Before I got engaged to my husband, he told
me he felt called to ministry (which involved changing degrees, cities, etc!).
He grew up in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Minnesota and had an established career in software development consulting when
he felt called to ministry.
«I would encourage anyone who
feels called to ministry to follow their calling because it is the best journey ever.
Not exact matches
Few of these men, however,
felt «
called»
to ministry.
Most of us run from sadness and pain, but she went back
to school after her children were raised precisely because she
felt called to sit in those thin places with the hope of Christ, bearing the
ministry of simple presence and comfort.
More and more I am
feeling the Lord may be
calling me
to a
ministry of teaching equality of the sexes.
It was during those same years that I
felt and responded
to the
call to ministry, but because of my new awareness of the intellectual world and its marginalization of my beliefs, I decided
to immerse myself in that world before going
to seminary.
As I said yesterday in my prayer from the cell post
called «satellite phone», I have this strange
feeling of alienation from God since I left the professional
ministry and haven't been
to church...
It appears that there is general though only implicit recognition of the fact that a
call to the
ministry includes at least these four elements (1) the
call to be a Christian, which is variously described as the
call to discipleship of Jesus Christ,
to hearing and doing of the Word of God,
to repentance and faith, et cetera; (2) the secret
call, namely, that inner persuasion or experience whereby a person
feels himself directly summoned or invited by God
to take up the work of the
ministry; (3) the providential
call, which is that invitation and command
to assume the work of the
ministry which comes through the equipment of a person with the talents necessary for the exercise of the office and through the divine guidance of his life by all its circumstances; (4) the ecclesiastical
call, that is, the summons and invitation extended
to a man by some community or institution of the Church
to engage in the work of the
ministry.
He was overwhelmed with woe over his own unworthiness, his life of bourgeois privilege even during this ordeal into which he had led the city's black community, and finally about the superficiality of his «inherited»
call into the
ministry, although he «had never
felt an experience with God in the way that you must... if you're going
to walk the lonely paths of this life.»
There was a time in life where I
felt God
call me out of youth
ministry and promise me a career that would better fit who I was as a person while getting
to actively serve Him in
ministry.
It is painful
to recognize that the very achievements that make us
feel good about
ministry can be danger signs: that people begin
to call this Dan's church,» that I am getting careless about repetition in sermons that I'm reluctant
to challenge the folks who are my friends, that I tend
to socialize with the people I'm comfortable with and avoid the «difficult» ones, that I can control in advance a committee's deliberations.
After following what
felt like God's
call on my life, I resigned from my
ministry position
to pursue my master's degree.
The experience of the first rite of passage for the women clergy I have talked with varies from the male experience in the following ways: The young woman is likely
to have a similar inner experience of a mystical «
call,» or in some other way
feel led
to make a conscious decision
to train for the
ministry.
When so -
called ministry is reduced
to a performance and packaged programs, people
feel like a consumer or cog in a machine.
But as a general pattern this seems
to me a product of romanticism, taking with insufficient seriousness the «materialism of Christianity,» as William Temple
called it, and quite likely
to produce the wrong kind of guilt
feelings in competent young people who are in or who are considering the
ministry — as if this activity were not worthy of economic support.
I
feel this debate is at a standstill and you guys can argue all nite on this one but there are women who were preachers healers miracle workers and had mighty
ministrys because God was with them there is no doubt about that.They moved in the gifts of the supernatural.I am just saying this for those women who
feel they have a
calling on there lives
to preach.Dont let others put you in a box God does nt put us in boxs he helps us
to become all we can be in Christ.
I
feel certain that God has
called him
to what he is now doing, which is a kind of secular
ministry.
Interesting fishion, it just occurred
to me, with your constant fascination with how people
feel towards various criminals, have you ever considered whether or not God might be
calling you towards some sort of prison
ministry?
Having served as a pastor of Christian congregations for over 30 years prior
to becoming the Director of the Center of Theological Inquiry, I
feel qualified
to assure you, if this be your
call, that the
ministry of a Christian congregation is the most challenging and the most rewarding, the most demanding and the most fulfilling, vocation in all the world.
And you keep hearing, years on end, even on thatSunday you sit in the parking lot of the small Episcopal church after the Baptist - based
ministry you
felt God
call you
to do has crumbled, and you are so vacant and so wavering that you tell God you're done, you're empty, and God tells you
to walk into church.
H: I pursued medical training as a young man in order
to serve in what I saw as a
ministry, a
calling — that's what I
felt.
This
ministry was very much a «God thing» and our church
felt called to help men and women who have been involved in or faced working in the sex trade industry.