LWC Hosts School for Future Leaders of The United Methodist Church

Students and teachers of the United Methodist License for Pastoral Ministry School
gather in the amphitheater on the Lindsey Wilson College Campus Quadrangle.

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Shannon Blosser received a great theological education at Asbury (Ky.) Seminary. Last week at Lindsey Wilson College, he received a great practical education about how to translate what he learned in seminary to his everyday work in a church.

Blosser, of Mackville, Ky., was one of almost three dozen future leaders of The United Methodist Church who spent a week on the LWC A.P. White Campus attending the United Methodist License for Pastoral Ministry School.

"Seminary teaches you the theology, this teaches you the practicality," said Blosser, who ministers churches in Boyle and Washington counties.

The weeklong school -- sponsored by the Kentucky Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church -- certifies laypersons to present sacraments in their assigned United Methodist churches. For some of the students, the school will enable them to have expanded responsibilities in their home church; for other students, the school is a step on eventually becoming pastor of a church.

This was the 13th time in the last 14 years LWC has been the site of the the school.

"We love working through this process with people who are answering their call," said Mary Lou Stephens of Richmond, Ky., who was one of the four leaders of this year's school. "We love working with them and struggling with them to answer their call."

The 35 men and women who attended the school from May 27-June 2 at LWC experienced an intense week of education that included everything from wrestling with theological questions to learning how tax laws affect churches.

"We have spirited debates and discussions that make for some very long days," Stephens said. "We've talked about some hard things, yet we've come out unified around Christ and what he has called us to do and how to serve his church."

Blosser said the school also helps individuals build and expand a network of contacts.

"It's great opportunity to meet your fellow brothers and sisters who will be serving the church with you for many years to come," he said.

This year's school attracted students from all over Kentucky as well as from Illinois, Indiana and Texas.

After researching the school and LWC on the Internet, Jan Shaulis made the eight-hour drive from Oak Forest, Ill., to Southcentral Kentucky.

"It looked like an attractive program to be in that was also located in an attractive place," she said. "What I like about this school is that it gives you the practical food that you need to work in the church. And they've done it in an informational way where you feel like you are walking away with a book that is going to help you."

The students in this year's school also came from diverse backgrounds -- lifelong United Methodists as well as Christians who had recently joined the church.

One of those students who recently joined the church was Dee Decker Huey of Louisville, Ky. An assistant pastor at Revolution United Methodist Church in Louisville, Huey said the school at LWC was an excellent way to prepare for enrollment in Louisville Presbyterian Seminary.

"It's been really great to spend time with people who are wrestling with the same questions and concerns," she said.