How to Become an Ordained United Methodist Minister
- 1). Tell a United Methodist minister, ideally your pastor, about your desire to seek ordination as a minister. At the least, you'll need someone to guide you through the bureaucratic minutiae of the succeeding steps.
Additionally, you should tell significant others (spouse, children) sometime before you seriously take on the candidacy process. Ordained United Methodist ministry is itinerant. In this ministry, you and your family would be subject to appointment in any location in a defined region. - 2). Explore your calling through resources the church provides for this endeavor. The church even offers workshops for young people, especially, who are contemplating ordained ministry.
- 3). Begin candidacy for ordained ministry by applying in writing to a district superintendent of the United Methodist Church. A candidacy mentor will guide you through this beginning phase. The church requires you to be a member of the United Methodist Church or "baptized participant" of a United Methodist "ministry setting" for one year before you engage the next step.
- 4). Declare your candidacy for ordained ministry. The primary part of this step involves official approval from your home United Methodist Church of your quest to become an ordained minister. This is done at a special annual meeting of your home church under the supervision of a district superintendent.
- 5). Fulfill the mandates for certification of your candidacy. This step includes a psychological assessment (a requirement for the past several decades). More recently, the church mandates a criminal background check and credit check in order to be a certified candidate. Your continued participation in the candidacy process will be reviewed annually by a District Board of Ordained Ministry.
- 6). Complete the Candidacy for Provisional Membership and Commissioning in the United Methodist Church. This part of the process will pretty much set you on the course toward ordination in some capacity with the United Methodist Church. Candidacy completion mostly involves the educational requirements for ordination. For younger candidates, this generally means residency at a United Methodist school of theology or seminary. The church also approves some seminaries of other Christian denominations.
- 7). Decide the capacity in which you will serve as a United Methodist minister. The official titles of ordained ministry are deacon and elder. This part of the process likely involves your appointment as a pastor to a local United Methodist congregation. Conceivably, it could involve some area of ministry beyond the local church. If you've made it to this step, in all likelihood you will be an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church in the next two years. The denomination sets up the candidacy program to weed out unacceptable candidates before matters advance to this extent. By now, you should have a fully formed vision of the type and nature of ordained service you believe you can render in the United Methodist Church.