A First Call Story
For all of my friends in the ministry or trying to get into the ministry, I offer a cautionary tale:
You take your first call in a town about two or three hours away from your home town. Things are going well in your first few months. You are getting settled in; you like the congregation and the congregation likes you. You develop friendships with your colleagues at other churches in the community.
On the third month anniversary of your arrival at your new call, a woman, who is not a member of your congregation, is arrested. It is on an illegitimate charge. Five days later, on the day the woman is convicted of the charge, you are elected to be the leader of a new community group that will lead a community boycott in response to the arrest. That night you give an unscripted speech to a community assembly larger than any group you have ever spoken to before.
On the eve of your fifth month in your call, your home is bombed.
After a year, the protest is successful, and the city's policy is changed.
One month after that, you are elected the leader of a regional group that will advocate the same type of action and change that occurred in your city throughout the region and the country.
Five and a half years after you receive your first call, you are arrested and jailed in another town in the state where your call was. While in jail, you write a letter to members of the clergy in that town.
Four and a half months after your arrest, you lead a march to Washington. In front of a large group, you give a speech - no, a sermon. It is very well received.
Thirteen years, seven months and three days after you take your first call, an assassin martyrs you with a single rifle shot to the neck.
--- >>> <<< ---
We are called to proclaim the Gospel.
We have no idea to where, to what, we are called.
Lord, give me strength to go where you call, and once there, to do Your will.
U2 - MLK
You take your first call in a town about two or three hours away from your home town. Things are going well in your first few months. You are getting settled in; you like the congregation and the congregation likes you. You develop friendships with your colleagues at other churches in the community.
On the third month anniversary of your arrival at your new call, a woman, who is not a member of your congregation, is arrested. It is on an illegitimate charge. Five days later, on the day the woman is convicted of the charge, you are elected to be the leader of a new community group that will lead a community boycott in response to the arrest. That night you give an unscripted speech to a community assembly larger than any group you have ever spoken to before.
On the eve of your fifth month in your call, your home is bombed.
After a year, the protest is successful, and the city's policy is changed.
One month after that, you are elected the leader of a regional group that will advocate the same type of action and change that occurred in your city throughout the region and the country.
Four and a half months after your arrest, you lead a march to Washington. In front of a large group, you give a speech - no, a sermon. It is very well received.
Thirteen years, seven months and three days after you take your first call, an assassin martyrs you with a single rifle shot to the neck.
--- >>> <<< ---
We are called to proclaim the Gospel.
We have no idea to where, to what, we are called.
Lord, give me strength to go where you call, and once there, to do Your will.
U2 - MLK
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