Ordained Ministry
Have you got a vocation? The short answer to that question is yes you have! God calls us because he loves us. As Christians, we are all called by virtue of our baptism to be in Christ: to grow into ever closer union with him and to live out our lives in response to his life, death and resurrection.
For each of us that involves living in a particular way and becoming a particular kind of person: someone who reflects something of the life of Christ. That is our primary calling: to represent Christ in the world. As one of the great spiritual writers put it:
Christ has no body now on earth but ours,
No hands but ours, no feet but ours;
Ours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world
Ours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good,
And ours are the hands with which he is to bless men and women now.
St Teresa of Avila (1515-82)
This is our common calling as Christians.
But there is a further calling, a particular calling, which is not for everyone but may be for you. This particular calling is to serve God and all people through the Church's ordained ministry or through one of its licensed lay ministries. For this particular calling, it isn't enough simply to be convinced yourself that you have a vocation. You have to allow your sense of vocation to be tested by the Church through its discernment processes. It is the Church that validates and authorizes that calling.
What are the marks of a vocation?
In exploring whether you are called by God to ordained ministry, or to one of the licensed lay ministries, you will probably be asked to meet a number of people, such as Vocations Advisers who are experienced in discerning vocation. They will help you to discover whether you show signs of having a vocation to ministry. There are lots of marks of a vocation but the following four are particularly important:
Do you have an internal sense of call?
You may have a strong inner conviction that God is calling you. How you experience that conviction will vary. It might be a nagging feeling over time that will not go away. It might come as a bolt from the blue that this is what God's will is for you. However you experience the call of God it is likely to be persistent and will not go away. Your sense of calling needs to be tested by the Church.
Has your sense of call been recognized by others?
If you feel a sense of call, it is a good idea to share it with your vicar or chaplain and your family and friends - those you can trust - to see whether they can see God's calling in you. Those who know you well will be able to be honest about whether they can see you in the role you feel called to. Indeed they may have spotted it a long time ago and are waiting for you to recognize it for yourself.
Is your sense of call realistic?
Given the kind of person you are, with your particular strengths and weaknesses, have you got what it takes to fulfil your vocation? Answering that question involves you in a candid and searching self-assessment. It is important to remember that God will never call you to something which is beyond your capacity to fulfil. Although it needs to be remembered that without God none of us has a capacity for anything. Often God calls and then grows us into the capacity to fulfil our calling. Through God's grace, we might be surprised at what we could be capable of.
Is your sense of call informed?
Do you know what you are letting yourself in for? At one level, of course, none of us knows what we're letting ourselves in for! That's what makes the vocational journey so exciting and full of surprises. Nevertheless, it is important to have some understanding of the expectations and demands that will be placed upon you if you are to fulfil your vocation. You need to have some understanding of what is involved in mission and ministry in a changing society and the kind of tasks that you may be called upon to undertake.
In the Bible there are many examples of people being called in different ways. You might like to read some of the following passages and use them as a way of reflecting upon your own sense of call and the range of different ways in which God calls.
- The Call of Abraham: Genesis 12
- The Call of Moses: Exodus 3
- The Call of Samuel: 1 Samuel 3.1-10
- The Call of Saul: 1 Samuel 9 and 10
- The Call of David: 1 Samuel 16.4-13
- The Call of Isaiah: Isaiah 6.1-8
- The Call of Jeremiah: Jeremiah 1.4-9
- The Call of Mary: Luke 1.26-38
- The Call of Peter: Luke 5.1-11
- The Call of the First Disciples: John 1.35-46
- The Call of Mary Magdalene: John 20.1-18
- The Call of Peter: John 21.15-19
- The Call of Paul: Acts 9.1-22
- The Call of Lydia: Acts 16.14-15
- The Christian Calling: Ephesians 1.3- 14
If you want to know more about the call of God, please click here to find out more. If you feel that you would like to speak to someone in the Diocese about vocation to priesthood, having spoken to your local priest, please contact The Revd Canon Julia Wilkinson or Bishop Roy. Please click here to send an email.
To find out more about other forms of ministry follow the links to: