Know how to ordain others online to make a connection and grow your church

You know how to be ordained, but knowing how to ordain others is likely new to you.  You know the joys of performing a wedding or starting a church – these are important and fulfilling and should be shared with others.  If you chose to be ordained through the Universal Life Church, you have a couple different options for inducting new ministers, but the important thing to take away from this is that it must be recorded by a legally recognized church to be valid.

There is a strong oral tradition in the church.  Historically, those called to the ministry would simply begin their ministerial work.  There weren’t necessarily institutions to which all would go to learn how to be ordained.  There were of course organized groups like Pharisees that were politicians and religious leaders in the Jewish culture who kept records and a hierarchy, but this was mainly due to their political roles.  Others like John the Baptist and Jesus simply began preaching.  To an extent, the Universal Life Church uses the modern law on how to ordain others to bring about the historical notion of ordination – that is, anyone from any background or faith that is called into ministry can be ordained for free and begin their ministerial work.  The relevant difference in regards to how to ordain others is that the Universal Life Church is a legally recognized nonprofit church and keeps records of all its ministers.  This list is absolutely required for ordinations to be valid.  If you were ordained online through the ULC, and want to ordain someone else, the first option is to direct him to the ULC’s free online ordination sign up page where he can create a record for himself.

A variation on that option is to collect records yourself, then submit them to the ULC.  This would be for ministers at events where several people would want to be ordained or in situations where a computer is not immediately available to submit records on the spot.  The ULC has had public outreach events where people would sign up to be ordained; if you were looking to create an online church of fraternal ministers as opposed to an online church with a congregation, this might be something to try.

Finally, the complicated and independent route on how to ordain others involves having your own legally recognized church.  You must file as a nonprofit church with the IRS which involves setting regular meeting schedules for your church, having board members, having a unique set of beliefs, and paying a fee.  Of course meetings for online churches can include using social media to connect on a regular basis, as detailed in our article about Google+.

Knowing your options on how to ordain others is important if your ministerial work involves inducting new ministers.  Whether you are wanting to ordain a couple individuals to be pastors in your online church and help you out, or have a ministry focused on ordaining others, it really boils down to variations on two options.  The Universal Life Church can keep the records of those you ordain, whether by you submitting a list or directing individuals to be ordained right on the ULC website.  You can also incorporate as a legally recognized church and keep records yourself.  As long as a legal church has a file for people, they are legally ordained.