How to become an SDA Pastor

[Woody]

How to Become a Seventh Day Adventist Pastor

eHow.com

.Instructions

•Step 1:

Join the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Candidates for membership must undergo baptism by water immersion following a period of study to learn fundamental beliefs and practices of the church.

•Step 2:

Be a deacon or deaconess. As a lay person you can become involved in a particular ministry of the church such as visiting the sick or teaching a Sabbath School class.

•Step 3:

Attend an Adventist college. There are a number of four-year colleges in the U.S. established by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. A person who wants to be a pastor would study religion as an undergraduate.

•Step 4:

Become a church elder. An interest in evangelism is key in becoming a local church elder. Elders are ordained in a church ceremony.

•Step 5:

Receive a master of divinity degree. Andrews University in Michigan is the primary theological institution for candidates who will become ordained ministers of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. This period of study lasts two or three years.

•Step 6:

Be a pastoral intern. Upon graduation from seminary, a pastoral intern is hired by a local conference and given a ministerial license. Pastoral interns work under close supervision of a ordained pastor for a year or more, after which the intern may be given the responsibility of pastoring at a smaller church.

•Step 7:

Become a pastor. Adventists believe that pastors are divinely called to ministry and they are ordained by the church for their ministry. The local conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church selects and appoints a pastor to the ministry of a church. Following ordination, a minister may serve at any Seventh Day Adventist Church anywhere in the world

Tips & Warnings

•Women may be ordained to serve as pastors in the local Seventh Day Adventist Church, but at this time are not eligible to be ordained to serve in the worldwide church. If a woman is an ordained local elder, and has been hired as a ministerial intern and issued a ministerial license she has the rights and privileges of an ordained minister.

•Though there is no distinction between a pastor and a minister in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, only the term "pastor" is used as a title.

[Woody]

BTW ... Jesuits should not apply.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

You don't have to go to seminary to be ordained as an Adventist pastor!!!

[Woody]

Women are not allowed to be ordained. Thus your application would be stamped DENIED.

[nuff sed]

No, you do not have to go to seminary to become a pastor. This is, however, the exception rather than the rule. Many dedicated laymen have become ordained as the 'brethren' have seen in them the qualities they are looking for in a pastor.

nuff sed

[Gerr]

Oh, you're going to bring up WO in a round about way, regardless, huh?

[Woody]

Gerry. There was an edit that you were not aware of.

[Guest]

Did you write the eHow article Woodrow?

[Gregory Matthews]

Note: The above posts apply to the United States and/or North America. They may not apply elsewhere.