A Required, Mandatory, Not Optional Relationship

In my work with candidates for ministry and clergy in their early years of ministry, I find myself using the phrase “required, mandatory, and not optional.”  In the UMC, we certainly have a lot of those opportunities.  One such “required, mandatory, not optional opportunity” is called RIOM.  Residency in Ordained Ministry is set aside to provide newly commissioned clergy intentional mentoring as they journey toward ordination.  The last two weeks, I have spent time with nearly 50 clergy in their 1^st or 2^nd year of RIOM, and I have been reminded that out of requirement comes blessings.

My own RIOM journey started in the fall of 2003, a new graduate of Duke Divinity School and a young pastor with her first appointment as an Associate at Aldersgate UMC.  I was a mix of emotions sitting around a table with people I did not really know and quite frankly did not think I had “time” to get to know.  What I learned was that from that table would come people who listen to me, support me, stretch me, and love me.  From that table came relationships.  From that requirement came blessing.

Ministry, marriage, parenting, and life all come with celebrations and challenges.  It is a gift to have people who share in your joys and heartaches.  I am grateful for those who journeyed with me through RIOM and for those who journey with me today.  At heart of these relationships I find life. 

 

Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.   By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13: 34-25).  A new commandment; a required, mandatory, and not optional opportunity to love others as God has loved us.  From the commandment, flows the incarnational blessing of a life giving and life sustaining relationship. 

The 2014 RIOM Launch Retreat....required, mandatory, not optional.