SCM Research

Discerning a Vocation to Ministry in Churches

Lynn McChlery

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780334060383
• eBook ISBN: 9780334060406
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Much of the conversation and concern of churches and of Christian individuals is centred around Christian discernment or knowing God's leading in decision-making. The language we use around these moments is fluid, and often feels inadequate – ask someone how they 'know' what God might be saying in a given situation and they may well reach for the phrase 'I just know'.In "How Do You Know it's God?", Lynn McChlery draws on ethnographic research amongst those in different kinds of 'discernment' processes, along with theological, spiritural and psychological insights to try and understand this phenomenum of 'insight' – or 'just knowing'. Challenging the perception that such intuition needs to be marginalised and removed from discernment conversations, McChlery suggests that instead intuition can and should be intentionally matured both individually and in communities; and that it can be verified, articulated and recorded in forms appropriate to its own mode of insight. It is a vital new contribution to the scholarship for all practical theologians researching ecclesiology, vocation, group dynamics in churches, and communal decision-making processes of any kind.

Part 1: Listening to Experience

1. Discerning a Vocation to Ministry: Assessment Conferences

Discerning someone’s vocational call from God may seem an esoteric quest, located in the mystical communication between divine and human nature. However, ecclesial discernment is incarnational, embedded in social decision-making processes which contextualize the VAs’ experience of God, the applicants and each other. In and through these, they attempt the presumptuously ambitious task of hearing God’s voice to applicants and the Church. To research their experiences, I became a participant observer of assessment conferences in the Scottish Baptist, Church of England and the Methodist Churches. In this chapter, I also share my experience as an insider researcher of conferences in my own denomination, the Church of Scotland, describing all of these in the first section. In the second section, I offer a reflexive analysis of my experience, before briefly exploring each denomination’s relevant ecclesial distinctives and concluding with preliminary observations around practice in interviewing, paperwork and modes of assessment.

Observing assessment conferences

Scottish Baptist Union Board of Ministry

Applicants for accredited ministry in the Scottish Baptist Union are assessed by the Board of Ministry, which meets for that purpose (among others) in a 36-hour conference three times annually. The Board comprises about 24 people, ordained and lay, and predominantly male although the Chair, at time of writing, is a laywoman. The Baptist Union’s Ministry Development Co-ordinator (full-time, salaried and ordained) acts as secretary, aided by an administrator. None of the Board is trained by the Baptist Union in assessment skills, although a few have experience from secular contexts. Prior to the conference they receive application forms, theological statements and references for the applicants – about an hour’s reading for each.

The conference I observed followed the usual format. After a short business meeting on the morning of the first day, the Board first met the applicants informally over coffee. This conference had three (fairly typical) applicants. All were in their 20s and 30s and were former or current students at the Scottish Baptist College. All were full-time salaried lay ministers in large Baptist churches or chaplaincies.1 A Board member (their appointed mentor) accompanied each applicant throughout the conference. Over coffee, they showed visible signs of nerves despite genuine attempts to make them comfortable. The community ethos continued into the first session, held in a large lounge. Each applicant was asked to give a short testimony to the whole group – their story of conversion to faith and call to ministry. In Baptist churches this is a standard ecclesial motif, with which the applicants were clearly familiar. I noted that a common thread in their conversion and call narratives was an element of unusual or supernatural intervention: a phone call ‘out of the blue’, a name that ‘just came’ in prayer, waking during the night with a sense of being addressed by God. I sensed that these occurrences were considered to be an authentication of genuine spiritual experience.

After lunch, the Board interviewed each applicant in four groups of four or five assessors, each group covering one of the following: personal discipline and development; communication skills; church co-ordination skills; and intellectual aptitude. Set questions were provided and assessor teams relied heavily on these, though customized questions were permitted and even encouraged in the Board members’ written guidelines. There was minimal preparation (five minutes) to allocate questions. Pressure to ‘get through’ the questions (about seven in each 25-minute interview) discouraged follow-up questions to elicit deeper responses, despite an instruction that not all questions are compulsory – interviewers were anxious not to omit anything. Board members varied widely in their interview skills, and I observed several indications of lack of basic training: interviewers asking multiple or leading questions, giving advice, or sharing their personal experiences. Some questions and comments revealed that not every Board member had assimilated the prior reading. After each interview, teams had 10 minutes to grade the applicant A to J according to criteria describing the core competencies. The Board guidelines make it clear that assessing competency is distinct from discerning call. Some Board members freely communicated their ‘gut feeling’ at this stage, for example: ‘whatever grades you come up with, my answer about him is – absolutely, yes.’ In the evening, the Board met to collate feedback on applicants and to identify areas for further questioning. Feedback to the group communicated both interview data and the interviewers’ opinions, without differentiation. The mentors were present, both to contribute the applicant’s response to the conference and to communicate the Board’s feedback to the applicant: essentially, they were the applicant’s advocates. The day closed with a short act of corporate worship for everyone.

On the second day, again after worship, the full Board formally interviewed each applicant for about 30 minutes around a large table in the boardroom. I observed that the Chair made an intentional effort to put applicants at ease, at which she was particularly gifted. Nevertheless, applicants displayed visible signs of nervous tension in their breathing, speech patterns and posture. Questions proceeded in the predetermined order, with some follow-up questions and discussion among the Board. A few (older male) Board members used a notably assertive interrogative style as a form of testing the applicant’s call.2 After each interview, the Board had 15 minutes to make a final decision. I observed full discussions but little disagreement, and the Board reached a communal mind without difficulty. All the applicants were accepted, again fairly typically.3 There was more debate about pre-ordination training requirements, an area where the Board has some latitude. Applicants do not receive a report and the decision is communicated via the Vocations Advisor.

Church of England Bishop’s Advisory Panel

Discerning vocation in the Church of England is entrusted to three Advisors at a Bishop’s Advisory Panel (BAP), each specializing in one area: education, vocation or pastoral. At a conference, two panels each assess six to eight applicants, guided by a Panel Secretary (a full-time salaried role). The Church has over 400 BAP Advisors, and around 40 conferences annually. Applicants vary widely, from those experienced in lay ministry to new Christians. Advisors have one day’s compulsory minimum training at diocesan level, with further training recommended, and a highly comprehensive 114-page Advisor’s Handbook. Before the conference they receive the applicants’ paperwork (approximately two hours’ reading per applicant), with an assessment sheet as a matrix for grading the information. Thorough reading is imperative. On arrival, Advisors have an hour to meet together with the Panel Secretary – few will have met previously. At the conference I observed, this initial meeting seemed somewhat formal, with Advisors politely evaluating each other as colleagues by mutual discussion of prior experiences. The team I observed were mature and experienced, all having senior ecclesial or secular professional backgrounds.

The applicants arrived at 5pm for introductions, prayers and a light-hearted icebreaker activity in which the Advisors participated. During the evening, applicants completed a personal inventory4 followed by a written pastoral exercise,5 while Advisors met in teams. This revealed impressively detailed preparation and disciplined attention to the boundaries of their assessment areas. Previously prepared questions were mutually discussed and allocated for best fit, to avoid duplication. The Handbook gave detailed advice on interview skills and topics to explore in each area, but no set questions.

The first day began with Communion, before breakfast. Advisors retained allocated seats in the dining room throughout, and applicants were asked to sit at different tables for each meal, so that advisors met many applicants over meals – this is an acknowledged factor in shaping impressions. Thereafter, an Advisor’s morning consisted of observing and assessing their eight applicants’ five-minute presentations, each followed by a 15-minute discussion. Advisors allocated a mark according to criteria. After lunch, these marks were shared in a team discussion chaired by the Secretary and a grade agreed from 1 to 6. From the outset, pass/fail was a recurring question: ‘Is this above the line?’ (that is, 3.5 instead of 3). I observed their rigorous adherence to the nine criteria for assessment throughout, with the Secretary clearly referencing which criterion was currently being evaluated. In the rest of the day, each advisor conducted four 50-minute interviews, with 10 minutes afterwards to grade for each of their three criteria. Punctuated by refreshment breaks and evensong, and a team update chaired by the Secretary to monitor concerns, the day concluded with evening prayer at 9pm. I did not observe the interviews, but I was present for the Advisors’ subsequent mutual feedback. Interviews had sometimes taken unexpected directions as each applicant’s responses were pursued. One Advisor was extremely animated after an interview, having discovered an unexpectedly positive dimension of an otherwise unpromising applicant which reversed his previous judgement.

After morning Communion, the following day concluded the interviews. The closing worship service in late afternoon was very poignant, thoughtfully conducted by one Advisor with the specific spiritual needs of both applicants and Advisors in mind.6 After the applicants’ departure, Advisors assessed their pastoral exercises before reaching agreement on grades. The evening was for report-writing. Each Advisor writes three paragraphs for each applicant, one for each criterion. This usually takes well into the early hours of the morning and advisors may sleep badly, particularly where they must make difficult judgements. One told me that he sometimes spent nights in prayer for marginal applicants; another that she had had only three hours’ sleep.7 The Vocations Advisor, who discerns call, carried a particular burden: a positive report from her is essential for the applicant to be accepted. I observed her displaying great humility about this and seeking to be informed by her colleagues.

The following morning began the interview feedback. As the Secretary moderates all discussions, each panel had an hour of formal discussion followed by a (usually unnecessary) hour to adjust their reports. For each applicant, each Advisor read their three paragraphs and grades. The nine grade...

Table of contents

• Copyright information
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: Listening to Experience
• 1. Discerning a Vocation to Ministry: Assessment Conferences
• 2. The Voices of the Vocational Assessors
• 3. Individual Discernment: Listening to Ignatian Spirituality
• 4. Communal Discernment: ‘It Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us…’1
• 5. ‘Knowing More Than We Can Tell’: Brain Lateralization and Human Perception
• Part 2: Listening to Theological Traditions
• 6. Discernment in Newman
• 7. Discernment in Barth
• Part 3: Experience, Theology and Discernment
• 8. Intuitive Knowledge and Discernment
• 9. Discernment in Vocational Assessment
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Appendixes
• Appendix 1: Interview Questions
• Appendix 2: Frequency of Responses
• Appendix 3: Task Emphasis Method
• Appendix 4: A Lexicon for ‘Intuition’