Candidacy I: Entrance

Candidacy is the ecclesial side of the process I'll be going through in the next four years to become an ordained pastor in the ELCA. It involves four steps, which typically occur in conjunction with the stages of seminary. (Which I will be introducing to you simultaneously with the candidacy steps.) Candidacy functions basically to ensure that a person meets all of the non-academic requirements to be a pastor: basic sanity, doctrinal alignment with the tenets of the ELCA, spiritual preparedness, and call. 

The first step in the process is called Entrance. It includes many typical first-step items: an application, an essay, an initial interview, a psychological examination... Okay, some of those are typical first-step items. The main part of Entrance, however, is the Entrance interview in front of the entire Candidacy committee.

The Candidacy committee consists of the bishop of the synod (for you Catholics: the equivalent of the Archbishop of the diocese), synod staff, and select pastors from the synod. One of the people on the committee is the one who does the initial interview, which is just for initial information, and to begin the conversation. One of the people on the committee is assigned to the candidate as their relator, and is the contact person for the candidate with regards to questions and whatnot. I'm also told it's a good idea to be in contact with your relator throughout seminary, to keep them up-to-date. It helps maintain a relationship between the candidate and the committee.

At the Entrance interview, the committee begins by looking through the candidate's file before the candidate enters the room. The file includes the application, the essay, notes from the initial interview, recommendations, and the report from the psychological evaluation. Then the candidate enters the room and the fun begins. They ask questions, discuss call and spiritual life, ask questions they may have of any of the materials in the file. The goal is to assess the candidate's preparedness for entering seminary. It's not an attempt to see if the candidate is all-knowing about all matters regarding theology... the candidate is being sent to seminary to learn that, not to already know that. The interview is about call, preparedness mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and getting to know the candidate. After the interview, the candidate leaves and spends approximately fifteen terrifying minutes waiting, while the committee discusses and composes their response (which has to have a justification, not just a yes/no). Then they call you back in and let you know. (Now do you see why the fifteen minutes are terrifying?)

 The committee can come back with a variety of responses varying from "yes" to "yes with recommendations" to "postponement" to "no."