We are excited for God's call upon your life and your connection in the EPC Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic. Please access the forms below that are pertinent to your calling and make note of the deadline. Please know, too, that we are praying for you as you go through this process.

TO STAND BEFORE PRESBYTERY IN APRIL 2020, YOU MUST HAVE ALL OF YOUR REQUIRED PAPERWORK TO TOM PITMAN by: This is the DEADLINE for paperwork.

Nomenclature:

•   Examinee. An Examinee is anyone who will be examined. This is a catch-all term for Ordinands, CP applicants, and Transfers.
•   Candidate. A Candidate is anyone under care of Presbytery.
•   Ordinand. When a Candidate completes seminary and begins to submit paperwork for ordination, he or she becomes an Ordinand.
•   Commissioned Pastor (CP) Applicant. This is a Candidate who has begun to submit paperwork to become a Commissioned Pastor.
•   Transfers from a Reformed Tradition. Pastors seeking to be ordained in the PMA, who come from other EPC Presbyteries or denominations with a Reformed tradition. They have already sustained examinations on Reformed orthodoxy before a trusted Presbytery.
•   Transfers from a non-Reformed Tradition. Pastors seeking to be ordained in the PMA, who come from denominations that would not have examined them on Reformed orthodoxy (Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, Lutherans, Pentecostals, etc.). These are examined by the Exam Team the same way that Ordinands are.

REQUIRED PAPERWORK

• PLEASE SUBMIT IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT ALL PAPERWORK to MC Chair Tom Pitman. Click here for his email address.
• DO NOT BUNDLE forms. Email all docs individually, AS YOU COMPLETE THEM. This is extremely important because some items are handled by third parties and we have no control over how long it takes to process what they do.
• All paperwork must be submitted WELL BEFORE written & oral exams.
  
  Session Endorsement Form
  
  Application to Come Under Care
  
  Preliminary Questionare
  
  Candidates Statement of Faith, Parts 1 & 2
   
• All Ordinands, CP applicants, and Transfers must fill out the "Application for Ministry" attached to the PMA Sexual Ethics & Misconduct Policy AND sign the Acknowlegement of Receipt of the Sexual Misconduct Policy.
• ALL Ordinands, CP applicants, and Transfers need to complete the ENNEAGRAM personality profile.  Please contact certified Christian counselor and administrator Gina Roes whose email is:  artofbreathing@aol.com for information. 
• ALL Ordinands, CP applicants, and Transfers must affirm and sign - "Ethical Affirmations for EPC Leaders" (Click to download in pdf)

EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

All examinees are orally examined by the Exam Team before they stand before Presbytery. These five-part examinations are usually held in March, August, and early January, at Lake Forest Church in Huntersville, NC.

NEXT FIVE-PART ORAL EXAMINATION: Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Reformed Transfers will not be re-examined on details of theology, history, the languages, and so on, that have already been sustained by a trusted Presbytery. However, we will examine them on EPC-specific knowledge and to get to know them. We want to see if they are a good fit for the PMA. See the Reformed Transfer study guide below.

Study Guide - for Reformed TRANSFERS

Commissioned Pastor Applicants are assumed to already share the ethos of the EPC, our "DNA," since they come from within our own churches. They will be examined to determine if they are competent and knowledgable enough to pastor a specific church. They are not expected to know the sorts of things that seminarians do, such as the languages or critical theories of the Bible. We are looking for an above-average Ruling Elder level of knowledge, someone who is studied but does not have a M.Div. See the CP study guide below.

Study Guide - for COMMISSIONED PASTOR APPLICANTS

Ordinands and non-Reformed Transfers will be comprehensibly examined to see if they share the knowledge base required of the body of Teaching Elders, their would-be peers in the PMA—and to see if they are a good fit. See the Ordinand study guide below. Before taking this oral exam, they also must sustain three written exams conducted by General Assembly. There is more information about that below.

Study Guide - for ORDINANDS

After sustaining the five-part oral exam by the Exam Team, all Examinees are interviewed by the Ministerial Committee on the Friday morning before each stated Presbytery. They will appear before the Presbytery on Saturday morning for their (hopefully) final exam.  Contact Ministerial Committee Chair Tom Pitman for the time of your Friday interview.  

FORMS AND PERTINENT INFORMATION

Steps to Coming Under Care - Instructions & Checklist

Steps to Ordination (The Examinations Process for Candidates Under Care)