"Will You Go With Me?"

Reposted from June 24, 2013

Those gathered at the Virginia Annual Conference watched and celebrated the licensing, commissioning, and ordination of 65 individuals on Saturday night. Among them were two former interns who served in my office.  I could not have been prouder unless I was the mother of these two amazing young women!

The paths our journeys take are so very varied - by generation, by the mentors who impact our lives, by environment, by our choices.  Thirty-one years ago I approached the pastor at my home church about the call to ministry I was feeling.  But thirty-one years ago we weren't awaiting Supreme Court decisions on the process colleges and universities use to assure diversity.  We certainly were not waiting on decisions around marriage equity.  Most churches weren't even ready for a woman in the pulpit, much less consideration of greater inclusiveness.  The lecture I received the day I sat to talk with my pastor was filled with the things "I would not" want or experience if I entered the ordained ministry: "I would not" marry, "I would not" want to subject a husband or family to the United Methodist itinerant system, "I would not" be received well by local churches, "I would not" be happy.  At 21 years of age, I felt that this male pastor had spoken for the church as a whole.  Eventually, I realized that he spoke only for himself.  But the harm had been done.  I continue to question the call I have to church service even into middle age.  I have never taken the walk at the end of the Service for the Ordering of Ministry when the Bishop extends the invitation for all those to come forward who are feeling a call to ministry. 

But last Saturday night, I experienced that walk in a different way.  Accessibility is one of my responsibilities for our Annual Conference sessions.  I was sitting at the table for computer assisted note taking for those who have difficulty hearing the spoken word clearly.  (What we do is similar to closed captioning on television and film.)  I was at the table at the end of the service with a friend who sang in the choir with us for a while at my local church. She had been typing when Bishop Cho extended the invitation.  As the closing hymn began, she bowed in prayer.  She was visibly shaking when she lifted her head. Putting my arm around her shoulder, I asked if she was feeling a call to ministry.  A few seconds and a little conversation followed until I asked if she wanted to go forward.  What came next surprised me: "Will you go with me?"

Thirty-one years...fourteen Annual Conference sessions as a Connectional Ministries staff person...and I finally take the walk...not for myself, but in support of another young woman wanting to commit her life to serve God and God's people. I may not have gone to the Bishop on my own journey, but was given the most awesome privilege of walking along side another.

The ways we each individually respond to God's call upon our lives are unique and varied, yet one thing is absolutely clear.  We are all as the 'laos" - the whole people of God - called by our baptisms to be ministers. The structure of the church sets some apart for specific work, but we are all called to offer our gifts and talents to the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

How seriously do you take that call upon your life? What will be your response when God asks "Will you go with me?"