The United Methodist Church is heading for trouble.  In discussions with other seminarians, and through my own personal observations I see a deep lack of effective leadership.  District Committees on Ordained Ministry and Conference boards are supposed to be the gatekeepers, but our church feels so desperate for pastors and in many places those boards are so clogged up with mediocre leadership (I am TOTALLY not talking about my BOM, by the way!) that we just allow people through.  The church has developed a STANDARDIZED SYSTEM of tests to ‘weed out’ the bad apples.  I guess these boards must think that if people can get through the rigorous (ridiculous) process then they must be okay.

This is not working!  We can not assume that just because people get through the tests that they will be good pastors, and YES we need to qualitatively and, often, subjectively evaluate our candidates for ministry to make sure they are good!  You see, high quality leadership tends to cultivate more people who have the skill sets needed for ministry with the ability for high quality leadership.  Mediocrity only breeds mediocrity.  The members of these boards of ordained ministry need to take a personal interest in the candidates for ministry.  They need to visit them and really get to know their ministry styles, abilities and gifts.  They need to REALLY know who they are approving as certified candidates and take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for them!

As a church we must stop accepting mediocrity.  We should not be scared to stand up and demand ONLY THE BEST leadership.  We should not be so wimpy as to not ask the hard questions and turn down the wrong people.