Prep 4 Min
About this blog
The Rev. Timothy Cargal, Ph.D., serves as the Interim Coordinator, Preparation for Ministry/Exams for Mid Council Ministries of the Office of the General Assembly.
“... the Land that I Will Show You” is the blog of the Office of Preparation for Ministry/Examinations of the Presbyterian Church (USA). This blog is designed to serve as a resource for those discerning and preparing for a call to the ministry of Word and Sacrament as ordained teaching elders of the church. It will also provide a place for reflecting on and dialoging about the changing context of pastoral ministry in the early 21st century.
For quick announcements about changes or developments in the preparation process, dates related to exams or other key events, discussion boards, surveys, etc., you can follow us on Facebook at “Preparing for Presbyterian Ministry.”
Recent posts
- Gathering Odds and Ends
- Turning a Page on Exams
- 1001 and FIRST
- An Ash Wednesday Reflection on Ministry
- Pastoral Residency Accepting Applicants
Categories
- Ordination Process (22)
- Ministry Context (16)
- Ordination Exams (16)
- Ordained Ministry (7)
- Bible study (2)
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Archives
Posts with category: Ordination Process
March 29, 2013Gathering Odds and Ends
It is proverbially said that the oft-eventful weather patterns marking the transition from winter to spring cause the month of March “to come in like an lion, and go out like a lamb.” While it remains to be seen how quickly things will settle in the grass like a lamb, it is certainly the case that this month has been a roaring lion of activity in the area of preparation for ministry. So, this blog post shares some odds and ends about recent and upcoming developments.
Office of the General Assembly Reorganization. On March 6, the OGA staff was realigned ...
January 24, 2013
MOOCs and Contextual Pastoral Formation
I recently attended a meeting of colleagues from member communions of the National Council of Churches of Christ who work in support of professional church leadership, theological education, and support of candidacy for ordination to ministry. The focus of this year’s gathering was emerging trends in theological education.
One topic of discussion was the emergence of “MOOCs”—Massive Open Online Courses—that are now being offered by such prestigious educational institutions as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Literally tens of thousands of students participate in single courses taught by prominent members of the faculty, with much ...
December 27, 2012
Year-End Snapshots, Part Two
A comment posted to my most recent blog raised a couple of interesting issues that go beyond what can be reasonably answered in the space of a comment response, so I offer here a few more statistical snapshots. The issues concerned the number of inquirers/candidates relative to open positions, and whether female candidates were taking longer to secure first calls than their male counterparts.
Inquirers/Candidates relative to Open Positions: The commenter noted that there are “four times as many candidates as there are total positions available.” Assuming that the commenter is using “candidate” in a more general sense ...
December 21, 2012
Some Year-End Snapshots
Like many folks in many lines of work, the approaching end of the year signals for me not only preparations for Christmas but drawing together a number of annual reports. So in the spirit of many publications’ “year in review” stories I present here some snapshots drawn from the Inquirers and Candidates Database at the close of 2012.
- The presbyteries currently have a total of 2047 individuals under care. There are slightly more “candidates” (1076, or 52.5%) than “inquirers” (970, or 47.5%).
- Women out number men both among inquirers and candidates. Women are 51% of all inquirers, and ...
October 31, 2012
Review of the Preparation Process
In my “GA wrap-up” post last summer, I shared that the Assembly called for a special committee to study the overall preparation for ministry process with particular attention to the place of the standard examinations within that process. The committee was charged to bring recommendations to the next General Assembly in 2014. In this post I want to provide an update on that review. But first, a little background …
The last official review of the preparation process for teaching elders was conducted between September 1998 and October 2000 at the request of the General Assembly Council (now the Presbyterian Mission ...