As I have thought about how Jesus? ministry began, I have started to think about my call into ministry and what that was like. So I thought I would share a little bit about my journey. In part, sharing some of my story shares a little bit about why I do what I do and how my life has been enriched because Christ has been such an integral part of each step. But I also share because it is a way to model how we can share our faith and connect it to our story?yet more importantly, it connects to God?s Story. I invite you to pray with me over the message for today.
When I tell people I am a minister, I get a lot of varied responses and questions. But my favorite is ?when did you feel called to go into ministry?? When I was about 13 years old, I remember being at a youth conference in North Carolina. The week was absolutely amazing and life giving. I learned more about the importance of walking with Jesus each and every day. Through small group conversations where we could learn more about the Bible, ask questions, have amazing discussions, pray together, and grow together in a weeks time?where we listened to sermons that were inspiring, challenging, and great for teenagers?when we sang together, played together, and lived together for a week with other young people wanting to learn more about how to live out their faith. On the closing night of the conference, we gathered together for a candlelight service around the Lake Susan. Sitting around the lake with our group from Florida and the other 950 people who attended the conference we sang, prayed, and wrapped up the learnings of the week. As the service closed, we sang as the candles were light and everyone around the lake had a candle in their hand, holding it up high, and people were in just a spiritual high.
Our back home group stayed together by the lake after the service and continued to talk. We had lots of folks that were going through really hard times in school and difficult times with their families. Many were going off to college and were a little worried about what would be next. We decided to close out this time together in prayer. Our youth pastor said if anyone feels led to pray over what has been shared in the group, I would invite you to do so. As we held each other and cried together, I remember starting to pray. It was the first time I truly remember being filled with the presence of God and God fully and completely using me in that moment and situation. In that time, I remember feeling and hearing-Devon, I want to continue to use you for my people. I remembered feeling overwhelmed and overjoyed at the same time. And having absolutely zero understanding of what that would really mean for my life. Once we returned back home, I remember that I just loved to be at church. I wanted to teach the kids, I would be around to help volunteer, I loved being in worship and learning more about how to worship God, and in our family, the joke was if I wasn?t at home or playing sports, I was at church. Because of this, I have always resonated with the story of Jesus when he was about 12 years old and he stayed behind and taught in the temple. I had the mother who couldn?t find me and would typically find me at church. For me, the church–the people and building, has always been home to me. And I have always wanted other people to have that same feeling of home when they come into the building and when they have the opportunity to meet those who gather together for worship.
Yet even though the church has always felt like home, I wasn?t really sure what I was suppose to do. I went through my schooling, I did summer internships in children?s and youth ministry, I served as an interim director for youth and adult education, I have been on the leadership teams of camp and conference centers, I have written curriculum?yet, I was still unsure of what I was suppose to do. It wasn?t until I was in West Virginia when the Presbytery Exec asked me to serve two dying churches, that I felt my call come to life. You see, I have tried hard to live into my call to help churches see God?s potential for them and in the community. I have had the opportunity to use the various skill set that I have and been able to work in churches as the pastor or the consultant and help them create a plan for where God is calling them. In the South Park community in Charleston, WV, our sole focus was on the children in the community. We provided avenues for the children to come together, learn about God, and connected them with adults from the church who loved them. Through this ministry, we were able to reach out to the families and walk through many different journeys with them. The focus on the children is what allowed their to be hope and dreams and visions again for that little congregation. And they are still focusing on the children and families of the community. As I think about my time here, I believe we have finally gained some stability and are able to become the neighborhood church. I believe our hope lies in our neighbors. Our neighbors need to experience the crazy love of Jesus and know how much our lives can be changed by having Christ on the journey. I believe our potential is huge for this neighborhood and God is working on something pretty amazing for our congregation.
Our story as a congregation connects with God?s story in every way. My personal story, and this is only a small part of it, connects with God?s story?even when I didn?t think it did. Yet when I was 13, my ministry started. Then when I was ordained, it was as if God told me ?Devon, with you I am well pleased, you are my beloved, my daughter.? Then I was thrown into the church to be a pastor, and it was like being out in the wilderness and tempted by so many things and people. But we didn?t always stay there. Yet, we had to stay strong to being the church and sharing Christ?s love. Then being present when people began to follow Christ, to share the gospel with others, when children came to the church hungry and were fed, when people were healed from addition, where people put themselves out their and shared what the people of the church had done for them, when people realized the demons of the past and were willing to let Christ in, when people returned home after being gone for a while?with stories of what had happened and the truth was shared?then those who came back home were either heard or cast off. And when people went out into the streets, talked with the neighbors, and listened and prayed with and for them. And all of this came out of prayer. As I reflected on the time in West Virginia and my call to that congregation, I can see the miracles and the work of Jesus that happened on a regular basis. And we were just used to share God?s love with those we met. Does that sound like the miracles of the stories in our passages from today?
After reading through this section of The Story and hearing these stories yet again, I am reminded on two things. The first is that everything was done in prayer. The second is that they walked. When I think back to South Park, everything we did was in prayer and through walking. So that is what I dream for us to do here at Wintergarden. We need to pray more and walk more. And we can do them together as well.
Beginning tomorrow morning, I would like to invite you to come and pray and walk with me. I realize that I personally need to do this more?I need to be praying more for our community and neighborhood. I have not done this as much as I should have been doing. I also need to be more present with our neighbors and learning more about the needs of those around. God has truly placed this neighborhood on my heart and I believe God is truly working on something very powerful for all of us to experience on this journey. For the month of March on Mondays at 9am, I invite you to join me in praying for and with our community. Sometimes that will just take place in the building, sometime it will take place walking in the neighborhood, and sometimes it will be both. Everyone is welcome to come. The more the merrier.
As I close, I want to share that I believe it is time for our ministry to truly begin. For many years, it has been halted. Almost in the same way that Jesus was in the temple at 12 and not heard from again until he was 30. I think it is time to allow for God to work through us and that God is pushing us towards a period of change and growth-inside and outside, with our community. As in Jesus? ministry, there were many different bumps along the way. There were disagreements, confusion, and stories that didn?t make sense?yet there were also many miracles, healings, people who believed and followed this strange new way of Jesus. As a congregation, it is time to welcome people home and to be home for those in our neighborhood. I look forward to people hearing the stories of God and knowing how they fit into those stories. I hope you will join me in praying and walking in and for our neighborhood, but more importantly so we are sharing the light of Christ wherever we go. Amen.