Thursday I met with my Committee on Ministry (which is sort of like meeting with your Bishop to you apostolic folks.) They walk with me through the discernment and exploration of my call to ministry, and eventually would recommend me for an Ecclesiastical Council (one of the last steps before ordination.)

Anyway, at this meeting, we decided that it was time to begin working on my ordination paper (which is what it sounds like), and my ministerial profile (kind of a huge electronic resume that gets circulated among churches.) The profile is a funny beast, there are lots of text boxes to fill out, some asking for the hard facts, some asking me to produce a complete statement of my understanding of ministry and my call.

This process that is so intense and emotional, so fraught with ambiguities and seeking, has to be shoehorned into text boxes and radio buttons. I spend most of my life trying to know people and be known by them, and now I have to hope they’ll be able to know me through a web form. Scary stuff. I have faith that those looking for a minister will want to read deeper, but I can’t help feeling a little anxious.