A MESSAGE FROM OUR PASTOR…
Serve Sunday 2024
“Answer the Call”
“What is your call story?”
I served on the Board of Ordained Ministry in the UMC for 10 years leading interview teams that were tasked with examining people who were experiencing a call to ordained ministry. Most interviews would begin with an easy question to break the ice – “Tell us about your call to ministry.” You never knew where a person would take that question. Sometimes they would go back to their childhood growing up in a church pretending to preach from the pulpit. Many who were what we call “second career” ministers would talk about running from God’s call for years before answering it.
Even though I can’t remember every story I heard, I can say that every call story was unique to the person. It was their personal story. Those stories compelled them to take tremendous steps of faith that altered the course of their careers and lives. I am amazed at what people were willing to give up and able to overcome to say “yes” to God’s divine assignment.
Each call story seems to pivot dramatically around a similar turning point. It seems so small of a detail that I wonder how often we miss it. We see it clearly in Exodus 3 when we read about Moses’ call story. God calls to him from the bush that was on fire and yet not consumed, “Moses, Moses.” J.D. Walt writes in his Wake-Up Call devotional, “What does one do when they hear their name called twice by an unburning bush? One responds in good biblical form: And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’”
That’s it; that’s the pivot point. “Here I am.” He answered the call. How might your day be different if you began each morning saying to God, “Here I am.”?
This weekend is Serve Sunday. We are learning to answer the call of God by taking small steps of faith. Our congregation is eager to serve our community, and through preparing for this Sunday, we are learning how to see the needs around us and fill those needs. We are hearing the cries of the homeless in Jackson by providing hygiene kits and clothing in partnership with Shower Power. We hear the cries of our elders at Brookdale. We are responding to little needs around our campus to demonstrate what it means to do selfless acts that benefit others. And we are responding to places of need in our community that are neglected by cleaning alleyways and neighborhoods.
I hope you will answer the call and join us in these small acts of service so we may be prepared for when God calls us to take bigger steps of faith. “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”
Jimmy
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