If No Sound

A Call for All Ministers©

January 31, 2010

            In the United Methodist Church, along with some of our other Christian brothers and sisters, we believe in something called the “priesthood of all believers.” That simply means that every one of us, by virtue of our baptism, is a minister of the Gospel. I can hear you now.  You might think, “Whoa! No, I don’t think I want to be up there preaching every week.  I’m not into the idea of teaching a Sunday School class.  And I don’t want to be in charge of things.”  Those could be some things that ministers of the Gospel do.  But they don’t have to be by any means.

            We read Paul telling the Church at Corinth that some are called to be apostles, some preachers, some teachers, some prophets, some miracle workers.  Some are called to heal and others speak in tongues. We’re not all called to the same tasks or roles in the Kingdom of God, and so we don’t all have the same gifts.  And yet each of us is a minister of the Gospel.  What does that mean?

            That word, “minister,” can have a lot of meanings.  Ministers can ordained members of the church who are set apart for a particular role.  Ministers can be elected representatives in a government.  But the word minister can also have a more general meaning: “a person or thing used to achieve or convey something.” That can include a whole host of things. In the church we needs all kinds of varied ministers - all different kinds of people who are used by God to achieve God’s kingdom on earth and to convey the Good News of Jesus Christ. God calls each of us.

            Part of the way to discover God’s call is to hear stories of God calling people from the Bible – Moses, Paul, the disciples, the prophets all have narratives of the way God called them and what their responses were.  And God did not stop calling his people at the end of Bible times. So it’s appropriate to hear the stories of God’s call on the lives of people around us too. Just as we can learn about God and his will, his plan for our lives from the Biblical stories, we can learn from listening to each other.  So as a way of talking about call and helping you be able to hear what God might be calling you to, I’d like to share with you my call story.  It may be a way for you to tune your ears to some of the different ways God invites people into God’s story, along God’s journey.  I invite you to journey along with me.  My story is not one of dramatic conversion. It is one of God’s great persistence on a reluctant heart . It is not remarkable because of a traumatic incident or a radical change event – though there are countless cases of God working that way. It is remarkable because God’s story is remarkable, because God’s work is amazing, and he is allowing me to be part of that story, and he is allowing me to work for him. Even little me.

            My family began attending church when I was 8 years old.  At the coaxing of some of her dear friends, my mother decided that my brother and I needed “something on which to base our decisions.”  We were invited to Warwick Memorial United Methodist Church, which is where I have been a member since my confirmation.  For some time we would go to Sunday School regularly but did not attend worship.  Later, the three of us were baptized together and went to worship more frequently. 

            As I got a little older, I became incredibly involved in various activities of the church.  I was a member of the youth choir and the handbell choir as well as an active leader of the youth group at Warwick Memorial and the Peninsula District Youth.  I was involved in mission projects including Appalachia Service Project and Voices of Youth.  I also began traveling a couple times a year as a member of Lay Witness Mission teams.  In all of these things, especially in the cases where I was given the opportunity to be a leader, I began sensing a call to ordained ministry.

            It was also around this time that my parents were separated and divorced.  While my parents were sure to shield us from their conflicts as much as possible, this was certainly a time of pain and change.  I clung to the church as a second family and grew to love the Christ which I saw in the people there.  My call was affirmed by a love for all of the ministries in which I was involved, from service projects to administrative meetings to educational opportunities. However, I also questioned whether the call I was sensing was genuinely the voice of God or simply my desire to order my life around the people and places where I felt most comfortable and loved.  I certainly did not feel worthy of being a leader in God’s Church.  Still, I was reminded by many that God does not call us because we are worthy; rather he equips those that he calls to be his servants.

            So I began seeing how he was teaching me to be a disciple, to be a leader, to be a friend, to understand people.  I was talking to a youth director one time who was telling me about this strange thing that was happening to him.  He kept having trouble with his car, and he kept having to learn how to fix whatever was wrong with it.  The a few weeks or a month later, he’d see someone stopped on the side of the road, and he’d pull over to see if he could be of any help.  As it turned out, the problem that person was having with he car was the exact same thing my youth director had learned to fix. 

            I feel that God has brought me though different situations and is using my experiences not only to help me empathize with God’s people, but also to help us grow closer to God.  My call, then, is to try to help us all become better disciples and to learn what it means to be the church.

Copyright © 2009 Amy DeWitte. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this writing may be reproduced in any form without specific, written permission of the author.

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