DBMD Form #5
This application questionnaire assumes the candidate has completed the education requirements for their credential pathways, the years of service requirement, any other outstanding DBMD requirements, and is nearly ready for credentialing by the District Conference. Questionnaire answers will enable the district leaders to judge the candidate’s readiness for credentialing. The questionnaire should be completed carefully and fully.
Preliminary Data
Form Completion Date
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Full Name
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First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Email Address
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example@example.com
Mailing Address
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Street Address
Street Address Line 2
City
State / Province
Postal / Zip Code
Date of Birth
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Month
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Year
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Age
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Preliminary Data
Marital Status
Please Select
Single
Engaged
Married
Please give an update on your marital and family record.
Does your spouse/fiancé testify to conversion?
Please Select
Yes
No
Does your spouse/fiancé testify to sanctification?
Please Select
Yes
No
Explain any reservation your spouse/fiancé may have about being married to an ordained minister in the church.
Explain any problem your spouse/fiancé may have experienced "fitting in" as a minister's companion.
Do you or your spouse/fiancé have any obligations that might interfere with your primary ministry?
Please Select
Yes
No
Please explain.
Do you consistently meet all financial commitments so that you do not compromise your ministry or standing with your creditors?
Please Select
Yes
No
Are you now, or have you ever been, involved in a court case where charges have been brought against you?
Please Select
Yes
No
Please explain.
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Health Information
Comment on your present state of health. Include any major illnesses since filing the Personal Data Inventory Questionnaire.
Have you ever had a nervous breakdown or an emotionally traumatizing experience?
Please Select
Yes
No
Please explain.
State any health factors in your family which might impact your ministry.
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Ministerial Qualification
What devotional patterns have you established?
Are you maintaining a life of personal purity and moral integrity?
Please Select
Yes
No
What is your understanding of the experience of entire sanctification?
Have you experienced, or are you diligently seeking, this grace?
Please Select
Yes
No
What terms would you use to describe your present relationship with God?
Of what Wesleyan church are you a member?
Of what Wesleyan church is your spouse a member?
When were you first issued a district license in The Wesleyan Church?
By what district?
How long have you carried a district license continuously?
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Ministerial Qualification
This is the most important step in your quest for ordination/commissioning. Please comment again on the urgency of your call to the ministry. Include in your answer your understanding of whether a call is for a lifetime, or whether it is acceptable to go into secular employment and become an ordained minister without appointment.
Most districts have long lists of ministers without appointment who have been in secular work for years and may never plan to go back into the ministry. Do you envision this happening to you?
Please Select
Yes
No
Are you determined to make the ministry your life's work?
Please Select
Yes
No
In the future, what type of ministry arrangements do you see yourself serving?
Please Select
Full-time
Part-time
Bi or Co Vocational
Other - please explain
Please give an explanation for your answer above.
What ministerial experiences have you had?
Pastor
Evangelist
Other
Give places and dates for each.
What ministerial experiences have you had?
What do you feel will be the main focus of your ministry?
List, in order of importance, what you consider the most vital qualities necessary for making a person a good minister.
How would you define what it means to be "successful" in ministry?
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Ministerial Qualification
Check the pastoral functions in which you have had some practical experience and then indicate the level of preparedness or competency you feel in each area.
Rows
Check
6 (Prepared)
5
4
3
2
1 (No Experience)
Basic pattern, sermon preparation
Visitation--hospital
Visitation--shut-in
Visitation--elderly
Visitation--prospects
Visitation--community canvass
Visitation--business, professional
Visitation--evangelism
Method of personal evangelism
Method of discipling
Membership training
Membership reception
Membership transfer
Premarital counseling
Wedding(s)
Marital counseling
Pre-funeral pastoral care
Baptismal service
Administering Lord's Supper
Planning worship service
Preparing bulletin
Conducting worship service
Preaching
Planning midweek service
Planning special day observance(Christmas, Easter, etc.)
Planning revival
Conducting revival
Planning missionary convention
Preparing newspaper article
Preparing newspaper ad
Preparing agenda for LBA
Session of the LBA
Session of the LCC
Sunday school organization
Sunday school supervision
Relation to auxiliaries (WW, etc.)
Office management
Maintaining membership lists, etc.
Property and legal matters
Preparing annual church budget
Managing church finances
Preparing reports to LBA
Preparing reports to DS
Preparing reports to district conf.
District responsibilities
Ministerial association
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Ministerial Qualification
Lifelong personal growth and self-improvement are essential to effective ministry. What do you plan to do to keep current in the areas of intellectual stimulation, pastoral care and counseling, church leadership, biblical literacy, and theological understanding?
Have you seen individuals converted and incorporated into the church because of your ministry? Be specific.
Have individuals been encouraged to grow spiritually because of your involvement in their lives? Explain.
What do you believe will be the strongest area of your ministry? The weakest?
What do you conceive to be the purpose or meaning of ordination, and why do you desire to be ordained? (skip if not pursuing ordination)
What do you believe will be the effect of the strain of living constantly in the public eye on yourself? on your family? Please comment, with a focus on your emotional, spiritual, and relational well-being.
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The Wesleyan Church
Do you, or have you, had reservations concerning your loyalty to The Wesleyan Church? Explain.
Will you be conscientious in your promotion of the district and general interests of the Church?
Can you give full support to the institutions of The Wesleyan Church?
Please Select
Yes
No
Please explain.
Read again The Guides and Helps for Holy Living (Discipline 260-268) and the membership conditions of The Wesleyan Church (Discipline 553-558). Can you fully support, practice and teach the principles of living outlined? If you have hesitancy or questions, explain.
Rows
Yes
No
Explain
Honor The Lord's Day (265:1)
Abstain from Spiritism (265:2)
Exercise Faithful Stewardship (265:3)
Demonstrate a positive social witness by abstaining from all gambling (265:4)
Demonstrate a positive social witness by abstaining from destructive substances (265:4)
Demonstrate a positive social witness by refraining from membership in secret societies (265:4)
Follow the Scriptures’ teaching regarding gender identity and sexual conduct (265:5)
Follow the Scriptures’ teaching on marriage and divorce (265:6)
Preserve the sanctity of the home (265:7)
Work to advance God’s kingdom (265:8)
Grow in knowledge, love and grace (265:9)
Preserve the fellowship of the Church with reference to use of languages (265:10)
Do good to all people (265:11)
Respect the rights of all people (265:12)
Be honest, just, and faithful (265:13)
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The Wesleyan Church
What is your attitude toward district budget assessments and United Stewardship Fund (USF) assessments of the General Church?
How will you work for 100% assessment payment in the churches you pastor?
To what extent do or will you promote prayer support and giving to the missionary causes of The Wesleyan Church?
How long have you been faithful in the storehouse tithing of your personal income? (See Discipline 465.)
What should be the relationship between the local pastor and her/his district superintendent?
Are your church membership and constituency records current?
Please Select
Yes
No
Explain any special difficulties you have had in maintaining a good relationship with the churches you have pastored?
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The Wesleyan Church
Are you current in your reporting to the district and its officials?
Please Select
Yes
No
If you were not clear as to the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit to a specific assignment, would you accept the direction and appointment of the district as the will of God and enter joyfully upon the assigned appointment?
Please Select
Yes
No
Are you willing, if needed, to take a small church and supplement your income by means of other employment?
Please Select
Yes
No
If you find it necessary to take other employment, will you work toward the goal of becoming full time in the ministry?
Please Select
Yes
No
In regard to your schedule, are there demands on your time that conflict with the Christian ministry?
Please Select
Yes
No
What would you do if you were faced with conflicts with your primary ministry?
How many hours weekly is a reasonable workload for a consecrated pastor?
How many hours weekly should you spend with your spouse and family (if applicable)?
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The Wesleyan Church
Comment on your understanding of the biblical teaching on divorce, as well as on divorce and remarriage.
Indicate the social issue on which you have strong views and in which you might become actively involved in your ministry.
Rows
6 (Strong)
5
4
3
2
1 (Weak)
Concern for the poor
World hunger
Racial equality
Women's rights
Pornography
Homosexuality
Abortion
Aging and the elderly
Euthanasia
Substance abuse (alcohol, drugs, etc)
Explain your views on those issues about which you feel very strongly and explain how they may affect your ministry.
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Membership Commitments
Can you practice and proclaim total abstinence as the appropriate response to abuse of such substances as alcohol, tobacco and drugs used for purposes other than proper medical treatment?
Please Select
Yes
No
What basis do you give for abstaining from membership in secret societies and lodges which are oath bound?
Would you knowingly take into membership individuals who do not live up to the lifestyle practices outlined in the Membership Commitments?
Please Select
Yes
No
Please explain.
Are you persuaded that the practice of homosexuality is contrary to scriptural teaching and that the church should boldly teach that a marriage between a man and a woman should be the only context for sexual activity?
Please Select
Yes
No
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Membership Commitments
How should Christians use their leisure time?
Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures are the fully inspired and inerrant written Word of God, and that they contain sufficiently all doctrine required for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?
Please Select
Yes
No
Comment on your understanding.
What is your understanding of the Holy Trinity?
What do you believe about the nature and deity of Jesus?
Comment on the importance of Christ's resurrection to the gospel.
What is your understanding of humankind--the origin, original nature and present nature of persons apart from Christ?
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Membership Commitments
Briefly state what you understand by the terms
Rows
Please explain
Atonement
Justification
Regeneration
What is your position on the following subjects
Rows
Please explain
Free will
The security of the Christian
The possibility of complete apostasy
What is the nature and work of the Holy Spirit?
What do you understand to be the "gifts of the Spirit?" For what purpose are they given? To whom? Give scriptural evidence for your answer.
What is your understanding of the "gift of tongues?" Is it the evidence of being filled with the Spirit?
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Membership Commitments
State what you believe to be the scriptural significance of baptism, mode(s) of baptism and who is eligible.
What is the meaning and purpose of the Lord's Supper? Include in your answer who may administer and who may participate.
What is your understanding of the Second Coming of Christ?
What do you understand to be the destiny of the Christian, of the unbeliever, or of the person who has never heard the gospel?
The Wesleyan Church believes God calls both men and women into ordained / commissioned ministry. Will you continue to support and advocate for this position? If not, explain.
Please Select
Yes
No
Please explain.
Do you believe and can you articulate the ordination and commissioning of men and women as biblically and theologically sound?
Please sign the following statement:
The information provided on this form is confidential. It is only for use by the Wesleyan District Board of Ministerial Development and Wesleyan Church officials, and will not be released or provided to any other parties. I hereby freely give permission for the use of this information by the district and general officials of The Wesleyan Church, and waive my right to examine any confidential information about me provided by other persons. Further, I understand that credentialing by The Wesleyan Church is a privilege granted me, not a right that I claim. I hereby acknowledge the authority of the Church in granting credentials to those who, after thorough examination, are believed to have the gifts, fruit and call of God. Also, I understand that though I may complete all the education requirements for the credential, it does not guarantee my credentialing.
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