Calling

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July 06, 2007

God with Skin On: Becoming Agents of Calling

The longer I have been in ministry, the more I have wondered about "passing on" parish ministry to the next generation. Will the church have an ample supply of pastors for the church's future needs? Where will these pastors come from?

As I had been active in my local church as a youth (my grandfather was a Congregational minister) I realized my experience there helped to shape and form my own call to ministry. This experience, coupled with common sense, told me that the local church has been and will continue to be the place that "plants the seed" for people to hear the call to ministry.

Our success in raising up future leaders will depend, in part, upon our capability to articulate a radical idea of call - that is, a call shaped by and surrendered to God. Parish ministers by virtue of their leadership position have a unique opportunity to transform the congregation's culture, to help the church see itself as a "calling body." Having a young person receive a "special call" to ordained ministry is more likely in a congregation that celebrates all persons by their baptisms as having a purpose, a vocation for their lives.

Pastors I have spoken with in their twenties . . . credit their home congregations with giving them significant leadership opportunities. Congregations nurture leadership potential by conferring upon them responsibility and leadership, particularly in worship, preaching and pastoral care. At Plymouth, we have two women seminarians, Regan Doyle and Jennifer Parsons, both in their twenties and attending Eden and Chicago Theological Seminary respectively. I have given each of them opportunities to preach to our congregation. I am committed in general to offer as many opportunities as possible for young people to speak in front of the congregation.

A young person can discover God while in a moonlit night in South Africa or while painting a house in a poor barrio in Juarez, Mexico. Yet that youth needs "God with skin on," the human voice of the trusted older person to validate what he feels. This is the moment when the minister's or other leader's words, "You seem to have the gifts for ministry," might become the seed that could take root in the young person's imagination . . . This conversation cannot happen unless pastors intentionally make time to be involved in the young person's life.

One can hardly think of a calling without thinking of the significant role played by others in helping to shape the call. A calling presumes there is first a "Caller" who is God, as well as people who aid in shaping the call over time . . . [but] we need to remember that young people don't want to be pawns in solving someone else's problem. Gen Xers and the generation behind them are not going to be primarily motivated to save the institutional church. What is on their radar screen is a search for authentic spirituality, for making a difference in the world and for discerning how God could be calling forth their gifts.At my middle age of 51, I find my own spirit rejuvenated when I am around my two seminarians . .. To spend time with them, to listen as they share their intellectual challenges and the emotional rollercoaster that is seminary life is to be brought back in touch with my own heady days as a seminary student.

A pastor is a teacher and like all teachers we delight in our students. We want to be there to support them, to share in their highs and to commiserate with them in their lows. What comes most deeply to me is the joy and delight in witnessing how God's gifts blossom and flourish in the life of another human being.These are excerpts from "A Joyful Calling: Mentoring Young Adults for the Ministry" - a report on Rev. Luckey's sabbatical study of the potential in congregations to identify and nurture young people for ministry.

To read the full text of Rev. Luckey's reflections and recommendations from his study, follow this link (http://www.resourcingchristianity.org/) to the report posted on Resources for American Christianity.