Gathering God’s Harvest: Your most recent call to ministry

by Rev. Paul L. Escamilla, Senior Pastor

Someone once asked Bishop Kenneth Goodson, a former episcopal leader in our church, when he answered the call to ministry. He responded by saying, “The first time was over fifty years ago, when I was a student at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. The last time was today during my morning prayers.”

When did you answer your call to ministry—to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, to seek to know and love and serve God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength? You may have a specific memory of such a moment of decision. Now let me ask you another question: When did you last answer your call to ministry?

To give our lives to Christ is to open ourselves to be newly called at the turning of every season of our lives, invited to offer our lives for serving and leading in fresh expressions of devotion. Church becomes a natural setting for making that offering as we share our time, our energies, our love, our talents in and through the ministries of Laurel Heights.

Enclosed in this newsletter, and also available online (www.laurelheights.orgwww.laurelheights.orgwww.laurelheights.org or www.tinyurl.com/LHUMCServicewww.tinyurl.com/LHUMCServicewww.tinyurl.com/LHUMCService), is a Service Opportunities form—an invitation to explore and extend our understanding of God’s invitation to grow in that grace through serving at Laurel Heights. Have a look and see if you sense God’s leading into a new area of service in or through the church. Perhaps once you’ve looked over these opportunities you can take some time for silence, prayer, and listening as a way of seeking God’s direction for your life through ministry in the church. Once you’ve completed the form, you will be contacted regarding possibilities for involvement.

When did you answer your call to ministry? When did you last answer that call?

Grace and peace.
Paul