Late last fall, our personnel team voted to recommend that our church ordain Chris Ransbottom. That’s saying a lot.

The Personnel Team represents our church as they are charged with monitoring the overall health and effectiveness of our staff.

The recommendation is because ordination is a church family decision.

Chris is a proven part of our pastoral team and is now a teaching pastor on our staff.

Ordination is the way a church family recognizes the pastoral calling of the people who demonstrate their gifting, integrity, and skills over time.

Chris has served as our student pastor, discipleship pastor, and is now one of our teaching pastors. So, our personnel team will recommend that we affirm him by ordination. I realize that many of you have never experienced that, so let me describe.

Several times in the New Testament, someone is “set apart” or “commissioned” to lead a congregation or go on mission. The church at Antioch gathered around Barnabas and Saul, laid their hands on them, and set them out to take the Gospel to the Mediterranean world. Paul charged a young church planter to “set apart” people to lead the church on Crete. It’s a recognition of calling, integrity, and skills for Gospel ministry and the charging of those who demonstrate those aspects with the authority to lead.

After 5 years of seeing Chris leading students to Christ and the ministry for all students here, another 4 years of leading discipleship ministry, preaching, and teaching responsibilities with the entire church, we believe he has demonstrated his life before us, and we want to affirm that.

This recommendation will come to the church at our quarterly meeting on January 25, and we will propose an ordination date of February 1st to celebrate it. I am proud of more than what he does; I’m proud of the man, husband, daddy, and teammate-leader he is. This is our chance to honor his impact as a church.