Ben Wink has left a new comment on your post "No Creed But Willow Creek - That Is the Syn Confer...":
Grumpy,
I know from my own experience of at least one person who didn't receive a call in 2003, and then didn't get preference when the 2004 graduate calls came out.
When I graduated MLC in 2002 as a staff minister, I basically believe that they did not know what to do with me, but as they were trying to promote staff ministry (not a whole lot mind you), they gave me a one-year call.
After that one-year call was up, the 2003 call list came out and I wasn't on it. Then 2004, nothing. 2005, nothing. All the way through to almost 2011's call day now and I still haven't heard anything. Supposedly after a certain amount of time where they haven't given you a call, you are then simply plucked off the list of available candidates for no other reason other than you're embarrassing them.
Now I know that staff ministry graduates have been given calls in the intervening years. And to actual staff ministry jobs and not just teaching gigs because they went as a double track. So what gives?
In those intervening years I was completely cynical about the entire experience and now I am more of a realist with cynical tendencies. My view of staff ministry was to be a called helper for the church and school (if they had one) in any capacity that I could aid and assist the pastor and teachers. During my internship for instance, I never prepared or gave sermons but I did do shut in visits, helped with the youth groups and VBS, led the 55 and over Bible study, helped teach Catechism classes, led adult Bible class, was a communion assistant and an usher, did first time visitor follow-up contact, etc.
Nothing too radical and new agey about it. I went to MLC for five years, did the one-year internship and I graduated. Then a one-year call. Then nothing. The only place that could give me a job decided not to do so. Others graduated after me, some got calls, others not, but I can wager that those who didn't are still sitting around waiting for the call. That is if they haven't moved on with their lives like I had to in order to earn a living for me and my family.
Part 2 to continue...
Part 2
By the way, the one-year call thing I firmly believe is a convenient way to make the list of called graduates look more impressive than it actually is. Because who remembers that MLC 2007 graduate with the one-year call that then got nothing in 2008? No one but the student and their family. Oh, and the Conference of Presidents too because the list looks good, they don't have to bring them up when the next year's list comes out, and it looks like they actually did their job.
And then the cycle starts all over again. And to all you MLC students out there: think about your schooling carefully. Get a degree that you can use out there in the world. Because all I got with my staff min degree was the ribbon around it on graduation day. And don't think that it cannot happen to you. And don't think that you'll have any spiritual and/or emotional support from MLC after you've left there without a call. You'd think you'd get better treatment from a Christian college, but sadly that is rather naive thinking. The only regular contact you get is envelopes in the mail asking for financial support. Which they somehow want even though you didn't get a job in on call day.
I stumbled around in the dark for a couple of years because of this. MLC wanted nothing to do with me. I stopped attending church for a while, which was ironic because I waited everyday for a visit or contact with my church elders so I could chide them for waiting this long to get in touch with me, but that church didn't even bother. They might even still have me on the membership rolls. I even wrote an article for the Forward in Christ that was published, after they edited it a bit by eliminating the word "call" and inserting "assignment". Remember kids, if you get a call it is divine, but if you don't then it is an assignment with no divinity attached to it.
Finally, how do we know that God only has need of us for one-year at a place? That seems rather specific in an odd way that doesn't really have a Scriptural base. I mean if we pull at that string more, you could probably say the same for staff ministry, but I'll go with the deacon description for that. But the COP knows that this person is needed for only 365 days starting right after graduation. That this ISN'T regarded as ludicrous is even more ludicrous.
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GJ - The Doctrinal Pussycate will remind anyone that he can "march in and get rid of someone on the spot," although that never happens to those with Church and Change tattoos on their foreheads.
