Decatur native Niger Woodruff was in England last month, walking in the footsteps of the famous founder of Methodism, John Wesley.

While there he realized the leaps he has taken in his own journey toward becoming a Methodist minister.

An Evensong service in an ancient cathedral transported him spiritually, he said, reminding him where he came from and where he feels called. Woodruff said the influence of all of his family, his church upbringing and his hometown merged, showing him God put him in the places he has been.

“I could have said no to all of this,” he said. “I realized the things I would have missed.”

Woodruff, 30, is a candidate for a rare class of leaders — young ordained United Methodist pastors. Only 5 percent of U.S. United Methodist “elders,” those with full ordination, are younger than 35.

Woodruff said two bishops, his lifelong pastor, his late preacher father and others nudged him along a path that he resisted at first. His father, the Rev. John Ralph Woodruff, was a role model, but Woodruff said he did not want to be a preacher.

Instead, he earned an education degree and taught elementary school, though he had also vowed never to teach.

Woodruff said the current United Methodist bishop, the Rev. Will Willimon, heard him speak at his home church, King’s Memorial United Methodist.

“Bishop Willimon came up to me and said, ‘You need to go to seminary,’ ” Woodruff said.

The previous bishop, the Rev. Robert Fanning, asked him years before if he wanted to pastor a church. Woodruff said he was then 20, picking up a certificate for taking a lay speaking course. His response was, “No way.”

But by the time Willimon spoke to him about seminary, Woodruff could give an immediate yes. He is now a master of divinity student at Vanderbilt Divinity School and a “certified candidate” for ordination in the North Alabama Conference.

Call to true identity

He described earlier leanings toward ministry that he did not discern until later. He was “big brother” at home to his sisters, he said. At church he taught all ages. At Austin High School he became a drum major in the band.

Woodruff said his pastor, the Rev. Wylheme Ragland, asked him to be youth minister at King’s Memorial.

“Having never said no to anything anyone asked me to do at my church, I told him I would, but I wanted some formal training,” Woodruff said.

From his first youth ministry training in Tennessee, he recognized his real God-given identity.

“With complete clarity, I knew who I was. It was like being at home and your parents call your name and you know it’s you,” he said.

Ragland said Woodruff is blessed with many spiritual gifts, including teaching, music, speaking and relating to diverse people.

“There are really a great many avenues he can walk down, and whatever route he chooses, he will do well,” Ragland said.

Woodruff’s mother, Dorothy Woodruff, and his aunts, uncles and siblings are all gifted people and serve freely at King’s Memorial, Ragland said.

During his school years, he struggled with some people’s lies and expectations that black males either go to jail or die.

“I did not want to fall into the trap I thought was there for me,” he said.

After high school, Woodruff said he started at the University of North Alabama as a communications major with a burning desire to write but dropped out after a year. He eventually earned an education degree from Athens State University and worked at Woodmeade Elementary School in Decatur and Rolling Hills Elementary School in Huntsville.

The divorced father of a 3-year-old daughter, Woodruff said his Vanderbilt experiences are expanding his views of faith and culture. He said he has met Muslim and Jewish students and talked for the first time with someone who self-identified as a Christian but does not believe in Christ’s Resurrection.

“Vanderbilt allows me to be myself at a table with other people being themselves,” he said.

His plan to be a pastor sets him apart from most of his fellow students, who want academic careers.

One of Woodruff’s professors, Douglas Meeks, said Woodruff is deeply committed to the gospel and to conveying God’s grace to all kinds of people. Woodruff’s experiences have helped make him a leader on campus, the professor said.

‘Significant leader’

“I expect him to be a significant leader in the church and in the church’s witness to society,” said Meeks, professor of theology and Wesleyan studies.

Woodruff still wants to write, though being turned down for a writing program at the University of Texas was “one of the best things that happened to me.”

Vanderbilt’s two-week course on Wesley in England taught him about Anglican traditions and Wesleyan worship. He said he will apply what he learned to lead a service at King’s Memorial on July 19.

The cathedral Evensong service, almost a slow motion movie to him, remains unforgettable.

“I genuinely had a sense of what Christ did for every person in the cathedral that day, what he did for the whole world, what he did for me,” he said.

Among the few

Seminarian Niger Woodruff is a unique young man, said his pastor, the Rev. Wylheme Ragland.

Woodruff has many abilities, Ragland said, but there is also his age, 30, to set him apart in United Methodist ministry.

There are only 30 “elders,” ministers with full ordination, younger than 35 in the United Methodist North Alabama Conference, said the Rev. Don Neal, executive director of the Board of Ordained Ministry.

With 353 elders, that works out to 8.5 percent. That figure is better than most conferences, Neal said, but still a worry.

“It affects the future of our conference and churches to function, and more importantly, it affects the ability to speak to a younger generation,” he said.

Neal said research shows older ministers do not connect with young adults, those least likely to attend church.

Clergy today in the United Methodist Church and other denominations often choose ministry as a second career. As older people they have important skills, but typically not in communicating with young people, Neal said.

The average age of those preparing for ministry in the conference was 42, according to a 2006 study. Woodruff said he has two more years of seminary and then at least two more years of preparation before ordination.

MELANIE SMITH

We need your help

Do you know a young minister we should profile? Are you a young minister yourself? The Daily is planning an ongoing series to share the stories of young local clergy. Each clergy person profiled will be someone with a seminary master’s degree or who is in a master’s level program and who is serving a church, preferably as pastor. He or she should be younger than 35. Call Melanie Smith at 340-2468 or e-mail msmith@decaturdaily.com.