So for a couple of years now Roger McClellan, founder of the The Progressive Christian Alliance, has offered to recommend me to the PCA leadership counsel for ordination as a PCA pastor.
“You have a ministry larger and more vibrant than ninety-nine percent of the pastors out here,” he wrote me on one occasion. “Day in and day out, you speak the prophetic voice of the true spirit of Christ to thousands of people, many if not the majority of which have been most hurt or marginalized by the church. John, you’re a pastor of Christ’s Church if ever there was one.”
But I always turned down Roger’s kind offers of ordination into the PCA, because I felt that calling myself a Reverend would just be too pretentious for words—not to mention obnoxiously disrespectful of all the good men and women out there who actually went to seminary, who actually are real pastors of real churches.
How could I possibly presume to accept such a title, when my whole thing in life is to basically and reflexively loathe pretentiousness? I’m as anti-pretentiousness as any alley cat who ever … I dunno: sat atop a trashcan and made that spooky-weird cat sound that from a dog would be a howl.
So no thanks, I always said to Roger. Thank you so much. But I can’t.
But starting about six months ago I came to slowly but surely realize that not only could I become a PCA pastor, I couldn’t not. Which I know sounds about as pretentious as anything it’s possible to say. But … well, there it is. That’s what happened. (And I’ll be writing more about this soon.) So I applied for PCA ordination, waited, and soon enough learned that I’d been unanimously affirmed by the PCA leadership counsel.
So tomorrow, at 3 p.m. Pacific time, I’m going to be ordained as a PCA pastor in a little ceremony held at the church of my dear friend Pastor Bob (who’s back from his five-month sabbatical spent writing his doctoral dissertation!!) Officiating will be PCA representative David Stambaugh, associate pastor of Hollywood United Methodist Church.
I’d like to ask you to say a little prayer on my behalf around this. I’m certain I will feel those prayers and supporting thoughts in my heart tomorrow afternoon. Thank you.
Though I’ve never joined anything, ever, in my whole life, I’m proud to join the PCA as they go about their business of deconstructing so much of the worst of what Christianity has become, and in its place building an affirming, encouraging, open, grassroots Christianity that encourages and facilitates people stepping into the spirit of God’s reality in whatever way is best for them at that time.
No rules. No judging. No exclusion. No dogma. Just the very spirit of God.
So I’m all in. Thanks for helping bring me to this.
![John Shore on The Huffington Post](http://johnshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huffpost.jpg?w=120 "John Shore on The Huffington Post\")
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Your posts haven’t been showing up on my newsfeed. I am so thrilled and happy for you, John. God knows who He calls.
Well first off, Congratulations! That’s so incredibly exciting and wonderful.
And secondly, you honestly shouldn’t worry about not having faced the rigors of seminary school. Seminary schools basically exist for four reasons:
1) To further time for discernment (which is clearly time you’ve taken),
2) To allow for discernment by other Christian leaders of your capabilities (which has clearly already been done by PCA leadership),
3) To give you experience in ministering (which you’ve clearly had through your blog)
4) To teach you and hone your exegetical skills (again, your blog)
Everything you’re supposed to learn in seminary you’ve already been doing on your own! Your “grades” and “critiques” can be found in the comments section of your posts, you obviously can provide and publish theological literature (which has proved popular), so you’ve passed your “final exams” at the Seminary of Public Opinion. I don’t believe that any seminarian would begrudge you an ordination, and certainly no experienced minister would. So revel in this
and again, congratulations.
congratulations and much love!!
I do hope that when people ask what you do for a living, you’ll first say “I’m a writer.” I usually run the other way, when I’ve met Pastors, and would hate the idea that the “pastor” label scared a person away from someone as super-cool as are you.
amen
There is this!
Yay! Finally a pastor to keep eyes & hears attuned
Thinking of you / praying today. Happy for you – you deserve this! Continued thanks for all you do and best wishes as you continue making a difference.
P.S. What should we call you now?
So! Holy orders. WTF? Congratulations. Blog ministry makes sense to me. I like the fact that we can talk back. I notice that a number of ordained people are laying cyber hands on you. I think that’s a good sign. Best wishes. You have a fine Pastor’s wife, so you should continue to be a good shepherd. I thought I noticed you cleaning up your language.
Absolutely you are in my prayers!
Well, John, this is a very interesting posting by you, indeed. First, congratulations! And, second, thank you for taking it so seriously that you refused to actually do it until you finally felt called… I mean, REALLY called.
That’s what finally happened, you know: You finally felt actually called, as evidenced by the key phrase that you used, “I couldn’t not.” That’s a common feeling that those called eventually have: Resistance, resistance, resistance… until one may resist no more; until NOT responding to the call seems more wrong than responding. Such a feeling is evidence, indeed, of a true calling, righhtly bathed in humility; and the time you spent refusing it — resisting it — was your discernment period; your hearing God in the cacophony of your life, whether or not you were listening.
Mainline denominations make a big deal of the discernment period… as, don’t get me wrong, they should. But some of them use it more to weed-out those whom they’re pretty sure won’t tow whatever is their line, than they do for the purpose of truly helping the potential ordinand arrive at a felt-to-the-core-of-oneself, truest-of-true callings to vocation. The most salient benefit of the mainline denominational process is that it’s intentional. Your discernment, on the other hand, was going on inside you even without your necessarily knowing it. Some consider that a truer means of doing it, because it involved little or no shaping or drawing by anyone.
St. Ignatius Loyola wrote: “In every good choice, in so far as it depends on us, the direction of our intention should be simple. I must look only to the end for which I am created … [t]herefore whatever I choose must have as its purpose to help me to this end. I must not shape or draw the end to the means, but the means to the end.”
Your arrival at this place has been neither shaped nor drawn by what a church body, in its “wisdom,” has either counseled or decreed; but, rather, by this magnificent vocational work of yours, here, on this website, and also in your books…
…a circumstance into which God has placed you as a consequence of your faith; and so it has shaped and drawn; it has been the means to this end. You now claim citizenship in two of God’s kingdoms: earthly and spiritual. In the spiritual kingdom, Christ serves us; and in the earthly one, we serve our neighbors. That, in fact, is the acid test… the guide for how to live out each and every vocation to which anyone may be called: How one’s calling serves one’s neighbor, as Christ commanded and said was the law and the prophets.
God has been present in all the seemingly ordinary things you’ve done, here. He has been at work as you’ve lived-out your both call and vocation in its everydayness, here, so that others, here, who have felt excluded from knowing Christ, can come to know him, indeed. In the process, you have become more intentional about how this work serves your neighbors.
I agree that a seminary education of some kind tends to make one feel more prepared. Through a formal education for ministry, we are able to convert from our call of Alselm’s “faith seeking understanding,” to our vocation’s “understanding guiding service.” And then, of course, there’s the whole “study to show ourselves approved unto God” business, and all the “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training” that naturally attends, as found in 2nd Timothy. [grin]
Your interesting journey, though, has involved no small amount of intuitive self-study that’s more than equivalent to a good theological education as evidenced by your gifted interpretation and conveyance of its lessons in your many writings here, and in your books. While I’ve been pursuing an accredited divinity degree for some time, now (and taking almost literally forever finally getting it done), you have walked the walk with gifted understanding, and have performed no small mitzvah for your readers along the way.
So many others out there only talk the talk, and want to shortcut things by opting for both degree mills and, ultimately, ordination mills: both “schools” and “churches” that will award “degrees,” and then “ordain” anyone, who’s willing to pay their fees, and nothing more (quotation marks intentional, to convey lack of credibility).
Roger McClellan’s church, though, could not be further from that kind repugnance and hypocrisy. His Progressive Christian Alliance (PCA) has, from the outset, aspired to, and quickly achieved, true credibility… and, more imporantly, relevance. I could not be more impressed by PCA; and I am honored, then, to say that Roger has also been suggesting PCA ordination to me for quite some time, now. I have yet to take him up on it, though, for a variety of reasons, including some not terribly dissimilar from your own. Ordination to Word and Sacrament is a very a big deal, for which I still feel, at the moment, unready. Once I finish my divinity degree, most any of the mainline denominations would take me (though would require that I take two to four courses from their respective seminaries to orient me to their demoninational doctrine and polity). But I have long been falling away from such mainline denominational… er… umm… let’s call it “stuff.” So it’s actually quite likely that I will one day take Roger up on his offer, as I enviously note that you now have.
Anyone discerning a vocational call wants to understand what God expects from them; how they can distinguish God’s voice; and, importantly, what will become of them if they turn God down. The beauty of your situation now, as with all who’ve discerned — by hook or by crook — a true calling, is that your finally arriving at that you “could’t not do it” makes it so that you’ll never know, because you’ve not turned God down after all.
In her book, “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith” (Random House, 1999), Anne Lamott wrote: “We in our faith work stumble along toward where we think we’re supposed to go, bumbling along, and here is what’s so amazing — we end up getting exactly where we’re supposed to be.”
Roger’s rationale for your ordination is spot on. You have, indeed, helped no end of people on the margins with these web pages, and your books. That is as much — and as a both valid and relevant — a ministry as any out there. It need make no apologies to anyone. You have inadvertently discerned your call, and now, finally, you can’t not respond. It’s exactly where you’re supposed to be…
…at that very special place where the needs of the world intersect with your gifts and the unselfish joy with which you give them… your very spiritual bliss. Your gift of this website and your books, and the intentionality of your loving and helping of neighbor as Christ commands us, now makes your ordination not merely an option but, alas, a necessity…
…a necessary ordination which does not confer spiritual status but, rather, recognizes and validates the ability you have shown to assume a leadership role in the community of faith; a role of Word and Sacrament to “equip the saints for the work of ministry,” and “building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12); a role of service, as you’ve been so magnificently doing.
I, for one, will be praying for you not the little prayer around your special day tomorrow that you have requested, but, rather, a very large prayer for not only that moment, but also for your continued good works inspired by your faith, and those on the margins who will continue to be served by them.
God bless you, John, as you embark on this new chapter in your life. It is no small thing, as you clearly and impressively understand. My prayers and good wishes are with you as you begin it.
Pax.
_______________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
Best wishes, John. My prayers are with you as you take this step.
I’m only surprised you aren’t already ordained. All my prayers and good thoughts are with you.
Congratulations!
Congrats John!
Blessing on you today and always.
1) congratulations or whatever the non pretentious version of that is. MazelTov?
2) Every time you wrote PCA i had a small ex-psycho-calvinist panic-attack. Because PCA are the initials of a conservative reformed presbyterian denomination that are the only churches in this area of the country that were *almost* conservative enough for my family. But not quite.
You’re the closest thing to a minister that I have. Thanks for being there and congratulations!
Congratulations, John
I am go to pray the you continue trying Gods patients for many years. You have made an impression on me that has help me find a way to incorporate organized religion back into my life with out feeling trapped or stifled. i know you are going to be opening windows and doors for may who gave up hope.
John Mayo
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