The Presbytery of San Diego Votes to Ordain an Evangelist

At its regular stated presbytery meeting on Tuesday, November 18, 2008, the Presbytery of San Diego examined Mr. Nate Landes for ordination as an evangelist, and approved him by a unanimous voice vote.

 Nate Landes is the former youth director at the First Presbyterian Church of San Diego.  He received his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and is completing his Ph.D. in Global Ethics/Poverty at Claremont School of Theology.  About two years ago, Nate resigned his position at First Pres, and started a new ministry called the Urban Youth Collaborative (www.uycollaborative.org).  As a youth director at an urban church, God gave him a real burden for the teenagers of the city.  90% of teenagers in the city of San Diegodo not have a church home.  Many of them have never been to church, don’t know who Jesus Christ is, live in challenging and dangerous environments, and often go hungry.  Nate felt led by God to start a new ministry to reach this challenging group.

 The Urban Youth Collaborative now ministers to 700 students each week, on the campuses of 18 high school and junior high campuses around the city.  The UYC helps connect churches and youth directors to the young people and the schools.  The assist with student-led lunchtime Bible clubs, and have seen many young people commit their lives to Christ.  They give students Bibles, do leadership development, operate a food pantry, offer tutoring resources, and provide chaplains to some of the sports teams.  They help bring in speakers for all school assemblies, offer counseling, and take kids to summer camp at Forest Home and to an FCA camp in  Santa Barbara. 

It is a holistic ministry, ministering to spiritual, physical, and relational needs.

 Nate was under care of the Presbytery of San Diego.  He felt called into ministry, but as the ministry of UYC grew, he did not feel called to be a traditional pastor.  He wondered if he could be ordained as an evangelist, to minister to young people on their school campuses, and help connect them to churches in our area.  We did some research and found that Leighton Ford (brother-in-law to Billy Graham), was ordained as an evangelist in the Presbyterian Church about fifty years ago.  We discovered that the Book of Order allows us to ordain people as evangelists.  G-11.0103p says that one of the responsibilities of the presbytery is “to designate ministers to work as teachers, evangelists, administrators, chaplains, and in other forms of ministry recognized as appropriate by the presbytery.”

 Our presbytery has never ordained anyone as an evangelist before.  But the more we talked about it, the more it seemed to make sense.  It is “out of the box” from what we are used to, but it is a ministry that our city desperately needs.  As our COM discussed it, we talked about the importance of having Nate connected to one of our churches.  He talked to the session of the church where he is most active, and they decided to enter into a parish associate relationship.  Nate was examined for ordination, and spoke about how this Urban Youth ministry started.  He talked about the Muslim and Buddhist kids he encounters every week, and how he engages them in conversations about Jesus Christ.  He is a person of high energy and great faith, and he is helping our presbytery look at ministry through some new lenses. 

 His examination for ordination was one of the high points of our presbytery meeting.  It was another reminder that God is at work in our church, Christ is at work in our cities, and the Holy Spirit is doing some new things to bring the two together.  We are doing our best to be faithful, and to follow Christ down some roads we haven’t walked down before.  Please pray for us, and we’ll give God all the glory for everything good that happens.

 

Comments

[Mike]

Clark,
Good post. This section of the BOO was exactly how I was ordained in the Presbytery of San Joaquin to IVCF among International Students at Fresno State.

I recall in the presbytery examination that there were various questions of "connection," some of which were genuinely concerned if this ordination was too "out of the box." I felt these questions were all good and simply indicated some of the familiar reactions to a different way of considering the mission of the presbytery.

Then one of the pastors stood and told of her coming to faith as an international student through the witness of UPC-Seattle, and why the presbytery would be wise to fulfill its polity and mission to higher education and cross-cultural ministry. Someone following her moved to arrest to examination. :)

[Jeff Winter]

Hurray. It is wonderful to see that there is a presbytery which is taking seriously Christ's mandate to preach the Gospel. Keep up the Christ-centered ministry we have been called to by our Lord