Our Common Life...Words from the Conference Staff

Over the last couple of years, the process of authorization for ministry in the United Church of Christ has undergone some significant changes. Local churches are expected to take a much more active role in the authorization process. The same procedures now apply to all levels of authorization-licensed, commissioned and ordained. The acid test for authorization is no longer "What did you study?" It is "What have you learned?" Suitability for authorization is now measured against a broad set of criteria called the "Marks of Faithful and Effective Authorized Ministers."

One part of the process has remained constant, at least in the Northwestern Association (and, I suspect, in the other associations of the Iowa Conference). Candidates for ordination are still required to write and defend an ordination paper. Having just completed my ordination paper, the process of writing it is still fresh in my mind. There is a recommended formula for the paper. It's in three parts, a theological perspective; a discussion of the history, theology, polity and practice of the United Church of Christ; and a recounting of the candidate's own personal faith journey.

The purpose of part one of the ordination paper "is to provide a way for the student to share his or her present grasp and understanding of the teaching and traditions of the Christian Church down through the ages and to relate this to his or her own theological perspective."  As I sat down to write my own paper, I remember thinking to myself "How hard can this be?" When you get behind all the jargon, all they want to know is what I believe. Should be a piece of cake, right? Start with a generous helping of God as the Creator of the universe. Stir in a cup of the Holy Trinity. Add several ounces of the divine and mortal natures of Jesus, a pinch of resurrection and a soupçon of grace and redemption. Bake it all in a preheated word processor at 325º for an hour and, presto, one theological perspective, ready to serve. Well, let me tell you. It's not that easy.

Many of us, I am sure, had to write some kind of personal creed or faith statement when we were confirmed. It was pretty straightforward then. Everything we needed to write was already in our confirmation text. Anything we couldn't find there was in some catechism or other. All we had to do was extract the big points, put them on paper and string them together in some minimally rational way. Not too much was expected of us because we were children. We were just starting out. Something happened to us on the way from confirmation to now. Life happened. And life tends to make things messy. And complicated. Ambiguity creeps in. Nuance raises its ugly head. What once was a tidy set of rules and simple truths is no more.

Life tends to jumble a person's faith. It raises questions where once there were only simple answers. Facing those questions head on is something every one of us should do from time to time. That's what makes an exercise like writing a theological perspective such a valuable thing. Just what do I believe? It's one thing to answer that question in your head. It is quite another to actually reduce those thoughts to writing. There is something about writing that is fundamentally different than just kicking an idea around in your head. Writing makes you focus. Writing makes you face the hard questions, questions that require ordered, principled and precise answers in a way that personal musing never does. Just what is the trinity? What does it really mean to say we are redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? What is forgiveness? What is grace, and where do I find it in my life? And perhaps the hardest one of all: "Just what is it that I really and truly believe?"

Most of us will never face an ordination examination or an Ecclesiastical Council, and could quite comfortably live our entire lives without ever having asking these questions, much less having to reduce the answers to some kind of coherent written whole. But should we do so? Should we be able to avoid these questions? Should we be able to avoid asking and answering questions about the fundamental nature of our beliefs, about our faith and about our relationship to God? It is a bedrock principal of our religious tradition that each of us is a minister. We don't need a license or an ordination certificate. But if each of us is a minister, then shouldn't each of us have to examine our own faith? Shouldn't each of us have to answer the hard questions for ourselves? Of course we should.

You are a minister. Don't wait for an ordination exam. Face the hard questions. Write your own faith statement. Read it. Live it. Then sit down five years from now and write it again. See what's changed in your life. See what's changed in your relationship to God. You may be amazed.

Blessings to you,

Tony Stoik

Associate Conference Minister for Western Iowa

This had been cancelled earlier this fall, so remember to get this back on your calendar!

Celebrating the Gifts of Honored Laywomen at

Nursery Care Provider Needed

A loving, compassionate caregiver is needed during church school and worship on Sunday mornings.  Also, nursery care is needed for the first Monday of every month for team meetings.  Other opportunities available as needed.  Position averages 15-20 hours a month.  Please send resumes no later than Sunday, November 14^thto Rev. David Sickelka david.sickelka@urbucc.org or Rev. Amy Murray amy.murray@urbucc.org.  You may call the church at #515-276-0625 with further questions.  www.urbucc.org