The Great Draft

Draft season is upon us. And no, I'm not talking about the NFL or NBA draft. I'm talking about the Great Draft of all the graduating MDiv seminarians in the ELCA. It's the time that we're all assigned to go to different parts of the country for at least the first three years of our ministry. This year the draft takes place on February 19-20 and my friends and I at Luther will find out at approximately 5:20 on Wednesday, February 20 what our future holds. It's a crazy time and there's a mix of excitement and worry in the air.

The craziest part about this whole deal is how the whole draft system works. It seriously resembles a regular sports draft. First, let's get your updated on some of the ELCA terminology. I'll be talking about Regions and Synods a lot. A Region is the bigger piece of the pie. There are nine Regions in the ELCA. For instance, Region 2 is the Northwest which includes Washington, Oregon, Alaska, etc. A Synod is smaller piece of the pie and covers a particular area. For instance, in Region 2 there is the Oregon Synod, Alaska Synod, Northwest Washington Synod, etc. These synods all have multiple churches within their area that they "oversee" and coordinate with. All the graduating students will be looking to fill vacant positions at various churches around the country. There are also Bishops. The Bishops are like the CEO of the synods but they're also the "pastor of the pastors" in their synod working to move people, keep order, and resolve conflict.

All the graduating 200 some candidates have profiles already filled out. These profiles tell bishops their basic info and includes where we are interested in going in the country, and what type of ministry we're interested in doing (solo call, working with a large staff, specialized ministry like youth ministry). The bishops have access to these forms and read over them to get an idea if the candidate would be a good fit and whether or not their needs would be met in the synod and region. Most of us put down preferences about where we would like to go and those are generally respected. People are also allowed to restrict which means they are guaranteed a placement in a certain region due to children, spouse with job, house, medical condition, etc. However, the restrictions must be approved. That's a whole other story though.

The said profiles are laid out and it essentially goes down just like any other draft. Nine Bishops are there representing their nine regions and drafting for their particular region. Each seminary also has a representative who speaks for the students (in our case, our Dean of Students). The Bishops have already established an order and the first Bishop to go takes five candidates his region is interested in (five is just an arbitrary number, we're not sure how many but it seems close enough). However, each candidate doesn't just automatically get assigned to that region. Each candidate is held up before the entire crowd and are asked whether they are contested or not. In other words, if more than one region is interested in a candidate, that candidate's profile is marked and the bishops will address this later.

So, this basically happens until all the candidates are assigned to a Region in the country. And now the fun part. They wheel and deal for the contested candidates. They trade other candidates and shuffle people around until everyone is satisfied.

And that's how it is decided where I will spend the next three years of my life! Whew! It sounds scary, especially since unlike the pro-athletes I'm not signing up for a six figure contract. But, I have to trust that God is able to work through this messy paperwork and this crazy process. Somehow, just somehow, the Holy Spirit shows up there and works through all of the paper, the needs, the wants, and the hopes of everyone involved. And you know, it might be foolish for me to put my hope and trust in the system and frankly, I've never really had a choice in this matter either. But, this process gets me one step closer to being in a church and being ordained. And I do trust that God is working for the good in my life right now, even though it may seem scary and not quite right at the time. So, next week, you'll probably get a very freaked out blog entry stressing out about this whole process because I'm placed in Western North Dakota or something. But, at least I'll know someplace in the country thought I'd make a good minister there and hey, I'll take that. ;)