Steps and Expectations For In-Care Candidates

(Throughout this document references are made to contacting various people and organizations. See the Contact Page for information about how to make these contacts.)

SUMMARY: When a member of the United Church of Christ recognizes God calling him or her into ministry, the member seeks the support of his or her local church in requesting the Metropolitan Association to take him or her in care. If the Ordination and Standing Committee takes the candidate in care, it has not promised the candidate ordination. Rather the Committee promises to get to know the candidate as it discerns whether or not it feels that he/she is called to ordained ministry. While being in care, the candidate fulfills the requirements for moving ahead in the ordination process, as listed below. And, it is hoped, the in-care process itself is one of the ways a candidate is prepared for ordained ministry.

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If you are in the process of preparing for ordination in the United Church of Christ and are a member of one of the Metropolitan Association's congregations, you need to be taken “in care” by the Metropolitan Association. Below is an overview of the specific steps followed in the Metropolitan Association.

If you have questions after reading this material, contact the Registrar, the Regional Conference Minister or the Chair of the Ordination and Standing Committee. If you have already been assigned an In-Care Advisor, please take your questions to him or her first.

For fuller descriptions of UCC perspectives and procedures on becoming a Student in Care, please refer to Section 2 of the Manual on Ministry, available from the denomination's Office for Parish Life and Leadership, or on line at www.ucc.org/ministers/manual/.

1. A member of a local United Church of Christ church in the Metropolitan Association, recognizing a sense of calling to ministry, approaches his or her local church (through the Ordination Committee, Deacons or governing board, depending on the procedures of that church) seeking a recommendation to the Association that he or she be considered by the Metropolitan Association's Ordination and Standing Committee for in care.
   
   
2. If the local church recommends the candidate for in care, the candidate contacts the Association to indicate his or her desire to be considered for in care by its Ordination and Standing Committee.
   
   This contact is most efficiently made by downloading the application materials found here on the website, completing them, and once ALL the materials on the checklist have been assembled, submitting them (in a single envelope!) to the Registrar. It is also possible to submit them all electronically, again at one time. The Registrar will acknowledge receipt of your submission.
   
   
3. Once all of the application materials have been received, the Registrar schedules the candidate to meet with the Ordination and Standing Committee. The Committee usually meets on the last Friday of each month (except July, August and December). To be eligible for an interview, all materials must be received by the Registrar on or before the 10 th of the month. With the Committee's meeting workload/interview schedule, an interview the same month the materials are submitted may not be possible.
   
   
4. After interviewing the candidate, the Committee decides whether or not to take him or her in care. Either way, the candidate will be notified in writing a week or two after their interview. This letter will also provide any candidate taken in care with contact information for his or her Advisor from the committee.
   
   The Ordination and Standing Committee's taking a candidate in care is not a promise of ordination. Rather the Committee is committing itself to getting to know the candidate as it discerns whether or not it feels that he or she is called to ordained ministry. If the committee comes to agree that the candidate is called to ministry, the committee also promises to help the candidate prepare for ordained ministry.
   
   
5. If the candidate is taken in care, the following subjects will be addressed:

   a)  Prayerful support by the local church: The candidate might suggest that the local church mark/celebrate his or her in-care status in a Sunday morning worship service. Local congregations are to take an active part in identifying and preparing candidates for ministry.

   b)  Relationship with the In-Care Advisor: the candidate should contact the Advisor to begin this important relationship as soon as possible.

   c)  Psychological Evaluation: All candidates for ordination are expected to undergo a Psychological Evaluation as early as possible in the in-care process. These evaluations are not used to disqualify candidates; rather they are to help a candidate and the Committee better recognize strengths and weaknesses as the candidate prepares for ministry.

   These evaluations are confidential, and will be shared only with the candidate's Advisor, the Committee Chairperson, the Regional Conference Minister and the Registrar. If there is information in the Psychological Evaluation that is deemed pertinent for the whole Committee's work with the candidate, the specific information will be related to the Committee, but the whole report will remain confidential.

   The Metropolitan Association most often uses Kenwood Psychological Services for these evaluations. If a candidate or a local congregation wants to seek an evaluation from another provider, arrangements need to be approved by the Committee prior to the evaluation.

   In seeking another provider, the Committee expects the candidates to seek an evaluation at least as thorough and preferably similar to the ones Kenwood provides. Kenwood's evaluations involve a series of “paper and pencil tests” including:

   • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory II (MMPI-2)
   • 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF)
   • Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT)
   • Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI)
   • Incomplete Sentences (IS)

   Following the evaluation of those tests, the provider interviews that candidate to discuss the findings of those tests as a way to engage the candidate in a discussion of their psychological aptitudes for the ministry. The evaluator then writes a narrative summary of his or her observations through the tests and the interview and has the candidate sign off on the written summary of the evaluation before forwarding it to the Association.

   To initiate the Psychological Evaluation with Kenwood, the candidate submits a check for $220.00 payable to the Metropolitan Association. The candidate must also get his or her local church to submit a check for $220.00 payable to the Metropolitan Association. (The Association covers the final third of the total cost of the evaluation.) When both checks have been received, the Metropolitan Association office provides the candidate with the contact information for Kenwood, and at the same time contacts Kenwood to let them know that the candidate, when he or she calls for an appointment, can be scheduled for the evaluation.

   The candidate will be shown a copy of the Psychological Evaluation and be asked to sign off on it before it is shared with the Metropolitan Association.

   d)  Academic progress: The candidate is expected to be working towards fulfilling the academic requirements for ordination in the United Church of Christ. Any significant irregularity or hiatus in academic progress should be shared with the Advisor and the Committee.

   As the candidate makes decisions about completing the academic requirements for authorized ministry in the United Church , he or she must be cognizant of the cost of higher education relative to the salaries earned by ordained ministers. Please see item 10 below.

   e)  History and Polity Requirement: This requirement for ordination has traditionally been fulfilled by the successful completion of a polity course [offered through a seminary (during a regular semester or in an inter-term) or at General Synod], as well as submitting one section of the ordination paper on polity and history of the UCC. Such fulfillment is still acceptable to the Committee.

   A polity course that may be particularly convenient for persons in the Metropolitan Association is offered by New York Theological Seminary. Information about this course can be found at www.uccmetrosuffolk.org/our_pastors/polity-intro.htm.

   f)  Length of in care: The Committee, needing to get to know the candidate in order to be able to discern with him or her a call, expects the candidate to be in care for at least one year before ordination. Candidates with clear vocational senses can be taken in care as early as the second year in college.

   g)  Involvement in the life of the local church and in the life of the Association and/or New York Conference: The Committee and the Association expect the candidate to be involved in the life of their local church and in the life of the Association and/or New York Conference. Participation in settings for ministry beyond the local church is an important way of learning about the whole United Church of Christ, and candidates should understand that attending Association and Conference meetings and serving on boards and committees are part of their in-care responsibilities.

   h)  The Committee hosts an annual In-Care Gathering, usually the first Friday after the New Year, which is a time for the in-care candidates to get to know one another and to catch up with the members of the Committee. We strongly encourage the attendance of all in-care candidates.

6. The Registrar will always refer the in-care candidate back to his/her advisors whenever there are questions regarding the ordination paper.
   
   
7. The local church of the in-care candidate will receive a copy of all correspondence between the committee and the in-care candidate.
   
   
8. This document will be sent with any in-care correspondence.
   
   
9. Recognizing that the relationship of mentor and in-care candidate is a highly sensitive one based on the need to connect and communicate, in-care candidates and the mentors can ask to have a reassignment after consideration by the chair.
   
   
10. The educational costs of preparing for ministry in the United Church are borne by the candidate. In light of the humble salaries most ordained ministers earn, candidates should be careful about taking on too much student loan debt or otherwise depleting personal financial resources needed for the future in order to complete their academic requirements for authorized ministry in the United Church . (The latter often happens when people enter ministry as a second career, rely on savings or retirement money for their education and then do not serve long enough to earn back/replace their investment.) Candidates, and later ministers, should be conscious and intentional about making decisions towards a financial well-being for themselves and their families.
    
    There are scholarship programs for in-care candidates from the New York Conference and from the United Church of Christ . For further information on eligibility, deadlines and application procedures, please contact the NY Conference and/or Parish Life and Leadership.
    
    
11. In-care candidates in their last year of seminary: The Pension Boards of the United Church of Christ administers the Herring and Stark Memorial Funds, through which, if the candidate's application is successful, funds are deposited in a new Provisional Member account with the Pension Boards. This provides a candidate with a head start on the accumulation of resources for retirement through their Annuity Fund participation. If a candidate wishes to apply, he or she needs to contact the New York Conference as early as possible in their senior year.

For any further help in discerning a call to ministry or with these in-care procedures, please contact the Registrar, the Chair of the Ordination and Standing Committee or the Regional Conference Minister.