| Young people discuss
calling, ministry
This article is the fourth in a series about the
changes in pastoral leadership in the Florida Conference. To share
your views, please e-mail Michael Wacht at MWacht@flumc.org.
By Michael Wacht
LEESBURG — As the United Methodist Church and
the Florida Conference face a decline in the number of ordained
elders, some conference leaders and pastors say the decrease in young
people responding to the call to ordained ministry is a key factor.
Several members of this year’s Florida
Conference Summer Camp team say they feel called into ministry, but
are struggling with many issues. Their personal goals, church
politics, itinerancy and the variety of ministry options are affecting
their decision to respond to God’s calling.
Disney Weaver, a recent graduate of Florida
Southern College and a member of First United Methodist Church, Haines
City, said he is called into ordained ministry, but first wants to
experience ministry in other ways to gain some perspective on ministry
and the local church.
“I want to…find my voice,” Weaver said.
“…I want to gain some life experience. It would be very beneficial
for me to see the church through eyes other than a pastor’s or
ordained minister’s, to have another perspective.”
Weaver said he experienced his call at a youth
retreat during the seventh grade while watching the ocean waves during
a prayer service. He realized one wave replaced another as it came
into shore. “For this church to continue, I realized those there had
to step up and assume the role of leaders,” he said.
Some of Weaver’s uneasiness with ordination
comes from a friend and his ministry. “He’s led to be in ministry
for ministers, to do counseling and help them with the stresses of
ministry. I see and think about that, and it does affect my pursuits
in the ministry.”
Becky Ambrose, a second-year student at the
University of South Florida and a member of Plant City United
Methodist Church, said she spent a year exploring her call to ministry
and decided not to pursue ordination.
“I’ve gotten some very hostile feedback
about being a woman,” she said. “There was not so much hostility
in the United Methodist denomination; in the United Methodist Church I
found a lot of support.”
She said most of the negative feedback comes
from the variety of religious influences on her college campus. “If
I was a guy and said I was going into the ministry…people say, ‘Oh,
that’s so great.’ When I do, it’s, ‘Oh, well, I don’t think
that’s so great.’ ”
Ambrose has heard about congregations dividing
because they received a woman pastor. “To have the feeling that I
would be driving more people away from a congregation than I was
drawing in is discouraging,” she said.
Church politics also played a role in Ambrose’s
decision. “As I learned more about the church as an institution, it
has turned me away some,” she said, adding she saw one church in her
town divide over a specific issue, and members of the two
congregations no longer speak to each other.
“I’m not sure I want to be associated with
the stereotypes of corruption…and hypocrisy,” she said.
Ambrose’s immediate plans are to enter the
Peace Corps and use her engineering degree to help people in
underdeveloped nations find sources of clean water.
Erin McElroy, a sophomore at Flagler College and
a member of Edgewater United Methodist Church in Punta Gorda, said her
calling is the mission field. She first felt that call at an “Acquire
the Fire” convention sponsored by Teen Mania Ministries from Tulsa,
Okla. Its main focus was encouraging participants to go on a mission
trip.
“I went to Nepal for two months last year,”
she said. “I loved it. It’s all I can see myself doing.”
McElroy said she “wouldn’t be content”
unless she was working with people who have no other access to
Christianity. “In the United States, people always have access to a
church and access to it [Christianity] if they want it,” she said.
“In Nepal, I saw the need for that. There are so many who are
unreached.”
David Duncan, a junior at Florida State
University and a member of Tallahassee’s Trinity United Methodist
Church, is on the pre-ministerial track, but says he’s not sure if
he wants to be ordained. One reason is his experience with
intergenerational tension in his own church. “I come from a church
with a lot of older adults,” he said. “If they want it done a
certain way, you have to do it a certain way. That only meets the
needs of one group, not the church as a whole.”
Duncan said he is also uncomfortable with the
itinerant system. “I’m not fond of moving around,” he said. “If
I’m called, I want to be there and stay a while. I think it’s
because if I start a job, I want to finish it.”
Andy Oliver, the son of the Rev. Mike Oliver,
pastor of Jacksonville’s Mandarin United Methodist Church, says he
has no doubt that God is calling him into ordained ministry.
Oliver experienced his call during summer camp
in Leesburg after his seventh-grade year. “On commitment night, I
had already accepted Christ, but I felt God tugging at my heart for
something else,” he said. “I asked Mark Caldwell, who was on team.
He prayed with me, and I felt in my heart God calling me to ministry.”
A major factor in Oliver’s calling was seeing
his father in ministry. “I’ve seen how rewarding and exciting it
can be working in a local church,” he said. “Bringing people to
Christ, having the privilege of being there when people are being
discipled or nurtured or in their time of need…to serve in that
capacity is definitely a privilege.”
Oliver said other clergy can help young people
experience and respond to the call by getting more involved. “I know
a good number of young people who think they may have the calling, but
they don’t know what I know about the process,” he said. “Maybe
more ministers should talk about it, and invite people to discuss that
with them.”
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