Find Your Calling, Then Share It
Posted: November 16, 2012
Rural Pen
The checklist was typical.
Check the areas of church service that interest you:
— Ushering
— Sunday School
— Women’s Ministry
— Men’s Ministry
— Music or Choir
— Sound System
— Evangelism
— Missions
Gee. At the bottom, I neatly printed “None,” drew a square box and checked it.
Some people flourish in a church setting. When I worked at the newspaper as a religion reporter, I met them nearly every day. Clergy or lay people — they are energized by their service to the church, whether it be teaching, playing music, preaching, visiting the sick, overseeing church ministries, planning special events or educating new converts.
Yet not everyone in the church is involved. Indeed, it is usually a handful of members and staff doing “all the work.” Perhaps that’s as it should be.
One reason people don’t get involved in church is because they’re too busy. Another could be that our culture teaches us to be selfish. Then there are those who cannot relate to the list.
After I moved to Virginia and began attending church, I got the distinct impression that unless I was “doing” something at church, I was not “earning my keep.” So, I began teaching Sunday school and watching babies in the nursery. Later, I led worship, ran the sound system and taught women’s Bible studies.
I never felt called or gifted at any of these tasks — I never felt I was making a difference to anyone or got a sense of satisfaction. Still, these things needed to be done and I do not regret doing them.
What I enjoyed, which was never on any list, was inviting people to my home. Rare was the Sunday the husband and I did not have people over after church for dinner.
Some were new, some were visitors and some were long-time church members. One of the latter commented that, in all the years she’d attended that church, she’d never been in anyone else’s home. The visitors felt truly welcomed. We did not have the perfect home — it was always a work in progress. Insulation hung from the ceiling of our dining area. And I was not the model homemaker. But people felt comfortable there, often commenting on how peaceful it was. The husband and I were practicing the gift of hospitality around our dinner table.
I wonder how many people are dissatisfied with church. How many people’s spirituality doesn’t fit between 9 a.m. and noon on Sundays, squeezed between the aisles and rows?
Unfortunately, many of the folks who cannot identify with the list are neglected by the church. They are not encouraged to identify and use their gifts, so they fall through the cracks. Many of them, feeling useless, leave and do not return.
Over the years, I have seen other ways people serve by doing the things they love to do. And that’s the thing — to realize what draws you.
And, oh, how joyous when you find that what you love to do is what God wanted for you all along. He gave us our gifts and desires. It’s not something we can take credit for, because it was given to us. The only thing to do with our gift is honor it, be faithful with it and serve people and God.
Too many of us waste time thinking someday we’ll have a ministry. Too many of us don’t recognize that what we love to do is what we’re called to. Often it’s our vocation, hobby or natural inclination.
Some women minister through their homemaking, gardening, bread baking, shopkeeping, massage, letter writing, real estate sales, nursing, people management; and men minister in their business transactions, meal preparation, doctoring, furniture making, laundry doing, bus driving, supervising.
It is the ministry that comes from deep within ourselves that reaches deeply into others. Sometimes it’s on the list, sometimes it’s not. But it is best to follow the urging.
It just might be holy.
Check the areas of church service that interest you:
— Ushering
— Sunday School
— Women’s Ministry
— Men’s Ministry
— Music or Choir
— Sound System
— Evangelism
— Missions
Gee. At the bottom, I neatly printed “None,” drew a square box and checked it.
Some people flourish in a church setting. When I worked at the newspaper as a religion reporter, I met them nearly every day. Clergy or lay people — they are energized by their service to the church, whether it be teaching, playing music, preaching, visiting the sick, overseeing church ministries, planning special events or educating new converts.
Yet not everyone in the church is involved. Indeed, it is usually a handful of members and staff doing “all the work.” Perhaps that’s as it should be.
One reason people don’t get involved in church is because they’re too busy. Another could be that our culture teaches us to be selfish. Then there are those who cannot relate to the list.
After I moved to Virginia and began attending church, I got the distinct impression that unless I was “doing” something at church, I was not “earning my keep.” So, I began teaching Sunday school and watching babies in the nursery. Later, I led worship, ran the sound system and taught women’s Bible studies.
I never felt called or gifted at any of these tasks — I never felt I was making a difference to anyone or got a sense of satisfaction. Still, these things needed to be done and I do not regret doing them.
What I enjoyed, which was never on any list, was inviting people to my home. Rare was the Sunday the husband and I did not have people over after church for dinner.
Some were new, some were visitors and some were long-time church members. One of the latter commented that, in all the years she’d attended that church, she’d never been in anyone else’s home. The visitors felt truly welcomed. We did not have the perfect home — it was always a work in progress. Insulation hung from the ceiling of our dining area. And I was not the model homemaker. But people felt comfortable there, often commenting on how peaceful it was. The husband and I were practicing the gift of hospitality around our dinner table.
I wonder how many people are dissatisfied with church. How many people’s spirituality doesn’t fit between 9 a.m. and noon on Sundays, squeezed between the aisles and rows?
Unfortunately, many of the folks who cannot identify with the list are neglected by the church. They are not encouraged to identify and use their gifts, so they fall through the cracks. Many of them, feeling useless, leave and do not return.
Over the years, I have seen other ways people serve by doing the things they love to do. And that’s the thing — to realize what draws you.
And, oh, how joyous when you find that what you love to do is what God wanted for you all along. He gave us our gifts and desires. It’s not something we can take credit for, because it was given to us. The only thing to do with our gift is honor it, be faithful with it and serve people and God.
Too many of us waste time thinking someday we’ll have a ministry. Too many of us don’t recognize that what we love to do is what we’re called to. Often it’s our vocation, hobby or natural inclination.
Some women minister through their homemaking, gardening, bread baking, shopkeeping, massage, letter writing, real estate sales, nursing, people management; and men minister in their business transactions, meal preparation, doctoring, furniture making, laundry doing, bus driving, supervising.
It is the ministry that comes from deep within ourselves that reaches deeply into others. Sometimes it’s on the list, sometimes it’s not. But it is best to follow the urging.
It just might be holy.
Luanne Austin lives in Mount Sidney. Contact her at RuralPen@aol.com, www.facebook.com/rural pen or care of the DN-R.