How to Become an Ordained Minister in 3 Easy Ways

minister standing in a church

Ordained ministers are sometimes religious leaders, but sometimes, they’re also just people who have completed an online course in order to become ordained. Either way, in most cases, ordained ministers’ jobs are to marry couples. 

If you’d like to become an ordained minister yourself, there are a couple of different ways to go about it. You can either attend a religious school or you can get ordained quickly online. 

This guide goes into three different easy ways to become an ordained minister. Let’s go over how to become an ordained minister and start officiating weddings!

Method One: Religious School

The first method to becoming an ordained minister is to do so the religious way. For this method, you’ll first need to get an undergraduate degree in any subject. The reason for this is that religious schools are generally considered graduate programs and require you to already have a Bachelor’s degree in order to pursue a degree with the religious school. 

Once you have your bachelor’s degree, you’ll need to apply to a bible school, seminary, or other religious school. There are many types of religious schools depending on which religion you’d like to pursue. 

After you complete your theological courses, you’ll be given a certificate. This certificate is what denotes you as an ordained minister. You may also need to complete a religious ceremony in which you’re inducted into your religion as a leader. 

With that license, you’re ready to start working as a minister or as an officiant for weddings!

Method Two: Universal Life Church

If you don’t want to involve religion in your decision to become an ordained minister, you can easily get ordained through the Universal Life Church. All you have to do with this method is to fill out a form on the ULC’s website. 

The form takes about five minutes to fill out. Once you’ve completed the form, you’ll be emailed a certificate of ordination. This is now a valid certificate which you can use if you’d like to officiate weddings!

Method Three: Officiant Organization

The third and final method to becoming an ordained minister is to register at a local officiant organization. These organizations tend to have a bit more training than the ULC does, but don’t have the religious connotation of attending a religious school or institution. 

With this method, you’ll need to enroll in a course and complete it. At the end of your course, you’ll be given a certificate that lets you be an ordained minister. This gives you the power to start officiating weddings for couples. 

Know How to Become an Ordained Minister Fast

If you want to know how to become an ordained minister, you’ll need to choose which kind of minister you want to be. You can choose to become an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church, through an online organization, or by attending religious school. 

Whichever you choose, the outcome is the same—you’ll now be able to officiate weddings and launch a career in which you help people to say “I do”!

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