The Rev!

Wow!  Yesterday around 4pm, I got a call from my "shepherd" with the Board of Ordained Ministry that I am being recommended by the board to be commissioned!  I got to celebrate with dinner at El Patron with Jen R., Patti, Dave, Matt and Brittney while also celebrating Brittney passing her exams and becoming a Registered Nurse!  After handbell practice and choir practice, Josh and I celebrated with dessert at Sweet Frog since he had his staff meeting during dinner!

For those of you who don't know The United Methodist Church's ordination process....it is long and grueling.  And while the BOOM (board of ordained ministry) works every year to tweak the process in hopes of making it more of a supportive and pastoral process, it still remains daunting simply because of what it is.  If you stay right on track with everything, it is a 7 year process to full ordination.  Since I switched from the North Carolina Conference to the Virginia Conference, I am about a year or two behind in the process.  Ultimately, that is okay for me, because I am on the deacon track which requires me to find my own job position rather than those on the elder track who are appointed to a church once they are commissioned.  So, after writing four huge papers, creating a DVD of myself proclaiming the word in various ministry settings, filling out various other forms and applications, then surviving four interviews which were forty-five minutes each with fifteen minute breaks in between on Monday, I got my call yesterday with the official word.  On June 23rd at Annual Conference in Roanoke, VA I will be commissioned as a provisional Deacon in The United Methodist Church.  And while I will not be able to wear a stole yet and will not be fully ordained (another 3 years of papers and interviews until that step), I will officially be The Reverend Lyndsie Nicole Kidd Blakely!  BB will be large and in charge up there on stage with me.  Let's just hope my alb fits over my baby bump!