Last week was Regional Assignment Day for my classmates and me. We all found out which part of the country we'll be going to for first call.
After regional assignment, seminarians get assigned to one of the 65 synods of the ELCA. Only a couple of regions have made synod assignments so far, but I'm one of the lucky few who already knows which synod I'll be going to.
(Drumroll, please...) Steve and I have been assigned to the Southwest California Synod. This synod comprises Los Angeles County, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura County, as well as perhaps a little more of southern California.
The next step is to look at congregational profiles and hopefully arrange an interview. Stay tuned for more news!
Showing posts with label assignment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assignment. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, December 2, 2011
Paperwork: Finished!
December 1 was the big due date. All our assignment paperwork (Form A, Form B, Form RLP) is turned in to the ELCA and out of our hands. Now the bishops will have the chance to learn who we are and whether they think we'd be a good fit for their synods.
The next big date for us is January 13 and 14, which is when we'll have our approval interviews for the Rocky Mountain Synod. On February 22, we'll find out our regional assignments. Check back here to find out more information as we get closer to first call!
The next big date for us is January 13 and 14, which is when we'll have our approval interviews for the Rocky Mountain Synod. On February 22, we'll find out our regional assignments. Check back here to find out more information as we get closer to first call!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Recommendation for Recommendation for Approval
Just a brief update this time:
The latest stage in this ongoing process occurred today—the faculty approval panels. These are interviews with two members of the faculty to consider a seminarian's theological understanding and articulation and his or her preparedness for practical ministry. At Gettysburg, the seniors had their faculty approval panels today, and the news is good. I was recommended for recommendation for approval. No, that's not a typo. The faculty members with whom I met made a recommendation to the whole faculty (who will meet in a few weeks). Even when the whole faculty meets, they don't make the final approval decision; that's up to the candidacy committees. Rather, the faculty makes a recommendation to the candidacy committee, to say that the faculty believes the candidate should be approved.
So today was the recommendation for the recommendation for approval. Slowly but surely, we move closer to ordination.
The latest stage in this ongoing process occurred today—the faculty approval panels. These are interviews with two members of the faculty to consider a seminarian's theological understanding and articulation and his or her preparedness for practical ministry. At Gettysburg, the seniors had their faculty approval panels today, and the news is good. I was recommended for recommendation for approval. No, that's not a typo. The faculty members with whom I met made a recommendation to the whole faculty (who will meet in a few weeks). Even when the whole faculty meets, they don't make the final approval decision; that's up to the candidacy committees. Rather, the faculty makes a recommendation to the candidacy committee, to say that the faculty believes the candidate should be approved.
So today was the recommendation for the recommendation for approval. Slowly but surely, we move closer to ordination.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Assignment for First Call: Piles of Paperwork
I'm continuing my blog series on the first call assignment process. Check out the earlier posts if you haven't already:
Part One: Approval
Part Two: Introduction to Assignment
Now, on to part three. Tonight, we had an informational meeting with two important folks: the seminary representative who goes to the assignment summit in Chicago (in the case of Gettysburg Seminary, he's also our director of field education and one of the New Testament professors), and the Region 8 coordinator. Remember in Part Two, we talked about the nine regions of the ELCA? Each region has a region coordinator, and those coordinators also go to the assignment meeting.
Our theme in the meeting tonight, and my theme in this post, is the piles of paperwork that go into this process. Are you ready? It should be loads of fun.
If you want to find out more than you ever wanted to know about assignment, you can check out the ELCA website dedicated to the subject. That's sort of our home page for this process. You'll see it has practical information, theological foundation, checklist, schedule... and the forms. The many, many forms.
Piles of Paperwork: So What Are All These Forms?
The candidate (that would be me) fills out three major forms: A, B, and RLP. (If the candidate is restricting herself or himself to a certain area -- as I described in Part Two -- there's one additional form, Form R.)
Form A: Basic information. Name, contact information, home synod, home congregation, education and work history, etc.
Form B: Candidate preference summary. This is the place to state regional preferences (see Part Two), as well as preferences for the setting where you would prefer to be called -- for example, rural or urban, solo pastor or member of a large church staff. It also has a (surprisingly small) box to describe your sense of call and your gifts. This is the primary way the bishops will get a sense of what ministry setting you are suited for.
Form R: I won't say much about this one; I'm not planning to restrict, so I won't be filling out Form R. This form is only for first call candidates who are requesting a restriction to a certain synod or area. (Note that it's a request; the request has to be approved by the bishops of the region to which the candidate wants to restrict.)
Form RLP: Assuming you have gotten the attention of a bishop in Form B, that bishop may choose to look at your Rostered Leader Profile. While Forms A and B are just a page each, the RLP is a massive 16 pages. Obviously, with 200-ish candidates going through this process at the same time, the bishops are not going to read every one of their RLPs. So this form functions to elaborate on what was written in Form B, for those bishops who want additional information. Like Form B, it includes regional preferences, preferences for setting (say, small town) and ministry (say, youth ministry or Christian education). However, it has more space to provide input, and it includes larger sections on your strengths and gifts, education and work history, etc.
The Rostered Leader Profile will continue to be important after assignment, because it's also the form that congregational call committees will look at when you're beginning to interview for first call. It functions as your resumé for congregations to look at -- but it also includes your vision for the kind of ministry to which you think you would be suited.
We're not done yet! There are two more forms which matter for assignment, but are written by other people.
Form D: Form D is the summary of what the candidate did in seminary. On the left-hand side of the single page are the summaries written at the end of internship. The internship supervisor and the internship committee, as well as the intern herself or himself, each write a single paragraph that summarizes and evaluates the internship experience. On the right-hand side of Form D, the seminary faculty gives their evaluation of your abilities and preparedness for ministry.
Form E: This is the candidacy committee's equivalent of Form D. Since the candidacy committee makes the final decision to approve the candidate for ordination, this form is the document that contains the official recommendation for ordination. It also includes their own summary of the candidate.
(If you're as neurotic as I am, you may be wondering why there's no Form C. I think that form is filled out by congregations who are seeking a pastor, but I'm not sure exactly what it entails.)
Part One: Approval
Part Two: Introduction to Assignment
Now, on to part three. Tonight, we had an informational meeting with two important folks: the seminary representative who goes to the assignment summit in Chicago (in the case of Gettysburg Seminary, he's also our director of field education and one of the New Testament professors), and the Region 8 coordinator. Remember in Part Two, we talked about the nine regions of the ELCA? Each region has a region coordinator, and those coordinators also go to the assignment meeting.
Our theme in the meeting tonight, and my theme in this post, is the piles of paperwork that go into this process. Are you ready? It should be loads of fun.
If you want to find out more than you ever wanted to know about assignment, you can check out the ELCA website dedicated to the subject. That's sort of our home page for this process. You'll see it has practical information, theological foundation, checklist, schedule... and the forms. The many, many forms.
Piles of Paperwork: So What Are All These Forms?
The candidate (that would be me) fills out three major forms: A, B, and RLP. (If the candidate is restricting herself or himself to a certain area -- as I described in Part Two -- there's one additional form, Form R.)
Form A: Basic information. Name, contact information, home synod, home congregation, education and work history, etc.
Form B: Candidate preference summary. This is the place to state regional preferences (see Part Two), as well as preferences for the setting where you would prefer to be called -- for example, rural or urban, solo pastor or member of a large church staff. It also has a (surprisingly small) box to describe your sense of call and your gifts. This is the primary way the bishops will get a sense of what ministry setting you are suited for.
Form R: I won't say much about this one; I'm not planning to restrict, so I won't be filling out Form R. This form is only for first call candidates who are requesting a restriction to a certain synod or area. (Note that it's a request; the request has to be approved by the bishops of the region to which the candidate wants to restrict.)
Form RLP: Assuming you have gotten the attention of a bishop in Form B, that bishop may choose to look at your Rostered Leader Profile. While Forms A and B are just a page each, the RLP is a massive 16 pages. Obviously, with 200-ish candidates going through this process at the same time, the bishops are not going to read every one of their RLPs. So this form functions to elaborate on what was written in Form B, for those bishops who want additional information. Like Form B, it includes regional preferences, preferences for setting (say, small town) and ministry (say, youth ministry or Christian education). However, it has more space to provide input, and it includes larger sections on your strengths and gifts, education and work history, etc.
The Rostered Leader Profile will continue to be important after assignment, because it's also the form that congregational call committees will look at when you're beginning to interview for first call. It functions as your resumé for congregations to look at -- but it also includes your vision for the kind of ministry to which you think you would be suited.
We're not done yet! There are two more forms which matter for assignment, but are written by other people.
Form D: Form D is the summary of what the candidate did in seminary. On the left-hand side of the single page are the summaries written at the end of internship. The internship supervisor and the internship committee, as well as the intern herself or himself, each write a single paragraph that summarizes and evaluates the internship experience. On the right-hand side of Form D, the seminary faculty gives their evaluation of your abilities and preparedness for ministry.
Form E: This is the candidacy committee's equivalent of Form D. Since the candidacy committee makes the final decision to approve the candidate for ordination, this form is the document that contains the official recommendation for ordination. It also includes their own summary of the candidate.
(If you're as neurotic as I am, you may be wondering why there's no Form C. I think that form is filled out by congregations who are seeking a pastor, but I'm not sure exactly what it entails.)
Monday, August 29, 2011
First Call: What's this Whole Assignment Process, Anyway?
Part Two of my ongoing series about getting ready for first call. Check out Part One to read about the approval essay.
If you're a seminarian getting ready for assignment, you've probably found yourself explaining the process to friends, family members, parishioners from your internship site... the list goes on. If you're a friend, family member, etc. of a seminarian, you're probably interested in what a senior in seminary goes through. Assignment is complicated, and it can be confusing. I'll do my best to give an outline of how the process works.
Assignment for First Call: "So, you could go anywhere?"
Unlike nearly any other job (although the military seems similar, from what I understand), graduating ELCA seminarians going into their first call go through an assignment process. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you're not expected to go out and find yourself a job, like most people have to when they get out of school. Instead, you are (ideally) matched with a congregation that needs your gifts and abilities. On the other hand, you don't have a lot of control over where you end up -- that decision is in the hands of the church, specifically the bishops. I'll be honest and say that it can be stressful to let go of that control.
So, how does the process work? In later posts, I'll write about the nuts and bolts, the paperwork seminarians have to fill out before they are assigned, the stages along the way. In this post, I want to lay out the broad outline of this nearly year-long process, as well as explain the geographical regions of the ELCA.
Every year, there are a group of graduating seminarians from the eight ELCA seminaries. And, throughout the church, there are congregations in need of pastors. Not all of these congregations are good contexts for first call pastors; their bishops help to decide which congregations will be open to being a first call site. The goal of assignment is to match up these soon-to-be-pastors with calls that are a good fit for their gifts and abilities. However, the church does not assign graduating seminarians directly to congregations (although it used to work that way, at least in some of the Lutheran denominations that preceded the ELCA). Instead, seminarians are assigned to a region and then a synod, and that's the process we call "Assignment".
Assignment for First Call: Regions? Synods?
A friend of mine, and spouse of a now-graduated seminarian, made a fantastic resource for anyone trying to understand the assignment process: a map of the regions of the ELCA. As you can see, the ELCA is divided into nine geographic regions. Each of these regions is broken into synods. (The size of the synods was determined by population of Lutherans, not land area. That's why you can have one synod - the Rocky Mountain Synod - that encompasses New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and the panhandle of Texas, while the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul rate two synods.) Seminarians are assigned first to one of these regions, then to a synod within that region.
So, as a seminarian, do you have any control over where you're assigned? In a limited sense, yes. Loosely speaking, there are two ways a seminarian can influence their assignment: restriction and preference. If a seminarian has a restriction, that means he or she can only accept a call in a certain area due to extenuating circumstances. For example, he might have young kids in school and a spouse with a job who can't move; or she might have an aging parent for whom she provides care. In these cases, the seminarian fills out additional paperwork explaining their restriction (e.g. within fifty miles of a certain city) and their reason. These restrictions are taken seriously by the church, but they can mean that a seminarian has to wait much longer for a call.
Even if a seminarian doesn't have a pressing reason to restrict, he or she can still state preferences for where he or she would like to be assigned. For example, you could state a preference for Region 2 first, then Region 6, and then Region 3 (three regions is the most you can preference). Preferences are no guarantee for where you'll end up, but they are taken into consideration at the regional assignment meeting.
Assignment for First Call: The Draft Pick
Every year, the bishops in each region come together and decide how many first call spots they have available. At the same time, they receive loads of paperwork (more on that in Part Three) from the graduating seminarians who have been approved for ordination. This gives them an idea of who will be available at assignment. It also allows them to see the preferences or restrictions the seminarians have stated.
In February (for seminarians who will be graduating in the spring), these bishops gather in Chicago, along with representatives from each of the seminaries. Seminarians humorously refer to this meeting as "the draft pick". To understand how it works, I recommend reading this post from a bishop who's been there. In short, the seminarians are doled out to each of the regions based on their preferences, the first call sites available, and the matches bishops have in mind. Again, bishops don't assign a first call pastor directly to a congregation - "You, go to this church" - but they often have contexts in mind that would be a good fit for a particular seminarian. Also, a bishop can't request more first call pastors than they have calls for. In theory, that helps to ensure that graduating seminarians aren't sitting around for months waiting for a church. The system is imperfect, but it's set up to be as effective as possible both for congregations and seminarians.
Well, that's about as brief as a summary could be. This is the process my classmates and I will be going through this year. There are plenty of details - and probably plenty of anxiety - to describe over the next few months. Check back here to find out more.
If you're a seminarian getting ready for assignment, you've probably found yourself explaining the process to friends, family members, parishioners from your internship site... the list goes on. If you're a friend, family member, etc. of a seminarian, you're probably interested in what a senior in seminary goes through. Assignment is complicated, and it can be confusing. I'll do my best to give an outline of how the process works.
Assignment for First Call: "So, you could go anywhere?"
Unlike nearly any other job (although the military seems similar, from what I understand), graduating ELCA seminarians going into their first call go through an assignment process. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you're not expected to go out and find yourself a job, like most people have to when they get out of school. Instead, you are (ideally) matched with a congregation that needs your gifts and abilities. On the other hand, you don't have a lot of control over where you end up -- that decision is in the hands of the church, specifically the bishops. I'll be honest and say that it can be stressful to let go of that control.
So, how does the process work? In later posts, I'll write about the nuts and bolts, the paperwork seminarians have to fill out before they are assigned, the stages along the way. In this post, I want to lay out the broad outline of this nearly year-long process, as well as explain the geographical regions of the ELCA.
Every year, there are a group of graduating seminarians from the eight ELCA seminaries. And, throughout the church, there are congregations in need of pastors. Not all of these congregations are good contexts for first call pastors; their bishops help to decide which congregations will be open to being a first call site. The goal of assignment is to match up these soon-to-be-pastors with calls that are a good fit for their gifts and abilities. However, the church does not assign graduating seminarians directly to congregations (although it used to work that way, at least in some of the Lutheran denominations that preceded the ELCA). Instead, seminarians are assigned to a region and then a synod, and that's the process we call "Assignment".
Assignment for First Call: Regions? Synods?
A friend of mine, and spouse of a now-graduated seminarian, made a fantastic resource for anyone trying to understand the assignment process: a map of the regions of the ELCA. As you can see, the ELCA is divided into nine geographic regions. Each of these regions is broken into synods. (The size of the synods was determined by population of Lutherans, not land area. That's why you can have one synod - the Rocky Mountain Synod - that encompasses New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and the panhandle of Texas, while the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul rate two synods.) Seminarians are assigned first to one of these regions, then to a synod within that region.
So, as a seminarian, do you have any control over where you're assigned? In a limited sense, yes. Loosely speaking, there are two ways a seminarian can influence their assignment: restriction and preference. If a seminarian has a restriction, that means he or she can only accept a call in a certain area due to extenuating circumstances. For example, he might have young kids in school and a spouse with a job who can't move; or she might have an aging parent for whom she provides care. In these cases, the seminarian fills out additional paperwork explaining their restriction (e.g. within fifty miles of a certain city) and their reason. These restrictions are taken seriously by the church, but they can mean that a seminarian has to wait much longer for a call.
Even if a seminarian doesn't have a pressing reason to restrict, he or she can still state preferences for where he or she would like to be assigned. For example, you could state a preference for Region 2 first, then Region 6, and then Region 3 (three regions is the most you can preference). Preferences are no guarantee for where you'll end up, but they are taken into consideration at the regional assignment meeting.
Assignment for First Call: The Draft Pick
Every year, the bishops in each region come together and decide how many first call spots they have available. At the same time, they receive loads of paperwork (more on that in Part Three) from the graduating seminarians who have been approved for ordination. This gives them an idea of who will be available at assignment. It also allows them to see the preferences or restrictions the seminarians have stated.
In February (for seminarians who will be graduating in the spring), these bishops gather in Chicago, along with representatives from each of the seminaries. Seminarians humorously refer to this meeting as "the draft pick". To understand how it works, I recommend reading this post from a bishop who's been there. In short, the seminarians are doled out to each of the regions based on their preferences, the first call sites available, and the matches bishops have in mind. Again, bishops don't assign a first call pastor directly to a congregation - "You, go to this church" - but they often have contexts in mind that would be a good fit for a particular seminarian. Also, a bishop can't request more first call pastors than they have calls for. In theory, that helps to ensure that graduating seminarians aren't sitting around for months waiting for a church. The system is imperfect, but it's set up to be as effective as possible both for congregations and seminarians.
Well, that's about as brief as a summary could be. This is the process my classmates and I will be going through this year. There are plenty of details - and probably plenty of anxiety - to describe over the next few months. Check back here to find out more.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Beginning (of the end of) the journey to first call
My internship is finished, and I'm back in Gettysburg for my final year of seminary. That means I'm well on my way to the process known as assignment.
I know I have many friends and family members who want to know how this process works. I'll be using the blog as a central place to find out the steps along this journey, from from approval to assignment to first call. It'll also give me a chance to let you all know how the decisions come down for me. And if there are any seminarians out there reading this, I hope it's a resource to you in what to expect from your senior year.
This is Part One. Check out Part Two, on the assignment process, and Part Three, on assignment paperwork.
Part One: The Approval Essay
A huge part of the road to becoming a pastor (or another rostered leader, such as an Associate in Ministry or a Diaconal Minister) is the candidacy process. Theologically, the church understands that call is not only a personal, internal feeling, but that there is also an external call that comes from the Christian community. Practically, we also want to make sure that the people who are leaders in the church are appropriate for that role. Both of these needs are filled by the candidacy committees - one in each synod. There are three stages of candidacy: entrance (before you begin seminary), endorsement (before you go on internship), and approval (before assignment and ordination). Each stage includes an essay and an interview with the committee, as well as other requirements that vary between the stages.
At this point, my classmates and I have already received a positive decision for entrance and endorsement. Now we're preparing for approval. Right now, that means we're writing an approval essay that will be submitted to our candidacy committee and our seminary. The topic for the approval essay changes from year to year. This year, we've been asked to consider cultural and demographic changes that are affecting the church. The essay includes reflection on our internship site, a sermon, and consideration of our leadership abilities.
The approval essay is due at the end of the summer. Once the fall semester begins, we'll have a faculty approval panel -- an interview with two members of the faculty to discuss our theological ability and our readiness for practical ministry. The faculty makes a recommendation to the candidacy committee about our approval decision. Then each approval candidate meets with his or her candidacy committee for the approval interview. Some of these interviews will be happening as soon as October; mine isn't until January. The candidacy committee will make the final decision as to whether the candidate is approved for ordination. If you're approved, then you can enter the assignment process.
Stay tuned for my next post, when I'll briefly explain the assignment process and the regions of the ELCA.
I know I have many friends and family members who want to know how this process works. I'll be using the blog as a central place to find out the steps along this journey, from from approval to assignment to first call. It'll also give me a chance to let you all know how the decisions come down for me. And if there are any seminarians out there reading this, I hope it's a resource to you in what to expect from your senior year.
This is Part One. Check out Part Two, on the assignment process, and Part Three, on assignment paperwork.
Part One: The Approval Essay
A huge part of the road to becoming a pastor (or another rostered leader, such as an Associate in Ministry or a Diaconal Minister) is the candidacy process. Theologically, the church understands that call is not only a personal, internal feeling, but that there is also an external call that comes from the Christian community. Practically, we also want to make sure that the people who are leaders in the church are appropriate for that role. Both of these needs are filled by the candidacy committees - one in each synod. There are three stages of candidacy: entrance (before you begin seminary), endorsement (before you go on internship), and approval (before assignment and ordination). Each stage includes an essay and an interview with the committee, as well as other requirements that vary between the stages.
At this point, my classmates and I have already received a positive decision for entrance and endorsement. Now we're preparing for approval. Right now, that means we're writing an approval essay that will be submitted to our candidacy committee and our seminary. The topic for the approval essay changes from year to year. This year, we've been asked to consider cultural and demographic changes that are affecting the church. The essay includes reflection on our internship site, a sermon, and consideration of our leadership abilities.
The approval essay is due at the end of the summer. Once the fall semester begins, we'll have a faculty approval panel -- an interview with two members of the faculty to discuss our theological ability and our readiness for practical ministry. The faculty makes a recommendation to the candidacy committee about our approval decision. Then each approval candidate meets with his or her candidacy committee for the approval interview. Some of these interviews will be happening as soon as October; mine isn't until January. The candidacy committee will make the final decision as to whether the candidate is approved for ordination. If you're approved, then you can enter the assignment process.
Stay tuned for my next post, when I'll briefly explain the assignment process and the regions of the ELCA.
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