Pathways: Empowering “Unusual” Pastors
When it comes to ordination, do people go into ministry roles at predictable times in their lives? Not according to the Bible. Moses was sent to rescue God’s people at age eighty (Exo 7:7). God called the prophet Amos when he was herding animals and tending to trees (Amos 7:14). Jesus called Simon Peter and Andrew, a couple of fishermen, while they were casting nets (Mark 1:16-17). They didn’t see it coming.
It’s no different today. God is calling all sorts of people during all sorts of phases of life. That’s why the Alliance has committed to empowering people with “unusual” backgrounds. We are doing that through Pathways, our innovative credentialing system.
The men and women being ordained in the Alliance these days are not, for the most part, young people finishing up seminary. They are second career people in their thirties, forties, fifties, or older. Their occupations have been business manager, farmer, medical doctor, teacher, mechanic. Few of them have started, let alone completed, seminary training. Nearly all of them have already started working in a local church or faith-based organization.
A recent example of this is Chris Van Beek, Pastor of Care and Discipleship at Faith Reformed Church in Rock Valley, Iowa. Chris worked for 25 years in manufacturing, performing skilled labor and doing management. He was a faithful lay leader at Faith Reformed, and in 2021 his church hired him as a director. In short order he was doing things like preaching, marrying and burying, and leading consistory meetings. Chris entered Pathways and discovered that, by demonstrating maturity he had picked up “on the job,” he was qualified for ordination. He is set to be ordained this month and is excited to develop more competencies in the years ahead.
Dr. Nathan Hitchcock has been helping people through Pathways since its launch last year. He reports, “It’s common to find second career folks who don’t want to drop everything and go to seminary. Their kids are in school. They are serving a church and don’t want to uproot. They think that ordination is out of reach because their story is so ‘unusual.’”
That changes now, says Hitchcock. With Pathways, “unusual” is the new normal.
One way Pathways empowers “unusual” people is through Maximum Credit. Maximum Credit is a prior learning assessment that discovers which competencies a candidate already possesses. Someone may or may not have been to seminary, but Maximum Credit discovers other areas of maturity that have come about from time in ministry. A person can get credit for past church projects, participation in semi-formal discipleship programs, and live demonstrations. Candidates get credit toward ordination by being “mapped,” interviewed, and audited.
The result? No one starts out at square one.
Another way Pathways empowers “unusual” people is by getting ordained pastors on a good pathway of lifelong learning. A pastor who has all the core competencies (the essential traits) but is missing some practitioner competencies (the more academic, advanced, professional traits) can still be ordained. Upon ordination they are set on a developmental path toward maturity.
One option is to have a Guide Team. In this path, the pastor is supported by three people: a local Mentor, a network Coach, and a denominational Advisor. These three people supervise the pastor through the practitioner competencies along the way. Another option is for the pastor to enroll in a program with a Pathways partner. Coram Deo offers tracks that combine courses and mentoring in powerful ways. Western Theological Seminary offers graduate-level courses at a discount to Alliance pastors. The Foundry facilitates church-centered learning cohorts and trainings. Whether by a Guide Team or by a more structured program, ordained pastors attain new competencies on a path of healthy learning.
This is a paradigm shift, no doubt. The traditional mindset is to develop a person fully, then ordain them. Pathways allows people to be recognized as trusted pastors, then develop them fully.
The Lord is bringing remarkable pastors into the Alliance, people like Frank and Vero. For years the Farreras had ministered in Guatemala, spreading the light of Christ through preaching, evangelism, and television programming. Frank was a medical doctor and Vero involved in work with families. Then they faced fierce threats and had to flee. Eventually they got a new start in California. They connected with Sunrise Community Church, an Alliance congregation. In time Frank and Vero felt called to plant a new church, Comunidad Shalom, in Austin, Texas. Yet it was unclear how ordination would work. They had completed some seminary courses but did not have a Master of Divinity degree, the traditional preparation for ministers. Through Pathways, with the support of Tulare Community Church and Light for the Nations Network, Frank and Vero were able to verify all the core competencies (and most of the practitioner competencies too). In short order they were ordained as Alliance pastors, recognized as trusted ministers of the gospel.
The name Pathways isn’t accidental. The Lord is bringing pastors to the Alliance by many paths, and the Lord will allow us to develop them through different paths even after they are ordained. With God’s gracious help, we will see the “unusual” become wonderfully usual!