The ULC allows anyone called to the ministry to join, take advantage of modern laws and technology, and get ordained online.

How would Jesus handle today’s technology? Would he care how many people followed him on Twitter? Would he have a Twitter account at all? What about online church, or pastors who get ordained online?

Some people feel the internet has gone too far in replacing person-to-person contact with words on a screen, that these words have replaced meaningful communication. But these words have also allowed us to forge relationships with those living on opposite sides of the globe, people we’d never know if we relied solely on face-to-face interactions.

Words are powerful. John’s gospel begins with this idea. “In the beginning was the Word,” John writes, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1, NKJ). John goes on to say that Jesus is the Word made flesh, the physical fulfillment of God’s promise. Until Jesus’ coming, the faithful who looked forward to Messiah passed on their hope and expectation through words: words of prophecy, words of the Psalms, words of God’s law.

During his ministry, Jesus used every means available to him to open people’s eyes to what the words of the law really meant. He did not stand on ceremony when it came to addressing church leaders. He was willing to overturn traditions where they had gotten in the way of truth. He wreaked havoc on the merchants in the temple, allowed a prostitute to wash his feet, chose an adulterous woman at the well to be his first missionary to a non-Jewish community. Jesus was forward-thinking, ready to reach out to anyone who would listen.

The calling to be a pastor is not a calling to do what has always been done. The calling to be a pastor is a commission to follow Jesus in spreading the word of God’s truth by whatever means the Lord lays on your heart. For some, this will be the traditional path of a classroom-based seminary and a brick-and-mortar church. But not for everyone. Jesus sent his disciples to the far reaches of the known world. How much farther would they have reached if they could have shared the good news instantaneously with a few key strokes?

People find each other on the internet every day. They fall in love. They organize protests. They come together to change their lives and the lives of others. People with a calling to ministry can now get ordained online, start an online church with the potential to broadcast the love of Christ in places they may never see with their own eyes.

Jesus said to go and make disciples of all the world. Online ordination programs and online churches can be one of the most effective resources we have for following the Great Commission. Would Jesus want you to get ordained online? We think he would!