By Willow (willowashmaple.sbs, formerly of willowashmaple.xyz)
July 13, 2024
A few weeks ago, I saw an interesting discussion on Threads:
Apparently this isn’t common knowledge, so I will do a quick crash course on Protestant ordination and educational requirements in the U.S. The historic U.S. denominations (sometimes called “mainline”) all require extensive training before ordination, including a 120-credit Master of Divinity. Many “low church” traditions require nothing at all, and sometimes even eschew higher theological ed., seeing it as undermining the simplicity of Scripture & compromising the purity of a “call to ministry.”🧵
- Joel Michael Herbert, June 19, 2024
And Rachel Craw responded:
It also reflects an evangelical attitude that is suspicious of higher education, believing ‘knowledge puffs up’ because God uses the ‘simple to confound the wise’. The example being the disciples themselves as ‘mostly’ uneducated fishermen who were qualified by faith alone.
I responded:
The flip side of this also has to do A LOT with socioeconomic class. Mainline denominations esp. The Episcopal Church and the PCUSA are "country club" churches geared toward the wealthy, their pool of potential clergy can certainly afford postgraduate full-time education, and they expect their ministers to be highly educated (and pay them very well!). Evangelicals esp. Baptists and Pentecostals tend to be historically blue-collar, and many pastors are bivocational with working-class jobs.
I thought it presented me with a good opportunity to expand on this topic and discuss more broadly ordained ministries in Christianity.
The first followers of Yehoshua ben Yosef, the founder of a Jewish faith renewal movement who is now known as Jesus Christ, lived in the Hellenized Jewish community in which Roman, Greek, and Judaic cultures and social norms were intertwined. This movement mostly met in private homes to share meals, discuss the scriptures, and pray. At this point, there were no clergypersons. The simple ritual now called the communion or the holy eucharist, was led by the head of the household who hosted the meeting. Compare this with the Jewish Shabbat customs of kiddush.
This also meant that it was possible for women to preside over communion if they were the heads of households or simply acting as hosts of the meetings (in case their husbands were not yet believers).
This era was marked by the concept of radical egalitarianism, in which this nascent faith community rejected arbitrary social distinctions.
As this movement spread beyond the Jewish community into Europe and North Africa, a few events reshaped the trajectory of this movement creating what we know as Christianity.
1. The movement is now largely a Gentile (that is, non-Jewish) phenomenon.
2. The destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem and surrounding historical events permanently split Christianity from Judaism.
3. Gentile Christians began to develop a theology of supersessionism (or replacement theology) in which they believed that they were now the new priesthood.
4. In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, and eventually, made it the official religion of Rome.
One of the most obvious effects of these events was to move Christianity from the realm of the private, household sphere to the public sphere. With Christianity gaining more power and influence, the Roman social code precluded women from presiding over Christian meetings. Eventually, a hierarchical system of church leadership emerges, with bishops, presbyters, deacons, subdeacons, and minor orders of exorcists, lectors, and porters. Ministers began their careers starting with being porters and climbed the rank as if Christianity was now a big corporation or an army. Eventually, bishops became as powerful as kings, lording over their feudal domains called dioceses (or eparchies).
The roles of the church have changed and evolved throughout its history, adapted to the social and historical realities around it.
One of the key tenets of the Protestant Reformation is the priesthood of all believers. Protestantism rejects the legitimacy of human priests. This meant two things: (1) anyone can approach God by faith, and (2) anyone can read the Bible and receive God's Word.
Hence the role and expectations of Protestant ministers shifted from enactors of sacramental mysteries to those of teachers. Especially in the Reformed denominations, pastors (called "teaching elders") are expected to be expert theologians and Bible teachers above all.
Some denominations have rejected the idea of ordained ministers altogether, for example, the Society of Friends (Quakers). In traditional, unprogrammed Quaker meetings, there are no pastors or deacons. There are clerks who administer their congregations, but they are just like anyone else. (Note: Some Quaker splinter congregations, usually called "Friends Churches," have adopted a more Evangelical style and have pastors who are seminary-educated and ordained. George Fox University belongs to this faction of Quakerism.) The Jehovah's Witnesses, on the other hand, take their "everyone is a minister" doctrine to heart and regard water baptism as the rite of ordination. Nevertheless, they do have a very hierarchical and top-down organization similar to the Roman Catholic Church in practice. A typical congregation has three elders and a few ministerial servants (their names for deacons), who are appointed but not ordained to those roles.
Becoming an ordained minister is usually the hardest in the Mainline Protestant denominations (for example, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church, and Disciples of Christ) as well as the Unitarian Universalist Association and Metropolitan Community Church. This usually involves three years of full-time and usually residential postgraduate theological education at an approved (or denomination-affiliated) seminary, successful completion of an internship, extensive background checks (may include credit checks), physical examinations, and psychological evaluations. This process excludes most but only the privileged who can afford to get into additional student debts, relocate to another city (which is often an expensive place to live, such as Berkeley, California), and forego three years of full-time income. Unless one's parents are rich and supportive of them going to a seminary, or if one is independently wealthy already, this is prohibitive.
If you want to become ordained in the Episcopal Church, the process is more challenging. Unless you graduated from an Episcopal seminary such as the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, even if you already are ordained in another Mainline denomination, you will be required to attend an Episcopal seminary to complete the Anglican Studies program, due to the Anglican-specific topics you must master, most importantly, the liturgies and sacraments.
All this will set ministers back at least tens of thousands of dollars, so they become obsessed with career advancement, moving from one church to a better-paying church. It is not unusual for ministers in Mainline Protestant denominations to move on every five to eight years.
These churches tend to attract a more affluent and well-educated membership. They expect their ministers to be intelligent and better educated than they are, as well as capable of administering a congregation with a million-dollar budget and a real estate portfolio.
By contrast, Evangelical churches tend to have much lower requirements for prospective ministers aside from their testimonies of faith and good conduct.
The Evangelicals' primary focus is to preach the Gospel and to disciple believers. They believe that these acts are only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit and through a life of prayer and immersion in the scriptures.
To rapidly spread the Gospel and to plant as many churches as possible in the still-young United States, the Evangelicals began Bible colleges as cost-effective alternatives to seminaries. Bible colleges, or Bible institutes, train prospective ministers and teach seminary classes but at the undergraduate level. Typical Bible-college curricula include a minimal number of basic education classes (English writing, math, social science, history, and natural science) to meet state requirements, followed by biblical studies courses (usually OT and NT surveys, hermeneutics, exegesis, etc.) and ministry studies courses (such as homiletics, pastoral counseling, marriage and family, chaplaincy, church administration, etc.). These colleges are more affordable and lead to a bachelor's degree (B.Th., B.Min., or B.Rel., but rarely B.A.). Many bible colleges also offer 1-year certificate programs and 2-to-3-year diploma programs.
Some Independent Fundamental Baptists (IFB) reject even Bible colleges, believing that pastors and preachers ought to be trained solely through mentorship. Generally, their training consists of how to preach, how to study and teach the Bible, how to evangelize, and the practical nuts and bolts of running a congregation.
Historically, Evangelical churches attracted lower-income, working-class congregants, although this began to change when American suburbia developed during the post-World War II era and Evangelicals found opportunities in planting large churches to fill the spiritual vacuum in the suburbs. They became middle-class megachurches.
Then there are super-easy ordinations, the most famous of which is Universal Life Church. ULC is an actual church with a long history spanning more than half a century, founded by Kirby Hensley who had a physical congregation in Modesto, California. ULC became infamous during the Vietnam War as many young people attempted to evade conscription by getting ordained by the church (and thus claiming to be members of the clergy), which it happily obliged through a simple mail-order form. Eventually, ULC got in trouble with the IRS, and ULC sued and won a landmark court case, which established that the government has no authority to decide what is a "legitimate religion" and what isn't.
ULC has zero prior requirements for ordination, although it does offer rudimentary, optional self-study courses. To them, this is all fine. Most ULC ministers get ordained just so that they can conduct a wedding, either for their friends or as a side business. There aren't a lot of expectations placed on their ministers, and ULC provides an easy manual on weddings.
In short, ordination requirements largely correspond to the levels of expectations a denomination places on its ministers and the roles they play in church. To Episcopalians, their priests are to celebrate beautiful and moving liturgies, teach intellectually stimulating classes, lead their "country club" parishes, and be skilled corporate executives managing their endowments and assets. To Baptists, their pastors are first and foremost, men (usually men) of profound faith who know their Bible well, and who can preach the undiluted Word of God. To Pentecostals, their pastors are also expected to be Spirit-filled and manifest God-given gifts of the Spirit, able to discern spiritual matters and be deep in prayer.
As I noted earlier, all this presents several problems. Seminary and ordination requirements reify classism and ableism in the church. If only those who are wealthy and privileged enough to attend four years of undergraduate studies, pass the GRE (if required), and spend another three years of postgraduate studies out of state while not being able to hold a full-time job, then these ministers are less likely to be representative of the marginalized population in the church and cannot relate to their lived experiences, often leading the ministers to act paternalistically without understanding the challenges of the underprivileged folks.
In addition, ordained ministries especially in the Mainline churches (which is very ironic, considering their stated commitment to inclusion and justice) implicitly exclude those with physical, mental, or neurological disabilities. When was the last time you've seen an Episcopal priest in a wheelchair or a Presbyterian pastor who is blind?
All this is regrettable when many denominations now reckon with a minister shortage. In the present economic realities, education has become increasingly more expensive and out of reach for many. Many younger people today are foregoing college and looking into trade schools. Older people who may feel a calling to bi-vocational ministry may find their doors closed in a more liberal denomination, and the only options are in conservative, Evangelical institutions. And neurodivergent Christians, some of them have a keen interest in some forms of ministry, find these requirements impossible to fulfill.
Post-COVID, the realities of the church have shifted. Christianity is once again evolving into a new expression as conventional church attendance dropped, many congregations disbanded, and buildings either sold or repurposed into shared community spaces. From a revolutionary underground movement meeting in private homes to a powerful multinational institution that lorded over kings and nations, to a modern non-profit corporate church, the church has gone through this and will continue to change. A new expression of the church requires a new way of cultivating its leaders, instigators, teachers, facilitators, and ministers. The church must always reform itself, and innovate itself.
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