Lessons from Five Years of Ordained Ministry
Today marks my fifth anniversary of ordination to ministry. I have been called to ministry for over half of my life. I can hardly remember a life in which this thing that has pulled me, and shaped my heart for so long did not have a grip on me. While I have served the church for much longer than five years, I have been reflecting on what these five years of ordination in particular have meant to me. They have been harder, more humbling, more beautiful, more tender, more holy, and more painful than I ever could have imagined. They have been everything and nothing like I thought they would be all at once. In it all though, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
In that spirit, here’s a little bit of what five years of Rev. in front of my name has taught me. Some of these will feel specific to ministry, but some of them are not. May they speak to you if you need them, wherever you are.
- My spouse taught me a while ago that the words “integration” and “integrity” come from the same latin root meaning whole. It is perhaps the deepest work of our life to know who we are, and whose we are (and not to forget it). Unabashedly seek your own wholeness, and help others find theirs.
- Years ago, my friend Janessa, said to me: your call to ministry belongs to you, and to God. No one, anywhere, no matter how powerful, can take that…
