CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACKET - Ryan Fields

elder and staff meetings, pursuing hospital and home visitation, conducting weddings and funerals, providing individual, premarital, and marital counseling, leading a small group, discipling small group leaders, overseeing our church’s prayer service, and many more. ‐ Pastoral Apprentice at Evanston Bible Fellowship, Evanston IL (2009 ‐ 2011): This was a part ‐ time church staff position during my MDiv studies. It provided me with abundant opportunities to explore the various facets of pastoral ministry and try my hand at multiple aspects of it, allowing me to be in ministry while training for ministry at TEDS. Particularly, I oversaw the college ministry of the church (near Northwestern University), had several preaching and teaching opportunities, facilitated a ministry team, shadowed the pastoral staff, and served the church in various ways that exposed me to the joys and challenges of ministry. ‐ Pastoral Intern & Director of College Ministries at Creekside Community Church (2006 ‐ 2008): As a pastoral intern I was given the opportunity to shadow and learn from the pastoral staff in order to further discern a gifting for and calling to pastoral ministry while getting exposure to the day ‐ to ‐ day life of a pastor and the week ‐ to ‐ week life of a local church. Specifically, I engaged in seminar ‐ style readings and projects (including preaching labs) and directed the college ministry of the church under the direct supervision of the pastoral team. ‐ In addition to these pastoral roles, I have also gained experience relevant to pastoral ministry by serving as co ‐ chair of the Pastoral Search Committee at Evanston Bible Fellowship (2018 ‐ 2019), serving as a research assistant for Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer at TEDS (2016 ‐ 2018), participating in the Ravi Zacharias Fellowship for Cultural Engagement at TEDS (2011), working as a RA for on ‐ campus graduate housing at TEDS (2010 ‐ 2011), working as a ministry intern for the Henry Center at TEDS (2009 ‐ 2011), serving with Pioneers USA as an Edge Team Coordinator for a summer mission trip to Ghana (2007), serving as president of Reformed University Fellowship, UF (2005 ‐ 2006), and working as a Team Member (2002 ‐ 2003) and Middle School Team Leader (2004 ‐ 2006) at WWW United Methodist Summer Camp in Leesburg, FL. MY GIFTING: I believe that I am particularly gifted in areas pertinent to pastoral ministry, especially preaching/teaching (2 Tim. 4:2, Rom. 12:7), leadership (Rom. 12:8), administration (1 Cor. 12:28), encouragement (Rom 12:7) and hospitality (1 Peter 4:9). For me, all of these come under the larger banner of a shepherding gift, and I believe that the Spirit has given these gifts to me primarily for the purpose of serving as a pastor ‐ teacher (Eph. 4:11). My primary strengths as a pastor include a passion for clearly proclaiming and teaching God’s Word, a capacity for intimate and authentic relationships, an ability to counsel people through various life circumstances, a proclivity for facilitating ministry teams and small group discussions, an impulse to enter deeper into people’s lives while inviting them further into my own, a giftedness in encouraging those I work with, and a desire to care for the marginalized and ensure that there are no segments of a church community which are neglected. I see these strengths as all relating to the calling of the pastor ‐ teacher to be a shepherd of the flock, someone who doesn’t just preach or oversee programs or conduct weddings or administer the sacraments, but rather someone who does these things through the lens of caring for and overseeing the precious flock of God entrusted into his pastoral care (Heb. 13:17).

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