I've been recommended for Endorsement!

I've been recommended for Endorsement! That means that I can continue my seminary education and go on Internship next year in preparation for becoming a rostered minister in the ELCA. There wasn't much doubt that I would be recommended for Endorsement (if my candidacy committee or my professors or my CPE supervisor thought there were problems or room for doubt, they would have told me so that I could do something about it). It is still a great relief to get through it. The process is this: your academic advisor and two people from your synod's Candidacy Committee go over your transcripts, your ten-page Endorsement Essay, and your CPE final evaluation. They talk about them for about ten minutes without you, then bring you in and ask you about them and anything else they have questions about. The question-and-answer portion lasts about 45 minutes, and can include anything they think is relevant to being a pastor and/or anything that gets brought up. Then they send you out and discuss things, before bringing you back in and letting you know what they're recommending. Then they give their report to your committee as a whole, and the committee votes on it (the vote is basically a rubber stamp; I've never heard of anybody getting recommended for Endorsement who doesn't actually end up getting Endorsed). It's pretty important; without being Endorsed, basically, you can't progress any farther towards ministry.

( This semester as a whole )

I preached last Sunday the 21st; here's my sermon.
( Sermon for Sunday, October 21, 2007 )