My Call to Ministry

I once heard it said that the greatest gifts you can give your children are roots and wings. I feel very fortunate to have been given these gifts from my parents. When I left for college there were tears; both theirs and mine. However, there was also a feeling that it was time for me to go. We all understood that there was a huge world to be experienced and through the love and nurturing they had give me, I was equipped to take it on. It was also clearly understood that, like the prodigal son, I would always have a home to which I would be welcomed with open, loving arms.

There was another family within which I was reared: my church family. I was consistently present in worship and very involved in the youth programs, and I slowly grew to see the importance in my life of the family of God. While that relationship was important to me, I often took it for granted. I cruised through my childhood surrounded by the comforting arms of my church family; protected from harm and much trouble.

I, like most, was concerned with the typical theological questions of a young boy. Important questions such as, are there snakes in heaven? and what is God's favorite baseball team? I continued to live within, and very much enjoyed, my sheltered life until I reached high school.

Not long into my freshman year my stepfather, with whom I was very close, died of a heart attack. He had been, for all intents and purposes, my "dad." There was never a time when I was considered his "step-son;" I always was his son. His death began a very difficult period in my life and my "snakes and baseball" theology was unable to handle this blow. I began to struggle, both spiritually and emotionally.

Like all adolescents, I searched for something to which I could be faithful. I was fortunate, however, in that I had a place to which I could turn. I turned to my church family for guidance. The ministers and youth group leaders were there for me as role models and as mentors. They were there not to give me answers but, more importantly, to provide me with the tools that I would need on the journey into my unknown future. After years of worship and youth group meetings, with the help of my church family, I found God. Not with the snakes in heaven, not peering down upon the Dodgers, but right there among us in the faces and the embraces of the community of God. In the relationships with my friends from church and from camp the Word became flesh. God became real and known in my life. No longer was God an image or something that was only talked about. Now God could be felt and touched and heard. God had become like that supportive parent in my life, welcoming me home with open arms.

As all of this was going on, someone also loved me enough to take me to the colonias of the border towns of Tijuana, Mexico, put a hammer in my hand, and show me that I had the ability to change the world in the name of God. In the midst of these four, one-week mission trips, I began to detect an awakening in my life.

I began to be aware of my call into the ministry began in the midst of all that. I was amazed to see that God even works through high school guidance counselors when "clergy" topped my list of vocations for which was most suited. This would begin a long conversation (that continues today) with my minister and mentor, who now serves a church in Ohio. Without pushing he would help me see where my talents, gifts and desires lie: in providing for others the type of ministry that had so positively influenced my life.

That call led me to TCU, where I would gain a great education and where I would meet a woman who would continue to teach me what it means to give and receive love. It would then led me to seminary, where I would examine my call, reexamine my theology, and shape my understand of ministry, and where I would marry that woman who, to this day, knows me and loves me anyway. From there I would go to a serve a small congregation in Dallas, Texas where I would learn and grow through frustration and heartache as much as from success and victory. From there I my call would lead me to Atlanta, to serve a congregation that is very much alive and is growing. Here I have been empowered and challenged in new and very exciting ways. I have been mentored and guided and trusted and loved.

The call to ministry is rarely a once and for all type of thing. It's something that happens again and again and again. Sometimes its clear, and other times it's a very faint, still, small voice. Through it all I have tried faithfully to listen for the voice of God, and to let my life speak what I hear.