For me, the call to get out of the pews began with a dream of one day joining the great lineage of preachers to share the radical news of Jesus Christ. Although, this is where my calling began, I have since discovered that the call to come out of the pews runs much deeper, and the places to which pastors are called are much darker.
I am a pastor with a church-based campus ministry, at Stanford University. Like any college campus, Stanford comes with a whole host of challenges: secular hostility to Christianity, overcommitted students, the constant and overwhelming temptation of self-glorification. And like any pastor, I encounter road blocks along the way; road blocks that annoy and pester me, and others that shake me to my core.
As a young woman sitting pew-side dreaming about becoming a pastor, I would have never imagined that what I thought was a call to come out of the pews would become a call to walk into the darkest places of people's lives, a call to push back against the painfully broken institution of the church universal, and most importantly a call to hope in something larger than ourselves.
So today, I dare to hope...
today, I muster the strength to push back...
and today, I follow the call to get out of the pews...
You hope is not empty, but instead Full of the One who first called you... your first love. Keep pressing sister, God will be strong when you feel you are not.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a joy to see you grow and thrive this past year.
Great post Lindsay, nothing to be nervous about.
ReplyDeleteChris, I like the new look.
You inspire me. I hope to follow my call with your kind of courage.
ReplyDeleteI too sat in the Catholic pews and dreamed. As a little girl I can remember wondering why there were only men up there, what that meant about God.
God is bigger than how any church represents Him. I'm glad.
I think i felt the same sense of inspiration to follow the call... and have since been surprised by how much harder it is than I knew. and how ordinary it feels!
ReplyDeletelove you...thanks for following your call. i love seeing and hearing about you doing ministry
and thanks for blogging. i like it :)