I work for
our beloved church, at a place where “making disciples” is literally in the
title. It’s a hard concept, to make a disciple. There’s that sticky word with
it: evangelism. As I consider ministry as a vocation, I wrestle with evangelism
and how to “make a disciple.” How do you make
somebody come to church every week? Or is it better to make a church
member, so that you have another number on your roster even if they come to
church four times a year? What if they don’t show up on Sundays, but sign up
for every mission opportunity? Are you truly a disciple if you don’t
participate in a Covenant Discipleship group (It’s only 1 hour a week!)? What
if you don’t like traditional worship? What if you only like traditional
worship? What if you like traditional worship but sing along to Hillsong in the
car? Pastors are tasked with “making disciples” and sometimes it feels like an
impossible job.
I was
thinking about this last week in speaking with someone about “my call.”
As a tangent, that’s another Christian-y word that I have a hard time with. You
can’t decide to go into ministry, you
must be called. It’s hard to say out
loud that you’ve been called, because
what if you’re hearing God wrong? Then you’ve lied about being called.
It’s a whole thing. I’m still working on it.
I was
speaking about my hopefully legitimate “call.” I spoke about how I found the
Methodist church, how I become more and more involved with my local church. I
forgot to mention when I went to go see Jen Hatmaker speak and her words lit
such a fire in my heart that I came home and told my husband of 6 months that I
wanted to be a missionary and that we should look into moving to Africa. We
didn’t. But that fire never went out. It occurred to me that I had been made a disciple. I had been made a disciple, and I was
out to transform the world! Just like the tag line of my workplace pronounces! I
had wonderful pastors and churches that took me in, but it truly was the work
of the Spirit that brought me from a between-churches-20something to a disciple
exploring entering ministry.
This was a
heartening revelation, to realize that I have seen a transformation. Not in
someone else, but in myself, and maybe that’s enough to start.
This is when I wish you could visit my church and talk to Pastor Donna. Ministry was not at all a consideration for her post-college, she even stayed away from the church during and immediately after college.
ReplyDeleteAnd I SO remember the "we might become missionaries but don't tell my parents" Skype convo. Good times.