Hearing God's call

During this period in Lent, another thing that I have been encouraged to think about is the call of God to ministry and how I experienced this. I’ve had conversations with a number of friends who are in ministry and have started to read around the subject.

A number of things arose which I have found helpful and are worth looking at before I consider particular models - and, indeed - my own model of calling.

·       That the call must come from God is perhaps a given that we shouldn’t even need to articulate.

·       God has a passion for social justice and fairness.

·       God calls people to an endlessly varied and unique ministry, but is always related to the freeing, liberating or empowering of others.

·       We are all unworthy of the call.

·       A total dependence on God is required or we try to act in our own strength.

·       We all tend to feel totally inadequate.

·       What we are called to is a privilege.

·       Most people want to resist the call.

·       Whatever we are called to is God’s mission not our own project.

A few people, but a very few, talk about an epiphany like that of St. Paul: an instant undeniable revelatory experience of utter certainty. Paul’s was also a calling to a very specific ministry of evangelism and teaching and some people talk confidently about their certainty that God’s call was to a particular ministry.

Another talked of her call as being like that of Hosea. Hosea’s personal life was a mess and so, according to my friend was hers. She couldn’t believe God had called her initially. “Me? Really? You must be joking!”

A number of people felt like Samuel or Jeremiah in that they first heard the inklings of a call when they were too young and inexperienced and they talk about this in a way which suggests that a seed was planted for the future.

One person, who is a convert to Christianity, uses the example of Cyrus, a King from another nation and faith system. He finds those perspectives enhance his Christian faith but notes that others still see him as an outsider.

A couple of people with a strong sense of Social justice talk about the prophets as their models, particularly Nehemiah and Ezra and note that both were instrumental in changing their religious landscape by introducing religious reforms: future Bishops in the making?

For me, there’s a bit of the Jeremiah in the sense of initially feeling the call as a nudge of the not-quite-yet variety because like Jeremiah I didn’t feel ready but unlike Jeremiah, I didn’t answer that first nudge. There’s also a sense in which the call of the prophets to action resonates with me, but in the end I think I’m a Jonah. When push comes to shove, running away and being busy doing other things seemed a good strategy.

How about you?