Calling Stories…everyone has one. What I mean by that is we have all been called to some purpose, some aspect, or some specific calling in life by God. Perhaps we were called to be a teacher, or an accountant, or some other career path. Perhaps we think our story is not flashy and riveting. Maybe we say, ‘I’m only a parent’, or ‘I’m only an ordinary church member.’ That doesn’t matter because God has called us all to serve Him in some way. In God’s economy no one is, ‘Just ordinary’. Have you answered the call of God in your life? Are you perhaps debating answering God’s call?
Let me share with you a little bit of God’s call on my life. I consider myself to be fairly ordinary. What I mean by that is that I was just an ordinary church member raised in the Shanks COB. Ours is a Free- Ministry congregation. That means we have a Ministry Team consisting of several ministers. Each minister takes a turn on a prepared schedule. Each minister also has a forty or more hour per week job. It takes a lot of juggling of family, children, work, and church responsibilities to make things all fit. Our calling of ministers is also different. In our congregation, after several weeks of prayer and discernment, the ministers are called by the ‘voice of the congregation’. That means when there is a need for help in the ministry there is an appointed date and time set for the calling of a minister. Two visiting ministers are contacted and invited to come take the ‘voice of the church’ for a new minister. No one outside of the visiting ministers know whose names are given. The individual receiving the highest number votes expressed by the voice of the congregation is the one called to serve as a minister. That individual is then given the opportunity to accept or reject the call.
I was called to the ministry on October 11, 1987 by this process of calling. By this time, I was married nine years to my wife Sandy and we had two small children. I was happy where we were and what we were doing. That was all about to change. Sandy was already a PK as her father was a minister, and now she was to become a minister’s wife. I had felt God’s call on my life about four years before when we had an earlier election for a minister. I was not chosen and so I felt like I was ‘in the clear.’ But God did not see it that way. Sandy sang in a trio with her sister and a good friend and informed me that the trio had been asked to sing at a church in Maryland. She wondered if I thought the trio should accept the invitation. I said, ‘Sure I don’t see a problem with that,’ knowing full well it was the day that had been set aside for the calling of a minister at Shanks. I knew that God’s hand was on my life and thought that if I were not there that would stop the ‘call.’ Sandy was sensing the call as well and shared with me that she felt we should be at Shanks that Sunday in October for ‘the voice of the church.’ I was called into the ministry to serve with the Ministry Team at Shanks. At that point in time, I received my ministry training through EFSM (Education for Shared Ministry) and appreciated the classes we had through the program. I had to juggle family, children, work, ministry training and ministry/church responsibilities to make things all fit. God provided!!!
The calling of God comes in many ways. His ways are varied as there are so many diverse people. I think of Gideon, David, Esther, Ruth, Paul and many more who were called by God. If you think you have not been called by God, think again. God does not have a son or a daughter that He has not called. Maybe you say, ‘But I could never do that.’ That is not true. Let me tell you something else, God has a sense of humor. I took the academic courses in high school even though I never had the opportunity to go to college. I was shy and introverted and still have to work at being in front of people. One of the classes that was required was speech class. I was extremely bad at giving speeches because of my shyness. I absolutely flunked speech class. Let me tell you this, if I can be of service to God, so can you. God will help you to be what He calls you to do. God doesn’t always call the qualified, but He will qualify the called. Do you hear His call in your life?
John Shelly is a member of the Ministry Team at Shanks Church of the Brethren and a member of the SVMC Governing Board.
