course is the first step on an even longer road to accomplishing that goal.

Warning: your future may not be as bright as previously anticipated.

I do my best to not blog when I'm feeling down, but today is an exception.  David and I have been working hard at ministry oppotunities for almost a year now, and although we've seen progress, we haven't seen that elusive goal yet - a church job.  There are many things holding us back from this, but the biggest obstacle is simply time.  Jobs show up throughout the year but mostly in the period of January through June.  And this is August.  Hot, gross August with lots of bugs and a 17 month old who likes to stick things in sockets and constant anxiety attacks... 

It's August.  Anyway.  So, in an attempt to be proactive I've made a list for David and Amy's Ministry Job.  Note that I didn't say dream job, just job.  This is what we need to have just to make it work.

1.  A Wesleyan Church position or similar denomination that will accept David's credentials without requiring more education, which we cannot afford.

2.  A parsonage (or a salary that reflects the rent on, at minimum, a two bedroom apartment.)

3.  Covering moving costs.

4.  Full-time, so that we have family health coverage.

5.  In Canada.

6.  A salary of at least $24,000 a year after taxes. (More if we need to pay rent.)

7.  In an area where we don't need a car to function.

Yeah, if you're shaking your head slowly back and forth, join the club.  The chances of us finding this elusive job that does not exist is pretty nil.  Although I have been looking at the website for the Free Methodist Church In Canada, and they are almost identical to the Wesleyans except that they have, like, three times as many churches.  When David gets home this afternoon I may have him take a look, too.

We have some major hurdles to jump, though.  The first one is that although David is officially a licensed minster now, it is a student license, not a district license.  This means that his chances of getting a position where experience is listed in the job description is non-existant.  I have heard of only one pastor getting a senior position with a student license.  So what does this mean for us?  Well, it means that the job that David will get will be something fairly low.  An assistant pastor in charge of visitation or something.  Most student ministers seem to get given the Children's Pastor/Youth Pastor/Worship Pastor positions.  And that would be fine except that:

A) David is an older (relatively, he's not 18!) man, and churches like 'hip' 20-somethings to run their youth groups.

B) David is a man.  And churches tend to prefer women as their children's pastors.

C) David is not gifted in playing instruments and singing, both of which you need to be a worship leader.  It's practically mantatory that you wear tight jeans and strum a guitar.  Just kidding.  Sorta.

Now, that doesn't make it impossible that David would get a position in children's or youth ministry.  He's done both before on a volunteer level.  It could happen, it's just not likely.  More likely is an Assistant Pastor or Associate Pastor position.  But they are rare, and coveted, and that brings us to problem #2:

David hasn't finished his degree yet.

He's working on it, but it isn't done.  And until it's done he's competing with graduates from the Wesleyan Bible Colleges on uneven ground.  They have majored in Pastoral Studies, and David had a family and has basic licensing from Indiana Headquarters.  Although technically, they have the same level of licensing, but the degree makes them better on paper.

So when a job does come up, David's resume may simply get tossed aside because almost every other candidate is going to have a BA.  And the problems keep going...

1) We don't own a car.  Even if we did own a car we couldn't afford to drive it so there isn't any point in buying a car.  This is a tricky one because it means that whatever church David is at needs to be central enough that he doesn't need a car to do his job.

2)  We don't have the money to move.  It cost $3000 to move from our old house to here, 16 hours away.  The days of me pulling $3000 out of my account and moving are long. gone.  Even if I had it.  Which I don't.  And three grand was with using a U-Haul with my family and friends pushed into driving and unloading/loading the van.  I couldn't do that move again on less than $3000, and probably not for that.  Plus we don't have licenses to drive a truck, so that means we'd have to use a moving company.

So where does this uplifting post leave us?  Here, I suppose, in rural nowheresville, which I can't stand.

Ministry Update!

Quickity quick, snippity snap!

A terrifically brief ministry update!  David got a phone call today!  His application for the student ministerial license!  The one that we 'knew' he had recieved but didn't have official recognition of yet!  It came!  They called to verify it!  He is in the midst of paperwork for headquarters in Indiana!  I can't stop using exclamation points!

Hurrah!

The senior's service

David arrived home shortly after I had posted the last update, but rather than change what I had already written I decided I may as well write a new post to chronicle his talk!

David tells me that there were about 12 people at the service, more than we had anticipated, but that most of them slept throughout, which we had been told was the usual reaction of these elderly folk.  There was a brief service and then David spoke for about 7 minutes on psalm 23.  After the service he had a chance to speak to one lady who had been very distraught when she was first wheeled into the chapel.  He said she had calmed down by the end of the service and wished him a good day.  The other minister leading the service (an Anglican priest) was approached by a woman asking to know whether goodness was enough to get to Heaven.  After a conversation ensued David says that the Anglican priest led the elderly lady to Christ.  Her name is Eva, please pray for her in her new life today.

The entire service was about 25 minutes from beginning to end.  From the sounds of it everyone was quite fragile and I'm glad that Samuel and I, both of us still getting over chest infections, didn't go.  Although I think elderly people tend to like babies and I imagine Samuel would have been a hit.

I asked David if he felt like this service has given him any experience in senior's ministry and he said no.  He would like to start working on getting some visitation under his belt before really feeling confident with seniors.

And so that's it for the sermons, for now at least.

Ministry news: The retirement home service

David is leading the devotional at the local palliative care nursing home today.  Although the priest giving communion suggested he take his text from the gospels, David felt called to talk about psalm 23.  We had lunch together before seeing him off and I'll let you know how it went once he gets back!

Another brief ministry update

David and I are starting to progress from the early stages of ministry preparation into the middle stages.  A week ago last Thursday his request for a student ministerial license (the first level of licensing in the Wesleyan denomination) went before the Atlantic District General Conference.  This conference meets annually and if David is not approved then we would have another calendar year to wait.  We have no reason to believe he wasn’t approved, however, because no one has contacted him to say so, and so we’re cautiously optimistic.  We’ve been told that David will be forwarded a copy of the minutes (as will his local church board, which is our sponsor) this coming week.  At some point, soon we hope, he will also be given some sort of actually licensing card.  So we’re kind of in limbo right now but we have more information than we did.

David preached again today, and from all accounts his sermon was great and was very well received.  Samuel and I couldn’t make it, unfortunately, but I’ve heard good things.  The two or three suggestions for improvement that he had received in the past (mostly about projecting his voice more – he’s very soft-spoken) were apparently well taken care of because no one had any suggestions this time around.   His scripture wasn’t an easy one; the parable of the wheat and the weeds, but he practiced on me and I thought he handled it very well.  He preaches for the last time on Thursday at a local long-term and palliative care nursing home.

We did have a bit of discouraging news but we’re trying to get past it.  The Wesleyan church in Canada is split into two districts, the Atlantic and the Central.  A District Superintendent leads each district, rather like a bishop over a diocese.  As of a few weeks ago our DS announced that every position was filled in the Atlantic district, which is excellent news for the church, but not such excellent news for us!  Our other option is the Central Canada District, which encompasses five congregations in the province of Quebec, six congregations in the province of Alberta, and forty-five congregations in the province of Ontario.  Except that almost every position in those churches is filled as well.  Everything is full.  So, this presents us with a bit of an issue.  We need to decide whether to a) wait and see what happens in the next few months in regards to a position opening or b) try for a congregation in the States.

David and I had agreed in prayer to wait here until a position in a church opened up, and not move for any other reason, but we are starting to wonder if that’s the best decision for us or if we should try and ‘go where the jobs are’, and where that even is!

Please pray with us as we start this whole new section of our journey, and pray that we will exhibit patience as we wait on the Lord for the verification of David’s licensing.

A brief ministry update

For those of you who follow these!

David's service on the 24th has been cancelled.  It was never really firmly in stone anyway.  Instead, he'll be preaching at a local retirement home on the 21st.  He'll be working in tandem with a priest, who will be offering communion after the sermon.  On several levels this will be a new experience for David; he's never shared a service before, never preached at a retirement home and never had to write a sermon specifically for the elderly.  At first I really didn't understand why the sermon would be any different, but it was explained to me that the retirement home service will be small and attended by people with short attention spans and in many instances facing the end of their lives in a way that we, the general public, aren't used to.  It's hard to talk to a 90 year old terminally ill man about being an uplifting influence to his children - he may need to hear a different sermon.

Please pray for David as he tackles his third sermon, coming this Sunday, and as he prepares for the retirement home sermon the following Thursday.

Ministry Update - July 7th

Just a quick note:  We've been told that the conference to vote on ministry licenses was held today at the district camp.  Although we don't know what the results were for sure, one way or another it has been decided.

Ministry Update From the Beginning of July

Okay, it has been a little while since I gave a ministry update so I'm about due for one, I think!

David has preached two sermons so far, both in the same Anglican parish.  The parish priest is on sabbatical until August 1st, and so they've been filling the pulpit with the assistant priest, but she is elderly and can't manage up to three sermons a day, and so David has been picking up some to help her.  This means an uncertain schedule, and a different pulpit every time!  So far he's preached in a small satellite church and the larger main service at the central church both in the same parish.  He has at least one, and possibly two more sermons booked this month, both helping out the same minister.  The first (which is on the 17th of July) is in a separate parish, but again a small, country church.  The last one (on the 24th of July) is at a special commemorative service at a now defunct Anglican church owned by the parishes.  Four services, four different locations.

As for further preaching opportunities the only one that has presented itself so far is a chance to speak at a street shelter in a local city.  This is completely new to us; we have no experience whatsoever with this kind of preaching, but David is always up for sharing God's word so we think it might turn out to be a fun experience for us!  This will probably happen sometime in the Fall.

On the education side of things, David is about three-quarters done the first of three sections for his final correspondance course: Leadership and Church Management.  To complete the first section he needed to read a book, fill out about twelve self-assessment profiles and then for each profile write a one-page, single spaced response to his results.  He's finished the book, taken all but one self-assessment, and written about four profiles so far.  We're hoping he'll be finished section one soon so that he can move on to the next section.  He's about three months into his six month timeline on this course.

Future course opportunities are a little hazy for us right now.  We feel that we just need to focus on getting this one done!  David may apply for a Wesleyan District Education Grant, and if he does that (and gets it)then he will use it to take 'Introduction To Homiletics' at the Bible College.  He's taken the course before but wants to refresh himself and learn new techniques.   In January (and this is looking far into the future and into the land of maybe) he would be interested in taking a class in 'Expository Preaching'.  Both of these courses have a very heavy workload and both would require some fairly extensive time management from us regarding child care, my work at the church and the cafe, David's job and so forth.  The college is about a 45 minute walk away, longer in the Winter, and we don't own a car.

In terms of other opportunities David is in the process of getting more involved in ministry at our local church.  We've been trying to set up some 'job shadowing' for visitation at the local hospitals and nursing homes between our pastor and David.  After the last meeting I think that may be starting to come together and hopefully after the Summer ends he will be following our pastor around to see the less fortunate in our community.  Our pastor has also provided David with a reading list to go through.

Finally, David's application for a student ministerial license goes before the district council this week.  This is the culmination of all of those interviews he did in the Fall and Spring, if you remember.  The district board of ministerial development (DBMD) has approved his application and this final step is necessary to actually grant the license.  His application will be voted on before Sunday, that's all we know.

We can't tell you how much we've felt your prayers and kind wishes over the last nine months of this journey.  Keep praying, saints, the race isn't won!