General Conference Issue: Commissioned Ministers

The third issue in our series for discussion at General Conference is an expansion of our categories of credentialed church workers. This proposal comes as a recommended insertion to the Manual of Doctrine and Government (MDG) in the section entitled “Church Officials,” which addresses various aspects of the role and functioning of ministers within the general church.

Currently, we have provision for ordained and licensed ministers, and now a third category has been proposed: commissioned ministers. Increasingly, pastors fulfill a variety of roles and many desire clergy recognition, but our current, standard credentialing track is not as essential for all congregational ministry assignments.

Ministers called to a senior or solo pastoral assignment are required to obtain a minister’s license. This is a rigorous process, assessing a person’s ability to clearly express his or her position on many doctrinal, theological and pastoral issues. The role or category of commissioned minister is for those persons, called into service within a local church, whose role does not require this level of theological expression since their ministry is not in the area of teaching or preaching. “This new, expanded role”, states Darrell Winger, general secretary, “recognizes the growing and diverse nature of many of the pastoral staff teams in our larger congregations. It is a needed category within our overall framework.”

If a commissioned minister seeks to serve as senior or solo pastor, he or she must then enter the standard ministerial credentialing process and obtain the minister’s license. Pastoral staff who are commissioned would be able to perform many of the functions of a licensed pastor, such as weddings and funerals. “This change is proposed because the expectations for articulation of doctrine are not the same for an associate pastor (e.g., of youth, children, hospitality, media, administration) as they are for a senior or teaching pastor,” says John Arthur Brubaker, administrative assistant to the Commission on Ministry and Doctrine. “It is one thing to affirm the doctrine of the church, and this is something we expect all commissioned, licensed, and ordained ministers to do; it is another to demonstrate the ability to articulate the doctrine.”

By adopting proposed Article 26, “Commissioned Ministers,” and approving this additional clergy position or category, a new article will be added to the Manual of Doctrine and Government and the Commission on Ministry and Doctrine will begin processing candidates accordingly.

Read the entire proposal.

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