As members of St. Brannock’s we all have a contribution to make to society.
Some people are trained and set aside to enable others to minister in both their
local community and their place of work. God may be calling you to these or other
ministries. The calling will be appropriate to your gifts and abilities and equally
to do with God's purposes for creation.You may feel that God is calling you to minister
in one of the ways described in the section below, “Ministry in the Church of England”.
Explore these possibilities, but please do remember that all Christians are called
to serve God with their gifts. We are all, ultimately, in full-time service for God.
Give yourself time to consider all this.
The Archbishop of Canterbury writes
The letters of St Paul often tell us about all the gifts the Church needs in order
for it to do its work and to be itself. Everyone has something Jesus Christ has given
them which has to be shared with the whole community.
Among these gifts is a cluster of things that all have to do with taking some kind
of responsibility for the Church’s growth and the Church’s direction - the apostle,
the prophet, the teacher, and so on. And while all sorts of different people may
exercise these gifts in various ways, the Church has always organized itself on the
basis that it needs some visible focus for this kind of ministry.
It has worked on the assumption that the task of taking responsibility and nurturing
the vision of the Church needs to be recognizable both in and beyond this or that
local community, and so it has given some people the job of doing this in a very
public and official way.
If you’re thinking about ordained or accredited lay ministry in the Church of England,
you’ll have started thinking about ‘going public’ in this way.
And you’ll probably have begun to face the potential cost of it. At the very heart
of this calling is God’s invitation just to be there, in the middle of the Church,
holding it in prayer, seeking God’s will for the Church’s future, trying to put yourself
completely at the disposal of God for that future.
It isn’t a role that lends itself very easily to self-congratulation, a nice clear
sense that you’ve done the job, because there’s always more to discover of God and
God’s purpose for the future. You have to become a certain kind of person, not just
do a certain number of things.
And that can be hard, since we all like to know we’ve done all right, that we’ve
ticked the right boxes. But it can also be liberating, because this is a role in
which God is helping you become yourself more deeply and fully, through your relationships
with the whole community of God’s people.
This page will help suggest the questions you might be asking of yourself and others
as you explore whether God is leading you in this direction. You’ll need to know
yourself reasonably well; you’ll need to have some of the habits of life that will
open you up to God daily – reading the Bible prayerfully and carefully, taking time
for quiet with God, joining in the worship of the Church; you’ll need friends who
can help you see yourself honestly.
Above all, you need to trust God. If he is really calling you, then, as St Paul
says, remember that ‘the one who calls is faithful’ – God will give you what you
need to follow him. If he is calling you to some other kind of witness and work,
remember that it is still you he wants, still you with your particular gifts and
oddities, which are precious to him. As you read this page, ask God’s Spirit that
whatever happens in your exploration of ministry may set you free to show God’s glory
and love more fully.
That’s what it’s all about – nothing else, nothing less.
+Rowan Cantuar
