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We still do "laying on of hands" in the C&MA!
Posted by
Amy Roedding
,
23 October 2013
·
1485 views
In late summer and early fall I was a part of 21 interviews for people who had applied for positions with International Ministries. I came away from those interviews encouraged with the way our District Superintendents and pastors really have played a role in the development of candidates. This year we interviewed people from Central Ohio District, Rocky Mountain District, Metro District, Great Lakes District, Western Pennsylvania District, Midwest District, Alliance Northwest District, Western Great Lakes District, and Southern District. For each of these interviews, I felt like the pastor or leaders in the church and the District Leadership had cared and coached and mentored our candidates who did their Alliance Licensed Ministry Experience (ALME) in their church and district. These leaders spent time encouraging, exhorting, confronting, and training these applicants and for that International Ministries is grateful!
This summer at the National Office we had a commissioning service during a chapel for our new International Workers who were in Colorado for a month long cultural and language acquisition training at Missionary Training Institute and at the NO for our pre-field orientation. To open the chapel I read out an excerpt concerning what it means to be "called" from Encountering Theology of Mission by Ott, and Strauss. "Calling (including inner compulsion) is certainly a motivation that we find repeatedly in the writing of the apostle Paul. This motive is rooted in God's initiative, God's plan, and God's gifts. Calling will always be confirmed by other spiritual leaders, whereby the visible and public laying on of hands plays no small part (Acts 13:3), and this public act in turn can be an encouragement to the servant who has lost heart or motivation (I Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6)" (p. 190).
The church in the C&MA is the one who sends out the new workers and so we are thankful, as Ott notes, that our spiritual leaders in the churches and districts are partnering with us in confirming the call our candidates have on their lives and that they are laying their hands on them and sending them out. In International Ministries we place a high value on this relationship with our churches and districts. We want to thank everyone who had a part in the lives of the new applicants for this year!
This summer at the National Office we had a commissioning service during a chapel for our new International Workers who were in Colorado for a month long cultural and language acquisition training at Missionary Training Institute and at the NO for our pre-field orientation. To open the chapel I read out an excerpt concerning what it means to be "called" from Encountering Theology of Mission by Ott, and Strauss. "Calling (including inner compulsion) is certainly a motivation that we find repeatedly in the writing of the apostle Paul. This motive is rooted in God's initiative, God's plan, and God's gifts. Calling will always be confirmed by other spiritual leaders, whereby the visible and public laying on of hands plays no small part (Acts 13:3), and this public act in turn can be an encouragement to the servant who has lost heart or motivation (I Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6)" (p. 190).
The church in the C&MA is the one who sends out the new workers and so we are thankful, as Ott notes, that our spiritual leaders in the churches and districts are partnering with us in confirming the call our candidates have on their lives and that they are laying their hands on them and sending them out. In International Ministries we place a high value on this relationship with our churches and districts. We want to thank everyone who had a part in the lives of the new applicants for this year!
