Overview

In the congregational way, the ordination process begins when a local church and one of its members together discern that the member has gifts for and a call to ministry. Due to cultural shifts – families moving around while young people grow up, diversity of faith traditions within local communities, diversity among Christian traditions as relates to eligibility for authorization – more and more students arrive at Divinity School without a home church to accompany them. Simultaneously, congregational churches have become more flexible about ordination requirements, creating pathways to ministry that do not require the Master of Divinity.

These intersecting changes have disrupted the relationship between seminarians and ordaining bodies. Divinity School students without home churches are left to wander, which costs them precious time they could have spent forming relationships with a church and denomination. When they connect with an ordaining body late in their theological education, students suffer economic disadvantages when they must wait long after graduation to find a ministry position. A failure to align students’ seminary years with their discernment can even result in a student’s decision – or nondecision, as it were – to pursue a path other than ordained ministry, siphoning talent and knowledge away from the church.

Program Structure

The Adoptive Home Church Program (AHC Program) is a simple adaptive measure, promoting an adjustment to today’s cultural situation. Here is how the program works:

1. Churches that sense a call to nurture those discerning a future in ministry connect with Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (ANS at YDS). They attend an initial information session and create a simple profile on what they have to offer by way of care and support.
2. ANS at YDS students who do not have a home church to accompany them in the discernment process are invited to be matched with AHCs. They meet with the dean to discuss what tradition aligns with their interests and theology. They complete a profile describing themselves to AHCs.
3. With the input of the dean, students and church leaders agree to a conversation to discern a match between what the student needs and what the AHC has to offer.
4. The AHC’s leaders connect with ordaining bodies to be reassured that they can broker an introduction between their adopted student and the ordaining body, clearing a path onto the discernment road.
5. Students join their adoptive home churches as members, perhaps on an accelerated timetable compared with what might be typical. Where appropriate, they are welcomed into the church with a special liturgy of mutual commitment.  
6. Students become as active in their adoptive home churches as possible, with AHCs recognizing the obstacles to ordinary participation built into the seminary experience, such as:
   1. Students intern in congregations as part of their education, preventing regular worship attendance
   2. If AHCs are not close-by to YDS, students may need to get to know their churches mostly virtually, with occasional in-person visits
   3. Students are usually financially strapped and unable to pledge at high levels
   4. Everyone is busy, but students are busy in specific ways, with exam periods, pulpit supply opportunities, and evening and weekend commitments

Adoptive Home Churches’ Role

Seminary students need spiritual and emotional support as they confront big questions about their faith, gifts, and callings. AHCs differ from the sites where students intern when it comes to the question, Who is caring for whom? By no means are students forbidden from interning in their Adoptive Home Churches, but they should enter any quid pro quo agreements – paid pulpit supply, internships, sabbatical or vacation coverage – with attention to role clarity.

The primary responsibility of the AHC is to love students and encourage them in their discernment. The primary responsibility of the adopted student is to become part of the congregation in the ways possible for them and to receive their AHC’s support, encouragement, questions, and suggestions as they make their way through the discernment process toward ordained ministry.

To learn more, pleas contact Rev. JaQuan K. Beachem, Associate Dean for Community Development & Faith Formation by email at jaquan.k.beachem@yale.edu or call (203) 868-9805.