Ministry Notes: My Call

For one of my classes at OC we have to occasionally make a "ministry notes" post on our blogs. This is my first. Feel free to leave all the comments you want!

My Call

When I was little I learned about God speaking to Moses through a burning bush. God needed Moses to save the Hebrews, but Moses didn’t want to. Moses didn’t have much of a choice though it seemed. Moses was called to work for God and that’s what he was going to do. How does Moses’ calling for God’s service relate to my call for God’s service? Does God actually call us today? No doubt, God doesn’t call us up on our cell or hit us with e-mail. If God doesn’t directly speak to us today how can we be sure He is calling us? These are just some of the questions faced when I think about how I was called.

It’s a funny thing to say, “I’ve been called into ministry”. My reality is that I haven’t been called. God never directly told me to get involved with children’s ministry. So how can I know if it’s really what God wants me to do? I don’t know the answer to that. Do I depend on intuition and feelings? Goodness knows my feelings have led me to do things that are wrong too. As “post modern” as it might be to say this, I don’t believe there is one answer to the question, “Does God still call us and if so how”.

As most of the people reading this know, I grew up in ministry. When I came to college I had a very difficult time getting plugged into a congregation the way I had been in the past. I felt empty. When I changed my major to children’s ministry, and immersed myself in ideas and plans for church involvement I felt alive again.

To know if you are being “called” or not I think you have to picture yourself down the road. What would it feel like if you hadn’t done the task you feel compelled to do? Would you have deep regret? Would you feel empty? I think that’s one of the many ways to examine your personal callings.

So I’d like to know, have you ever been called by God to do something? If so, how did you know?