Awesome. Thank you for being faithful. I doubt I would be ordained as an elder today in the UMC. I barely was approved in 1989. They knew I was a conservative evangelical and when I warned them about the future, many on the Board of Ordained MInistry took offense. What was my warning in the spring of 1989? In response to their question "What do you fear most about the future of the UMC? I answered that the leaders of the UMC, clergy and laity, would continue down a path in violation of scripture to ordain gays and lesbians and celebrate their sexual immorality with wedding services. I was immediate attacked in one of the most conservative conferences in the UMC. Many voted against me, I was told later, but I received enough votes. Yet, I never and still do not consider my ordination making me any better pastor or leader than any local pastor or deacon. Without the local pastors, the UMC could have never survived and now many local pastors are being dismissed in order to have a place to serve for an ordained person. Jeffrey, you've been faithful to your call. You have honor. Your tears are counted by God. He knows the number. Keep serving faithfully and in the end no one can take that from you. I thank God for you and all the Jeffrey's like you who may have similar stories. Serve the kingdom. Praise Jesus!
May 18, 2023·edited May 18, 2023Liked by Jeffrey Rickman
Jeffrey, thank you for sharing the pain you suffered from those who believe themselves to be brothers and sisters in Christ. I served in church leadership, volunteering my time and naively believed that all the church folks would be kind and supportive. I would say most were but one person verbally attacked me just as church service was about to begin. He literally wiped the smile off my face. Sometimes I have to learn the hard way. I cried when I read about your experience of ordination in the GMC after years of suffering as a LLP. There is a saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." We have to keep reminding ourselves to whom we belong and serve. Jesus gave his life to give us life abundantly. He did not say it would be easy, in fact He said it would difficult. As brothers and sisters in Christ we are called to love each other even those who hate us. However, you are correct when you said you would not be someone's punching bag. No one should be a punching bag. I believe that is why conservatives are walking away. I continue to pray for you, your family and your ministry. God is compassionate. One of favorite examples is when Elijah was exhausted and wanted to die. God provided food and rest. Grace and peace, Eileen
Thank you for this incredible testimony (to which I will surely return), spot-on analysis (I observed similar dynamics in the Indiana Conference of the UMC), and, above all, years of faithful service in Christ's name for the benefit of your family and the local church.
- Ben Aich (We met briefly at Daniel's wedding -- I'm one of his Wesleyan band brothers.)
This was a very interesting post to read, and you can definitely count me as one of those hundreds of people (you are probably underestimating those numbers).
District committees and board of ordained ministries can have such strange dynamics. I eagerly asked about becoming a local pastor after graduating college (was working for a nonprofit at the time), but never received direct answers and even felt like I was burdening some of the powers-that-be. I kept hearing about how the UMC desperately needed pastors and that my gifts would be put to use, but saw a completely different attitude within the "system."
I was delayed a year at the beginning of candidacy (a small meeting in front of 3 clergy, if I remember correctly) because two committee members seemingly hated one another and kept arguing about some old drama between them two, while the third member in the meeting awkwardly suggested it might be best to wait for me "to better prepare yourself." I was absolutely crushed and had no idea what was going on. Neither did my mentor, who after debriefing the encounter with me candidly suggested I try out a different district (fortunately got a new church staff job shortly thereafter and continued the process in a neighboring district).
A year later, I got approved, but my new district superintendent himself even laughed at part of my call story and expressed skepticism about whether it was compelling enough. Personally, I could take it and quickly learned to not value his unprofessional opinion as it related to God's calling on my life... but it truly haunts me to this day to think about how he potentially treated church members before and after his appointment as a DS. Could he have actively discouraged other young people from ordained ministry? Or did he steer laity away from something they had a God-given passion for to grow and serve a congregation?
There was one psychological evaluation where the clinician somehow ran my results through an incorrect setting on the machine. We had a very tense session, where he asserted that I had severe mental issues. Again, I had utterly no idea what was happening. While I was driving home feeling very panicked, I received a voicemail from him informing me of his mistake and said that my results were actually OK and that he'd send his recommendation forward.
Fortunately, I did not have many problems with commissioning and ordination. Maybe I got lucky with the rotation of board members. But I had several friends who seemed to be targeted for extra scrutiny. I even read and offered feedback on some of their paperwork (there were no red flags from what I could tell). The friend who faced the most backlash was black, and for some reason a couple of older white clergy decided to play armchair psychiatrist and kept fixating on some nonexistent issue dealing with his upbringing.
Awesome. Thank you for being faithful. I doubt I would be ordained as an elder today in the UMC. I barely was approved in 1989. They knew I was a conservative evangelical and when I warned them about the future, many on the Board of Ordained MInistry took offense. What was my warning in the spring of 1989? In response to their question "What do you fear most about the future of the UMC? I answered that the leaders of the UMC, clergy and laity, would continue down a path in violation of scripture to ordain gays and lesbians and celebrate their sexual immorality with wedding services. I was immediate attacked in one of the most conservative conferences in the UMC. Many voted against me, I was told later, but I received enough votes. Yet, I never and still do not consider my ordination making me any better pastor or leader than any local pastor or deacon. Without the local pastors, the UMC could have never survived and now many local pastors are being dismissed in order to have a place to serve for an ordained person. Jeffrey, you've been faithful to your call. You have honor. Your tears are counted by God. He knows the number. Keep serving faithfully and in the end no one can take that from you. I thank God for you and all the Jeffrey's like you who may have similar stories. Serve the kingdom. Praise Jesus!
Rev. Rick Sitton,
GMC
Jeffrey, thank you for sharing the pain you suffered from those who believe themselves to be brothers and sisters in Christ. I served in church leadership, volunteering my time and naively believed that all the church folks would be kind and supportive. I would say most were but one person verbally attacked me just as church service was about to begin. He literally wiped the smile off my face. Sometimes I have to learn the hard way. I cried when I read about your experience of ordination in the GMC after years of suffering as a LLP. There is a saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." We have to keep reminding ourselves to whom we belong and serve. Jesus gave his life to give us life abundantly. He did not say it would be easy, in fact He said it would difficult. As brothers and sisters in Christ we are called to love each other even those who hate us. However, you are correct when you said you would not be someone's punching bag. No one should be a punching bag. I believe that is why conservatives are walking away. I continue to pray for you, your family and your ministry. God is compassionate. One of favorite examples is when Elijah was exhausted and wanted to die. God provided food and rest. Grace and peace, Eileen
Jeffrey,
Thank you for this incredible testimony (to which I will surely return), spot-on analysis (I observed similar dynamics in the Indiana Conference of the UMC), and, above all, years of faithful service in Christ's name for the benefit of your family and the local church.
- Ben Aich (We met briefly at Daniel's wedding -- I'm one of his Wesleyan band brothers.)
This was a very interesting post to read, and you can definitely count me as one of those hundreds of people (you are probably underestimating those numbers).
District committees and board of ordained ministries can have such strange dynamics. I eagerly asked about becoming a local pastor after graduating college (was working for a nonprofit at the time), but never received direct answers and even felt like I was burdening some of the powers-that-be. I kept hearing about how the UMC desperately needed pastors and that my gifts would be put to use, but saw a completely different attitude within the "system."
I was delayed a year at the beginning of candidacy (a small meeting in front of 3 clergy, if I remember correctly) because two committee members seemingly hated one another and kept arguing about some old drama between them two, while the third member in the meeting awkwardly suggested it might be best to wait for me "to better prepare yourself." I was absolutely crushed and had no idea what was going on. Neither did my mentor, who after debriefing the encounter with me candidly suggested I try out a different district (fortunately got a new church staff job shortly thereafter and continued the process in a neighboring district).
A year later, I got approved, but my new district superintendent himself even laughed at part of my call story and expressed skepticism about whether it was compelling enough. Personally, I could take it and quickly learned to not value his unprofessional opinion as it related to God's calling on my life... but it truly haunts me to this day to think about how he potentially treated church members before and after his appointment as a DS. Could he have actively discouraged other young people from ordained ministry? Or did he steer laity away from something they had a God-given passion for to grow and serve a congregation?
There was one psychological evaluation where the clinician somehow ran my results through an incorrect setting on the machine. We had a very tense session, where he asserted that I had severe mental issues. Again, I had utterly no idea what was happening. While I was driving home feeling very panicked, I received a voicemail from him informing me of his mistake and said that my results were actually OK and that he'd send his recommendation forward.
Fortunately, I did not have many problems with commissioning and ordination. Maybe I got lucky with the rotation of board members. But I had several friends who seemed to be targeted for extra scrutiny. I even read and offered feedback on some of their paperwork (there were no red flags from what I could tell). The friend who faced the most backlash was black, and for some reason a couple of older white clergy decided to play armchair psychiatrist and kept fixating on some nonexistent issue dealing with his upbringing.
Like I said, such a strange dynamic.
https://www.youtube.com/live/IhCVg-A2nWo?feature=share
Judge ordered that N. GA conference to hold 185 votes on disaffiliation.
Closing arguments ~ 7:40:00
Judge ruling ~ 9:10:00