Matthew 28:19
"Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the holy spirit."
Of all the gospel verses we were given this week in the open door retreat about calling this one jumped out at me repeatedly. I am sure part of this is that I relate most easily to St Matthew's Gospel, but there were eight more from it I could have chosen.
So why this one?
What is it telling me?
Any thoughts?
Three thoughts:
ReplyDeleteGoing
Obedience
Doing
You can certainly do outreach and a form of discipleship online both in your local community and further afield...
Jesus said to his disciples (all of them) go, make disciples, baptise etc. It didn't necessarily mean they all had to do all of it. Your calling as an LLM or Reader is to help make disciples, help bring them to baptism and then sustain them through preaching, teaching and pastoral care. God is still at work through you whether you do the actual physical baptising or whether someone else ( whose calling is to do that) does.
ReplyDeleteTrust in your vocation and the people who guided you towards your present vocation.
It may change in the years to come ( after you have been licensed for a while) but it may not - it didn't for me and I'm coming up to my silver jubilee as a reader later this year.
The church doesn't need everyone to be a priest - and it certainly needs theologically trained lay people to preach, teach and give pastoral care.
Someone once said that God only calls to ordained ministry those whom he cannot use as lay people! Having said that, if you think God might be calling you to ordained ministry, you will never rest until you test that call.
ReplyDeleteI know that for me, the call was to a ministry of the Word (why, oh why, must they link sacramental ministry to pastoral care - I'd be so good at the former, and so totally pants at the latter!), and it may be that this is so for you, too. But if you are restless - test it!