Does one have to be a Christian to become a minister?

Question

Is that one of the requrements or can you become ordained simply by attending seminary and fulfilling certain educational requirements?

Answer 1

You go to school and pass the requirements, you can be a minister. That is what is wrong with churches today. A piece of paper and a degree says you are a minister, not God. We need to get back to the way the New Testament church did it.

Answer 2

Depends on how you define Christian.

There are plenty of ordained Unitarian Ministers who do not consider themselves Christian.

Usually, a seminary degree does not guarantee ordination. You generally have to go under the care of a diocese or region (depending on the Church's polity) to get approval to be ordained.

Of course, there is always the possibility of going online, paying 20 bucks, and becoming ordained by one of those" tax haven" churches.

Answer 3

No. The Universal Life Church, among several other groups, will ordain anyone, and they'll do it for free, regardless of beliefs. You can apply for ordination right now:

http://www.ulchq.com/ordination.htm

Google "free ordination", and you'll probably find other groups offering a similar service. Here's another one, ordaining "spiritual humanists":

http://www.spiritualhumanism.org/

Also, there are thousands of ordained ministers in many different non-Christian religions.

Answer 4

Depends on the church, In the Unitarian church there are quite a few openly atheistic ministers. In fact I was married by one.

Answer 5

you can be ordained just by visiting the PULC website

Answer 6

contact the website for the religion you are interested in.
online ordination is a good search site.

Answer 7

You need to be of the faith of which you wish to minister.