Today was my first interview in the candidacy process. I was interviewed by a local pastor and I thought it went well… though I still need to see the paperwork he filled out on me. We talked about:
=my family: He was intrigued that my family isn’t Christian though he said that my parents weren’t that different from people in the pews.
=my sexual harassment experience in high school: He asked a lot about it, probably to see how utterly bitter I am (which I’m not). I was amazed that I could talk about it and not get utterly upset. I’m healing… slowly but surely.
=the politics in the ELCA: I think was to see how politically astute I am. I made the mistake of mentioning the Word Alone stuff and the Sexuality Study stuff. He then told me I was being too specific and asked if I was ok with the fact that the ELCA might not be around in 5 years. My response: I’ll worry about it then because it’s God’s church.
=my call to ministry: Gee… I can’t figure out why he asked me that. 🙂 This question actually caught me off guard as did the question on where I see myself in ministry. I was honest and I talked about preaching, about reading Luther’s teachings, about doing mission schtuff with IV, and I assured him that I knew what I was getting into with the whole ordained ministry thing. He liked my insight on the fact that I don’t know the type of ministries I’d have in my ideal church because every church is different.

I feel OK about it though I’m amazed that my devotional life didn’t come up and that they didn’t ask about my theology.