Hi Loana. Welcome to wondercafe!

I, a lay preacher without any formal education, felt the call to the lay ministry through a series of mystical experiences, peaking in a mind-changing mystical peak experience. Sort of a Saul-Paul type lightning bolt experience.

I did, however, not enter these experiences with a particular belief and did not interpret them according to a pre-conceived belief system. The interpretations of my mystical experiences are freely creative, metaphorical, and/or speculative. I don't teach my particular interpretations as all-applicable truths but urge people to have similar experiences and create their own truths.

I am also a lay preacher I dame by this road after a retreat that challenged me to spread my wings and let people know where I stood I have been doing that now suring the summer for relief for 10 years. Each time I preach I grow a lttle morel

That's why you are so tall, eh?

Thank you both.

For me it was more of a gradually growing awareness.  ANd then it was a decade long process of refining that sense of call and preparing to be able to respond through an elongated candidacy process.  ANd perhaps most important, it began with a question from the clergyperson in our congregation at the time--Has Gord ever thought about...?

When I started really wrestling with my own sense of call, as a part of that wrestling, I wrote to Barb and asked her why she had said that.

If we want people in ministry (lay or ordered, paid or volunteer) those of us in leadership roles within the church need to draw it out of people and encourage people to consider it.  I have heard that most people in ordered ministry have had someone aske that same sort of question at some point.

Gord--thank you.

Arminius,

That has got to be one of the most confusing garbled explanations of deluded self pursuit that I have read about since the 60's. You don't really approve of the Bible...do you?? What you state is in total opposition to the teachings of the Bible. I guess the only reference you make in relation to the Bible is what you call a Saul-Paul type lightning bolt experience which I hardly think applies to your kind of confusion. I suppose that we have to ask ministry of what ? Ministering doesn't have to apply to Biblical teaching and based on that I guess I am confused because I thought that the kind of ministering we were referring to was from a Biblical perspective. Your ministering is of a mystical nature which is a direct enemy of righteous Biblical teaching.

Well, Melbatross7, I'm deluded enough to think that John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul were mystics who took their inspiration from their mystical experiences, and that their ministering was of a mystical nature.

Welcome to the Cafe Loana.  And to others, I have had the privilege of knowing Loana through WonderCafe Live (and other activities) at our church for the past year.  Last week I encouraged her to start posting on the Cafe.

Loana - I think you may know of my call.  Actually I felt from a child or young teenager that I might be called to ministry - but for various reasons  (lack of a female roll model in ministry in my area 50-60 years ago; need to earn a living, liking to eat).   I decided that perhaps my call was to education instead of the formal ministry and went to Teachers' College for two years to get my elementary teachers' license.   I'm not sure I was wrong.  Chronic illness prevented me from pursuing my teaching career but I have applied what I learned in supply teaching, raising a family, teaching Sunday School, and leading adult religious study groups.

Twenty or so years ago I began seriously pursuing religious studies - mainly out of interest - and felt the call return.  More study and I became recognized by my UCC presbytery as what is now called a Licensed Worship Leader.   I really feel called to supply ministry, as well as to other ways to serve in my church and my community.  I will be supplying in three different congregations for five Sundays this summer - subtract my vacation time and I will be quite busy.

Arminius

You really are a heathen   And you hate chain saws too.

IT

Russ

Not only chainsaws, but any other diabolical machine driven by the infernal combustion engine.

Our Holy Bible is full of direct contradictions.

I had not asked for any specifice type of call because I wanted free association--not biased by my question.

Arminius--I agree entirely--Christ WAS the fist Christian mystic and there have been at least one per generation ever since.  Being able to quote scripture does not a minister make!

Seeler--thank you for sharing--I did not know all of that--we had discussed the nuts & bolts of your calling, but never your feelings, etc.

The choices we need to make in order to put a roof over our heads and food in our bellies.  Fasting may lead to spiritual journeys, however, extended fasting is just not healthy!!

And thank you for the welcome--as well as encourageing me to join.  So far it has been great!

LL :-)

Loana , first let me say that I appreciate your question. Not many ask a question with such possibility of answers. Call appears and happens in many ways and can come to any and every age. Call for me came late in life after what was for me some life changing events. Even the sesnse of call at the time was something I did not really understand or recognize. The big thing was that this sense of direction toward the church progressed over the years because of my gratitude for this life changing grace. Although the greatest struggle was for me to find the people who could speak to the understanding and experience that I was journeying through. I was fortunate , or blessed , or moved to continue that journey to do what I discovered I was drawn to . That was to love and serve the Creator , in what ever way that I could . Through wonderful support and encougement and a passion to learn and serve I was just " Recognized " as a Designated Lay-Minister . I have discovered that for the first time in my life I am doing what I love and what I am good at. I did not know how this would all end up in the beginning but I did believe that I had some ability to be helpful to others . I hope these words touch someone who might be wondering about call. Remember that call is between you and your Creator , in that we all have gifts and abilities to serve God and each other. Bill

Spirit & Scripture Combined

I love the mystic experience/scripture debate. My inspiration to enter the ministry may have started with a mystical experience, but its foundation is scriptural, and its confirmation is practical.

Jesus and Paul did indeed have mystical experiences that launched and enhanced their ministries -- but both were proficient users of the Torah and the prophets. Scripture without the Holy Spirit is legalistic; and spirit without scriptural foundation is often heresy. The Holy Spirit inspired scripture and operates in agreement with it -- though not necessarily in agreement with some particular spin or interpretation.

I was called by mystical experience, a crisis of the soul. Just as Paul and Christ were driven into the wilderness to prepare for their ministries, so I was driven to the scriptures, to the exclusion of all other material. Having confirmed that my call was indeed to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I surrendered to God and confessed my inability to carry out His will. His response: "Stop saying no." In other words, I stopped resisting opportunities to serve, to minister, to witness. And in this simple willingness to live my faith, God confirmed the call by giving me opportunities to serve and, finally, a literal job offer to serve a church.

We crowbar God into our own mold as if scripture doesn't matter, the Spirit doesn't move and God doesn't own reality. If God calls you to the ministry, He will give you a love for the scripture. He will also give you ministry to accomplish, in the real world, in real time, ministry that can lead to a career, if that's your calling.

I, too, am a lay minister (licensed DOC). I've been employed as a church minister since 2001, full-time since 2006. And it all began in 1993, when like Jonah, I stopped saying "No" and started saying "Yes" to God's call.

Quoting scripture does not make a minister, but a minister of the Gospel DOES quote scripture! More importantly, a minister of the Gospel loves and respects the Word, and the Spirit as well.

hi, Loana!  I'm an ordained minister and for me it was a gradual pull that I responded to. I first felt the call to be a Christian.  My parents sent me to Sunday School as a young child (6-8 yrs) but they didn't attend.  We moved when I was 9 and no attempts were made to find a new church.  I felt something "missing" in my life and went back to church on my own as a 16 yr old, was baptized and taught Sunday School.  After graduation, I fell away again, only to feel the loss, and to return to church again during university when I lived on my own.  I felt at home at church, and got more and more involved, all the while trying to decide what to do when my BA (English, Women's Studies) was done.  I finally realized that the place I was happiest was at church (I was there 3-4 times a week by then), and that my interests in teaching, counseling, drama, and studying, could all be fed working within the church.  So I entered the discernment process and applied to Vancouver School of Theology soon after.  Each step of the way confirmed that pulling feeling in my heart.  I've had some little mystical moments, but always wished I could be transported to another realm, or see Jesus at the foot of my bed -- but, not for me!  Call takes many shapes and journeys.

Blessings to you, and shalom!

My experience is like Clergy Chickita, a gradual pull.  Emotionally it was like being homesick for something I couldn't identify.  I do know that there were times the yearning for something more would hit hard and I'd be in tears during a sermon, a hymn, or walking the labyrinth.  I've just started the distance learning program this week at AST to become an ordained minister, and I'm so happy!  I feel like I'm with kindred spirits and we're all keen about the same thing.  Where else can you find 20 people keenly excited about old testament history?