Marriage Call to the Ministry Analogy (continued

The RPCES had it right. The sending Presbytery would take a man under care once
they felt fairly sure the man had a call, and they sent him off to demonstrate. As
long as he was a good churchman while he was in Seminary, they were not insistent
on all A's or even all A's and B's. They were concerned about his spiritual growth.
And if he was outside his own Presbytery, they kept track of him being under the
watchful eye of someone in the Presbytery who reported back to the sending
Presbytery. The sending Presbytery would encourage the man to take the licensure
exam BEFORE he finished Presbytery. Then with his licensure and his sheepskin he
could start looking for a church call. I was taken under care in the RPCES New Jersey
Presbytery in the spring of 1970. They asked me to start preaching at various
nursing homes in the Cherry Hill area and one of the Presbyters would accompany
me. When I got to Seminary, one of the Greek NT guys was my mentor for 2 years. I
even did a gig for 15 months as 'Student Pastor' at a very small RPCES church. I
visited New Jersey Presbytery once, and before I was set to go back, with the
guidance of the Seminary president, my overseer (for the life of me I can think of his
name right now, and the pastor of the sending church in Cherry Hill, I was
encouraged to transfer my care to Midwest Presbytery of the RPCES. I was
transferred and immediately passed my licensure exam. I had to take 4 years to
finish since I was working full time, and the last two years I was out preaching
almost every Sunday. My last year they asked me to fly to Atlanta every weekend to
help start a new church. I was not unique. Just about every RPCES student was in a
similar situation. Out preaching, licensure before senior year, etc. I our analogy this
would be the courtship period.