"Why Ordination?" -- To be a sacramental presence in the church for the world

Thanks for the overwhelming response to the recent posts about course of study toward ordination. Blog traffic for this week alone reached 825 unique visitors and nearly 1,949 page views. Obviously, this is an important issue for many people in and around our denomination.

One of the more interesting conversations I've had since the first post on Wednesday came about during the dinner for our university trustees. One of the denominational leaders asked me in table conversation, "Is ordination still essential for our church?" It's a great question. I've thought of it many times.

Conveying Trustworthy Ministers to the Church
In Africa, ordination was one step in the work of establishing a district with mature leaders. Some of the leaders were spiritually mature, vocationally vibrant, and some had earned advanced degrees in university, but lacked the credential of ordination which impeded placement in district leadership, which represented organizational trustworthiness. 

For better or worse, this is what ordination had become for me: moving people through the process so that men and women would be considered as valuable in the eyes of the church as they were already in my own. As a district superintendent, I understood my charge as recognizing this leadership quality/gifting/spark as we do in the church, not viewing leadership in the sense of being "over" another but perceiving a readiness to live among people and the ability to move them in a God-ward direction in rhythm with the Spirit. The difficulty was streamlining this process to keep up with the rapid multiplication of the church in this part of the world.

In the U.S. ordination seemed to be about the same thing: recognizing trustworthy leaders for local church and district leadership, or at least enough to fill some slots that are being emptied by moving or retiring ministers. There is an urgency to fill a leadership void like Lucille Ball with a conveyor belt of candies. [NOTE: I am not sure what is going to happen when the conveyor belt speeds up. Right now, we're not ready for the wave that is coming.] The process now seems to include some variation of financial and psychological evaluations, interviews with current pastors, and checking of course lists. The process concludes with the episcopal affirmation of the district's work in the laying on of hands by the general superintendent.

This is not a sufficient explanation of what truly happens in and through ordination as I have come to understand this ritual experience.

Hands and Breath
The two primary physical actions of the ordination ritual are found in the laying on of hands and the spoken prayer of the episkopos (the one who ordains, the bishop, overseer of the shepherds). The spoken prayer connotes the pouring out of the Spirit of God through the breath of the one praying. The hands--biblical symbols of power and/or healing--touch the head of the ordinand. There is a transference of a spiritual grace-gift in this ritual not so much a succession of leadership, in my opinion. Like all means of grace, there is responsibility to receive and enact the gift that is given. One of the most important elements of this transformative action is that it takes place among the gathering of God's people in worship. It is not the work of one leader identifying another one, but the recognition of God's gracious gifting within the community of faith, a witness of the Spirit's work in the church.

What happens through the ritual of ordination? It is important to ask this question by first considering what ordination is not.

​Ordination is not entrance into a professional guild. 

Ordination is not a certification of vocational expertise.

Ordination is not a guarantee of a religious career.

Ordination is not an act conveying political power.

Ordination is not permission to preach the Gospel.

Ordination is recognition of
God's calling
into equipping
God's people for
mission to the world
through worship
​and holy living.

Rather, ordination is recognition of God's calling into equipping God's people for mission to the world through worship and holy living. Ordination is best described as the action of being a "sacramental presence" in the world through the church. Ordination is not a means of grace but becoming a means of grace for others. The ordained minister is to become the sacramental presence of Christ for the church, so the church as the Body of Christ altogether might become the sacramental presence of God in the world. 

There's so much more to say here. Others have said more. Here are some of the resources that have helped me try to make sense of what happens through ordination:

• James M. Barnett. 1995. The Diaconate: A full and equal order. Revised. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International.
• Catherine Bell. 1992. Ritual Theory Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Dennis M. Campbell. 1988. The yoke of obedience: The meaning of ordination in Methodism. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
• Thomas Dozeman. 2008. Holiness and ministry: A biblical theology of ordination. Oxford University Press.
• Ashley Montagu. 1971. Touching: The human significance of the skin. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Thomas C Oden. 1987. Becoming a Minister. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. 
• James Matthew Price. “Ordination and Power Relations: A Cultural Analysis from the Ritual Theory of Practice.”  Wesleyan Theological Journal. Fall 2014. Print.
• James F. Puglisi. 1998. The procession of admission to ordained ministry: The first Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Wesleyan Rites: A comparative study, vol. 2. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press.
• Ralph F. Smith. 1996. Luther, ministry, and ordination rites in the early Reformation church. New York: P. Lang.
• ​John Fletcher Tipei. 2009. The laying on of hands in the New Testament:Its significance, techniques, and effects. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
• Victor Turner.  1969, 1995. The ritual process: structure and anti-structure. Reprint. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Marjorie Warkentin. 1982. Ordination: A biblical-historical view.Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
• James F. White. 2001. Sacraments as God's Self Giving. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 
• George H. Williams. 1962. The Radical Reformation. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.
• William Willimon. 2002. Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
• Edward C. Zaragoza. 1999. No longer servants, but friends: A theology of ordained ministry (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.