Special day, weird day, empowering day... Thurs 9/24 in San Antonia, Texas... Ordained
Background: we have been in Christian mission ministry for 24 1/2 years now, lived foreign, worked foreign, traveled and worked in 5 major regions of the world... and along the way, found us working in multiple forms of church planting, church multiplication and training/discipleship. The prep for all this work was SO informal... yes, took some formal Bible-school training (correspondance, long before on-line would have been available), but then, through sheer hard work and personal study under many (really good) teachers, moved into being faculty in Bible survey courses, taught many Sunday School courses, have been called upon to preach and teach in all of those 5 major regions of the world, have prayed with SO many and seen God move... written a number of curriculum for Community Health and Development courses, weaving the truths of Scripture into these training opportunities, and raising up dozens of people who became church-planters throughout Latin America.
However, over the years, there has been a number of times where I wasn't taken seriously because I had not been ordained. Being ordained, in a significant portion of Latin American settings is the difference between being allowed to work with, or along-side a church or ministry... or not.
For over a decade, we have known and worked along-side a wonder ministry couple, (Rev) Dave and Cindy Carleson. We have traveled and ministered together a number of times, and we have come to know and deeply respect their work in restoration ministry. A number of years ago, Dave and Cindy aligned with the national ministry of Set Free, a group we've known and worked with even back in the YWAM days. They have grown into national-level ministry in Set Free. Our particular (mom-and-pop) ministry, needing a formal covering, came under Set Free a few years back.
As we would communicate and meet up, I shared with Dave awhile back about some of the road-blocks we have actually encountered because we were Missionaries but I was not Ordained. After prayer and discussion, the Set Free ministry offered Ordination to me, as a recognition of 'proven ministry call and faithfulness' as well as 'equipping for the future' and 'walking together in a deeper bond'.
So, today I was 'officially' given Ordained status as a pastor and minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Weird. Wonderful. Definitely, an imparting of Grace for the future.
I'll take any Grace the Holy Ghost wants to pour out.
Chris
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