Ordination Retreat Intensives in Tacoma, WA
Twenty one Candidates came to Tacoma, Washington to take their Flourishing next steps towards Ordination. The ECO Ordination Team hosted two ordination retreat intensives in October at First Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, WA (the first ECO Church!). We want to thank the staff at FPC for their hospitality and generosity during our stay.
ECO has much to celebrate as we consider the emerging pastors in our ordination process. Our ordination process is designed to develop and deploy Pastors who are competent in our Four Desired Ordination outcomes. Through life-on-life discipleship between Candidates and their support team (Presbytery Ordination Mentors, Spiritual Formation Group, Ministry Mentor, Ordination Advisor and Assessors from various Presbyteries) the candidates are affirmed in their calls and challenged to grow.
Our Ordination Process includes two retreat intensives. The first being geared towards enhancing the covenant relationships among the candidates, pastors, elders, and Synod staff, teaching ECO’s theology and vision, and mapping out the candidates’ individual growth and development that will lead to the assessment of readiness for their ordination in the next phase.
The second retreat intensive is geared towards determining a candidate’s readiness for ordination by evaluating their competencies in the four desired ordination outcomes in-person, emphasizing the importance of spiritual health and covenant community. After much discernment, at the end of this retreat the Assessors (pastors and elders) deliver a final report which tells each candidate if they are certified ready to receive a call.
Please pray for these Candidates and the churches they currently serve or will be called to in the future. We are so grateful for the Assessors listed below who generously volunteered their time, invested in our candidates and prayerfully discerned candidates’ next best steps.
Ordination Retreat Intensive #1 Candidates
Andy Wood, Charley Hellmuth, Charlie Browning, Chris Pan, Dereck Woodcock, Doug Royer, Lisa Carrington, Marcos Henry, Marty O’Rourke, Matt Stephan, Mehrdad Sajadi, Paul Hudson, Samuel Mock, Susan McGowan, Todd Anderson
Ordination Retreat Intensive #1 Assessors and SFG Leaders
Bertram Wang, Curt McFarland, Jesse Skiffington, Jim Singleton, Lisa Johnson, Mike Horst, MJ Romano, Nancy Dumford, Paul Fredericks, Paul Merrill, Ruthie Hast, Scott Klepach, Tom Willcox
Ordination Retreat Intensive #2 Candidates
Drew Thomas, Emily Scates, Jamie Swope, Jeanmarie Tade, Melissa Danielson, Michael Elmer
Ordination Retreat Intensive #2 Assessors and Spiritual Formation Group Leaders
Bertram Wang, Bruce Greenough, Jon Hathorn, Jonathan LaBarge, Kimberly Merrill, Lisa Johnson, Luke Parker