A Ramble about Being a Reverend

Within the last several years, the couple that owns and runs the Trinity Broadcasting Network ran afoul of the IRS. As it turned out, in order to avoid paying the taxes on their wealth that they were supposed to, among their other infractions they ordained every employee of their “ministry” as clergy. In other words, everyone from the janitor to the cameraman to the cooks could claim the title of “Reverend.” Within the US, and as far as the US was concerned, they all had the legal right to marry, bury, baptize, preach and all the other functions which clergy serve regardless of their education, training, discipleship, or spiritual maturity.

When I left the bishop with whom I served in California, I went to work for a local Walmart. While I was there, I met a couple and we became friends. As they were planning on getting married, I then began to take them through some discipleship and pre-marital counseling. By that point, under the aforementioned bishop I had already been trained for weddings, and had done a decent number of them. At the time, we had planned on me doing the wedding, but having left my bishop, and thus the organization which ordained me, I wasn't legally able to do it. Lo, and behold, I found that there were a number of organizations out there over the internet willing to oblige me and license me as a minister under their organization enabling me to legally perform a wedding. Oddly enough, when I received my certificate, there was that title again, “Reverend,” though technically all I did was agree to their particularly loose statement of faith. No education check. No interview to determine if I was even qualified. Nothing. And so I received the piece of paper allowing me, or anyone else who signed up, to legally join two people for the rest of their lives.

The term “Reverend” originated somewhere in the middle ages, and originally referred to the long tunics or cassocks worn by the clergy of the Catholic Church. When was took the habit of the clergy one became “reverend.” In modern usage, it means a person who is respected or honored for their devotion to their religious profession. As a result, it came to be a priest's or minister's title in the same way that “Doctor” is the title of a medical physician, even though “doctor” actually refers to someone who has spent eight years in school mastering their chosen specialty to the highest level regardless of the nature of that specialty. Thus the reason why medical doctors are chagrined these days because of nurses now able to earn their doctorate, and the title “doctor”, in nursing without being medical doctors.

In the Roman Catholic Church, traditionally, candidates for the priesthood would have to spend eight to ten years in Seminary for their formation and training, studying and dedicating themselves to fulfilling the work of Christ in the role of a priest. In mainline Protestant denominations, typically ministers must achieve at least a Master's degree in theology or divinity for their denomination to ordain them. Part of these studies are purely academic. Part of them, ideally, are meant to foster their own personal discipleship and devotion to Christ in practical ways. Part of them again are the various trainings for the Sacraments (or ordinances, as the case may be) and all the preparation and choreography which goes with them. But they are all meant to prepare the person, as much as possible, to be a guide and a shepherd for those seeking Christ, and those seeking to be disciples of Christ.

For myself, I spent two years in one Bible School, two years in a second, twelve months in vocational training for secular work, more than a dozen Master's level correspondence courses, one on one altar training with the aforementioned bishop in California, as well as my own studies in theology, history, and the Scriptures which have encompassed the last twenty years. Whether this is enough for that bishop to have placed his hands on me to ordain me, or for me to hold the title of “Reverend” is perhaps a matter of opinion. I am sure there are many who disagreed.

There are also those for whom God has given those specific gifts and wisdom where the title “Reverend”, though not earned in a school or through the dispensation of an organization or denomination, is entirely appropriate. From my own experience, there aren't nearly as many of these folks as many would like one to believe, but there are more than many who are formally ordained would like to admit. These are often the quiet masters and guides who may only disciple one or two people, but the impact they have through those few they disciple is enormous.

The truth is that being a “Reverend” has more to do with one's own personal discipleship and commitment to Jesus Christ than it does with a piece of paper or a ceremony held by a licensing organization. I have met several and have been told of many more supposed “Reverends” who have gone through all the schooling and training only to be totally devoted to their own financial well-being; perhaps like the owners of TBN. History is filled with them. While the current bishop of Rome has all the earmarks of a true “Reverend”, and I would not balk at the traditional address of “your holiness” with him, there have been many, many who were more interested in their own stomachs, bank accounts, and sex lives. Far from being “Reverends”, they were not even practicing Christians.

Owning the title of “Reverend” carries with it the responsibility to not only know what it is you believe and being able to disciple others, but it also carries with it the responsibility to practice and be an example of your faith in Jesus Christ. You yourself are to be a disciple just as much as you are to pass on the discipline which you profess. Without this, you may be able to legally perform weddings and funerals, but you have no right to the title.