TOTALLY Disgusting ... my old church comes out of the closet!

[righteousdude2]

I was once blessed to have had my start at the San Dimas Community Church as its youth minister. God did some very awesome things there, and several on the teens I was blessed to have shared in leading the to Jesus still keep in touch with me.

Because of the memories and the extent of my experience there, I check their FB page and blog from time to time, and just last week, I read that they welcomed their new pastor to the church. He has a dynamic background in theology, and is a recent graduate of Fuller Semenary. A prominent west coast school.

So what's the problem? Just the: he brings with him to the church, his husband ?!
The man is gay and married to boot. I can't say I didn't expect this as the church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, and they were one of the first to ordain gays. I just refused to believe the church I had my start in, would ever go "gag!" And now that it has, I am disgusted.

Here is my dilemma and question to you: I included this church and my success with the youth groups in my bio and resume, and am thinking that it is now time to remove them from my list of experiences, professionally, being afraid that anyone reviewing my resome might get the wrong idea of what kind of church I used to be affialted with.

What would you do?

 

[Don]

Leave them off. Not because you're afraid anyone reviewing your resume would get the wrong idea; I don't think you're "afraid" of much. Leave 'em off because you dis-associate with them.

If the resume is for another church, and they ask about the gap in the work history, tell 'em the truth.

If it's for a secular job, just tell them it was a job entity with whom you no longer can support their moral, ethical, and political views.

 

[annsni]

Oh that is so sad! I agree with Don - I would remove them from my resume.

 

[InTheLight]

Here is my dilemma and question to you: I included this church and my success with the youth groups in my bio and resume, and am thinking that it is now time to remove them from my list of experiences, professionally, being afraid that anyone reviewing my resome might get the wrong idea of what kind of church I used to be affialted with.

What would you do?

Retroactively rewrite history? Interesting concept. I'm trying to recall the kind of people that do that sort of thing...

Regarding your plan, a certain type of phobia comes to mind, trying to recall the name of it.

One thing for sure, you should apply aggressive spell checking to your resume, no matter the level of truthfulness it ultimately attains.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[righteousdude2]

Retroactively rewrite history? Interesting concept. I'm trying to recall the kind of people that do that sort of thing...

Regarding your plan, a certain type of phobia comes to mind, trying to recall the name of it.

One thing for sure, you should apply aggressive spell checking to your resume, no matter the level of truthfulness it ultimately attains.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Agreed. The spelling leaves me wondering what I was thinking? Forgive me. I don't have a spell check on my Nook. I have gotten very lazy, about proof checking, as I rely on my Whitesmoke software to catch and correct mistakes.

Still, try moving beyond the errors and spelling, and respond to the basic concept of the OP. YOU MUST BE A TAD BIT "O.C.D."

 

[righteousdude2]

Leave them off. Not because you're afraid anyone reviewing your resume would get the wrong idea; I don't think you're "afraid" of much. Leave 'em off because you dis-associate with them.

If the resume is for another church, and they ask about the gap in the work history, tell 'em the truth.

If it's for a secular job, just tell them it was a job entity with whom you no longer can support their moral, ethical, and political views.

 

[righteousdude2]

Leave them off. Not because you're afraid anyone reviewing your resume would get the wrong idea; I don't think you're "afraid" of much. Leave 'em off because you dis-associate with them.

If the resume is for another church, and they ask about the gap in the work history, tell 'em the truth.

If it's for a secular job, just tell them it was a job entity with whom you no longer can support their moral, ethical, and political views.

Thanks brother for a thought response. I agree with your advice. Merry Christmas!

 

[Crabtownboy]

Seems a tough ethical question to me. I can sympathize with your delimma and I am not sure I have an answer for you. I'd have to mull this over for some time if I had to make the decision.

I can see not wanting to be associated with the church as it is now. But that is only part of the equation. However with the dates given and I werre reading your resume I would not immediately think this means you approve of the current pastor or gay marriage.

The church is part of your history. I can see that you some who would or could accused you of not honestly reporting your experience in your resume if you do not show it in that part of your resume. It could be seen as a lie of omission. For me that, again if I were reading the resume, would carrry weight.

There are a number of points to consider in this decision.

As I said, I do not have a final answer on what I would do if I were making such a decision on my resume.

This is not a question to answer by shooting from the hip.

 

[Revmitchell]

I was once blessed to have had my start at the San Dimas Community Church as its youth minister. God did some very awesome things there, and several on the teens I was blessed to have shared in leading the to Jesus still keep in touch with me.

Because of the memories and the extent of my experience there, I check their FB page and blog from time to time, and just last week, I read that they welcomed their new pastor to the church. He has a dynamic background in theology, and is a recent graduate of Fuller Semenary. A prominent west coast school.

So what's the problem? Just the: he brings with him to the church, his husband ?!
The man is gay and married to boot. I can't say I didn't expect this as the church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, and they were one of the first to ordain gays. I just refused to believe the church I had my start in, would ever go "gag!" And now that it has, I am disgusted.

Here is my dilemma and question to you: I included this church and my success with the youth groups in my bio and resume, and am thinking that it is now time to remove them from my list of experiences, professionally, being afraid that anyone reviewing my resome might get the wrong idea of what kind of church I used to be affialted with.

What would you do?

Simply leaving off that part of your past may be seen as possibly hiding something. If a church got wind of it during the interview process they would likely just round file your resume due to a major red flag. I might ad a caveat indicating I do not agree with the church's current stance. Not much information but enough to leave room for reasonable questions.

 

[JamesL]

I have a problem with people making a "professional" resume out of their ministry experience.

I seen too many times where somebody wants a job, pimps their ministry work in a professional resume, and then some church gets enamored with his credentials and name dropping.

I think there are too many "professional" church workers who were called by men rather than God

 

[Yeshua1]

I was once blessed to have had my start at the San Dimas Community Church as its youth minister. God did some very awesome things there, and several on the teens I was blessed to have shared in leading the to Jesus still keep in touch with me.

Because of the memories and the extent of my experience there, I check their FB page and blog from time to time, and just last week, I read that they welcomed their new pastor to the church. He has a dynamic background in theology, and is a recent graduate of Fuller Semenary. A prominent west coast school.

So what's the problem? Just the: he brings with him to the church, his husband ?!
The man is gay and married to boot. I can't say I didn't expect this as the church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, and they were one of the first to ordain gays. I just refused to believe the church I had my start in, would ever go "gag!" And now that it has, I am disgusted.

Here is my dilemma and question to you: I included this church and my success with the youth groups in my bio and resume, and am thinking that it is now time to remove them from my list of experiences, professionally, being afraid that anyone reviewing my resome might get the wrong idea of what kind of church I used to be affialted with.

What would you do?

Would keep the resume as is, but make sure that you higlight what you did and what the church taugh back then!

 

[Jerome]

Curriculum vitae provided by Mark Dever, well known pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church:

Topsfield Congregational where he was a youth minister was United Church of Christ like your former church:

http://www.topsfieldchurch.org/open-affirming-statement

 

[padredurand]

I attended a United Methodist cemetery and pastored with them for 13 years and you think you have history problems?

 

[Squire Robertsson]

Assuming your time at this church was well over five years ago, I'd drop them. Locally, folks use a five to ten year cut off on their resumes.

 

[rsr]

I've read a lot of resumes. If you omit your experience you will raise a red flag that you may or may not have a chance to explain.

 

[Squire Robertsson]

Again, it depends on how much experience you have from the intervening years. By the time I retired in 2011, I wasn't listing my 1973-1977 Coast Guard time or my 1970 MacDonalds time. I also dropped my early 80s security guard years. The problem arises if the period you want to drop is in the middle of other posts you want to include.

I've read a lot of resumes. If you omit your experience you will raise a red flag that you may or may not have a chance to explain.

 

[Baptist Believer]

Here is my dilemma and question to you: I included this church and my success with the youth groups in my bio and resume, and am thinking that it is now time to remove them from my list of experiences, professionally, being afraid that anyone reviewing my resome might get the wrong idea of what kind of church I used to be affialted with.

What would you do?

I don't understand why this is a dilemma. It is still your experience and part of your story. People who would be in a position of reviewing resumes should have the common sense to know that just because you have ministered somewhere, you are not giving a blanket endorsement of their ministry, or that your ministry resembles theirs.

Frankly, my concerns with the UCC are bigger than the gay question. I have a friend (a gay, married man) who sought ordination with them (he was/is Baptist) so that he could be a pastor of a UCC church, and the sticking point with the ordination council for him was that he believed in the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus and would not back off from that position after an extended period of questioning. They finally consented to ordaining him since he had the "gay thing" going in his favor.

When a religious institution makes a serious attempt to weed out persons who believe in the resurrection of Jesus, all other matters are secondary. I don't know if that is true in practice throughout the UCC, but that would be my biggest concern about that association.

To counteract any negative repercussions regarding that experience, you may want to include a brief theological summary or a disclaimer that your views and the views of some of the previous church bodies to which you have ministered are not congruent.

 

[righteousdude2]

Assuming your time at this church was well over five years ago, I'd drop them. Locally, folks use a five to ten year cut off on their resumes.

Yeah, it is well over five years, /but it was one of the most successful ministry assignments I ever had. God grew the group from under 15 kids to more than 300 in my two years there!

 

[righteousdude2]

I really have appreciated all the great responses. I didn't expect what has come forth, and I do thank each of you for taking the time to give wise counsel!

 

[Squire Robertsson]

Another factor is I was writing a one-page resume. I'd include it if you were writing what the Brits and other call a curriculum vitae. But, I'd only write up one of those if I could sit across from the person I was giving it to. I'd want to be able to say, "You know Frank, in 30 plus years of ministry, some of the places I served no longer are in the same place as I left them."

Yeah, it is well over five years, /but it was one of the most successful ministry assignments I ever had. God grew the group from under 15 kids to more than 300 in my two years there!