(photo credit Paul Nixdorf) 

Guest blog by Chris Wogaman

On March 11, 2007, I was assigned to the Metropolitan New York Synod for first call. After 5 years of classes, part- and full-time ministry experience, CPE, and ELCA candidacy, I was ready to begin my life as an ordained minister of Word and sacrament.

However, a powerful ELCA official told me that I would have to “go under the radar” in order to receive a first call. If I insisted on being out as a gay man, she said, I would not receive a first call. Nevertheless, I persisted. “The bishop told you to go under the radar if you want to receive a call. But you insisted on leading with your sexual orientation. We can’t find you a call if you persist in leading with your sexual orientation.”

“Leading” with one’s sexual orientation meant, in 2007, that even the slightest mention of your sexual orientation immediately took over your entire vocational path with an anxiety and resistance that met its partial resolution in the 2009 Churchwide vote to allow open and partnered LGBTQ pastors and seminarians.

The years went on. One year without a call. Nevertheless, I persisted. Two years without a call. “Maybe it’s not God’s will for you to be a minister,” I was told. “Maybe the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you to find another path.” Nevertheless, I persisted.

After nearly five years, I finally had my first interview with a call committee. They turned me down, not because of sexual orientation. It was a heartbreak, but we were not a good match. Nevertheless, I persisted.

Nearly 30 call processes later, and after having become “perhaps the most approved candidate for ordination in the ELCA” (as was stated on my behavioral interview for Mission Developer/Redeveloper—finally the ELCA took note!), I came to one of the hardest interviews, on Wednesday, November 9, 2016. I was devastated by the results of the elections; I couldn’t wrap my head around even having this interview. I was close to receiving a call vote at a congregation that would not have been a good match, but I had the interview anyway. Nevertheless, I persisted.

That interview went well. The people on the call committee were also reeling from the elections’ results the night before. Very soon, they had me down for an in-person meeting, and soon I was approved for a congregational vote unanimously by the church council. I passed the congregational vote unanimously on January 15, 2017, nearly 10 years after first waiting in earnest for first call as a pastor. It seems like I have been called for times such as these. On April 1^st, at 3:30 in the afternoon, at SpringHouse Ministry Center in Minneapolis, MN, I will be ordained to the ministry of Word and sacrament.

Thankfully, I persisted.