Glad you asked!
Posted on 11/08/2013 8:23:18 AM PST by Gamecock
COLORADO SPRINGS — Big names and big surprises converged before a nationwide audience at the Pastors Draft this season.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said Alvin DeWalt, 26, of Fuller Seminary, pacing his apartment in Pasadena and watching the draft on the Daystar network.
His wife had made guacamole, and thirty friends were on hand to see which church picked DeWalt, one of this year’s top ranked prospects.
In the first round, Geoff Parsons and Rick Benson, of Westminster and Calvin seminaries respectively, went first, as scouts had predicted they would. Parsons heads to a struggling mid-sized Methodist church in Memphis, Tenn., which had the top pick this year. Benson was drafted by a mega-church in Casper, Wyo., which had traded two mid-career pastors for a higher pick. Both draftees say they are ready to “help their teams.”
Calvin Seminary overall showed surprising strength, placing two dozen graduates at leading churches around the country, plus sending many more to minor league ministries. Of the Big 10 schools, last year’s leaders, Dallas and Asbury, showed less strength. Both call this a “building year” and say next year’s classes will be much stronger. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Westminster say they were “pleased” with how many grads they placed in respectable positions.
The mammoth North Shore Christian Church of Reston, Va., selected wildcard rookie Pat Jameson, who has struggled with morality issues, but is still considered a major league talent. Jameson, speaking at a press conference wearing a North Shore polo shirt and cap, told reporters he was “ready to make a clean start.”
Church on the Rock (Houston, Texas), known for scooping up mid- and late-career pastors at low salaries and getting impressive results, traded a first-round pick for two associate pastors with “executive pastor potential” according to a widely respected scouting report.
A number of pastors near retirement entered the free agent market, having been traded for early-career pastors.
“They’ll miss my experience in the pulpit,” says one elderly pastor who was traded for two rookies and a youth pastor.
One highly watched rookie, David Humphreys of Luther Seminary, went lower than expected, due to what many consider unreasonable demands including an outsized automobile budget and eight weeks of “sabbatical” per year.
DeWalt of Fuller Seminary was picked even higher than he expected by a Florida church which is “transitioning to a purpose-driven model” after years of stagnation. He slumped on the couch, smiling as friends congratulated him.
“I’m just happy it’s over,” he said. •
The Hail Mary position has been replaced with the new Halal Mary. And, btw, Mary has also been replaced by Marzuq. Halal Marzuq.
A flood of Methodist and Episcopal graduates are seeking this new office.
:)
then their draft order was predetermined
So, where does Hobbes come in?
41,000 is a made up number that keeps growing with the retelling.
Our manual of denominations in the Army Chaplaincy had a couple hundred maybe, and we had a legitimate reason for having information on denominations since we had to deal with them regularly.
Were one to try to find a list of “the 41,000” it would be a lot like Taze Russell’s 144,000, known only to the prophet himself.
Glad you asked!
Back when the number was in the 30,000 range, they were including every independent baptist church, and many thousands of non-Christian cults. Since every baptist congregation is free to choose its own statement of belief, we baptists can account for many ‘thousands’ of denominations all by ourselves.
It is all in how you define ‘denomination’. And since most Protestants believe in the priesthood of the believer, I expect the Catholic apologists to soon complain the SBC has millions of denominations within a denomination.
“Wouldn’t the Calvin Award winner normally be drafted first anyway?”
If it’s “the Calvin Award” it was probably predestined.”
I suspect you’re right. Someone’s playing fast and loose with the definition of denomination.
“No doubt the same Roman Catholic apologists who so gleefully cite the erroneous 25,000-denominations figure, and who might with just as much glee cite the revised 8,196-denominations figure, would reel at the notion that there might actually be 223 distinct denominations within Roman Catholicism! Yet that is precisely the number that Barrett cites for Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Barrett indicates in the case of Roman Catholicism that even this number can be broken down further to produce 2,942 separate denominations and that was only in 1970! In that same year there were only 3,294 Protestant denominations; a difference of only 352 denominations.”
http://www.jmm.org.au/articles/19106.htm
We were a bit more balanced in the Army since we needed info for real purposes. And the Baptists who didn’t have conventions or organizations were just “Baptists”.
That’s my point.
Satire. Methodist pastors come from the Conference (our state level organization).
Next stop, the superbowl! I hope we play against the Catholics, since all they do is throw Hail Marys every play.
Wouldn’t the Calvin Award winner normally be drafted first anyway?
Why? God knows men's hearts. He seeks His will to enact His plan. We don't know what that plan is or why things happen the way they do. Otherwise, all missionaries would be lottery winners and all Reformed pastors would be drafted first.
Apparently God knew their draft position before He founded the universe, eh?
Indeed He did.
Knew?
He foreordained the entire draft!
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