This weekend: Licensure and Ordination

It is great to know that Christ continues to call and charge the men of His church to pastor and shepherd over them (Acts 20:28). This call is both noble and serious.

This past Saturday I took my licensure exam. I can compare the whole thing to training for and running a marathon that I did in 2004. In both cases, I started to study/train in January. Each week the training/studying grew more and more. At the end of my marathon training, I was running 20 some odd miles. At the end of my studying, I was retaining and memorizing so much information. For both of them, I had desires to put it off and/or forget about it. I am thankful to Zack Carden, our youth pastor at CCC, who has taken this exam, for his encouragement in the beginning. All this leads up to the day of the test/race. Thankfully, I was pleased with my marathon (I never want to do that again!) and even more thankful, I am pleased with how the test went. I don't know the results, but I feel very confident in the fact that I answered the questions clearly and concisely. I want to thank the Lord for his grace in this process and his continual answer to my prayer to expand my mind, retain the information and let the truths I studied soak down into my heart and through my life.

Then on Sunday evening, Mandy, Lydia, and I had the great honor to see one of my best friend, Dusty Martin, become ordained in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). It was a great evening and I am encouraged to see God working in and through Dusty as he is serving as Youth and Children Pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church (http://tabernaclebaptistofvidalia.org/) in Vidalia, Ga, home of the famous vidalia onion.




I love some vidalia onions... Has anyone ever had a fried vidalia onion sandwich? Delicious! Anyway, may God bless Dusty and his family that God's name will be great in that city!

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What is and why take a licensure exam (in the PCA)?
For those who feel called into full-time ministry in the PCA (our denomination), taking and passing the licensure exam allows them to preach in a PCA pulpit on a regular bases. The exams cover Bible, theology, and Book of Church Order (the government policies of the church). That is, if I pass, I will be licensed to preach.