I believe the Holy Spirit was always calling me to be a pastor… the question was… when?

I grew up watching my parent’s faithful example and I’d always had a deep love for the church. I’d sensed that ministry was my vocation from an early age on, but I had a yearning to explore other career options, too. I sought adventure before committing myself to more schooling and then service as a pastor. I wanted to have other experiences to help discern my call and round out my life’s experience. I also wanted to clarify if “ordained” ministry was what I was called to or if I would better serve as a lay professional.

God blessed me with great opportunities, personal growth, and learning experiences in the years before I started seminary. However, I believed God used the words of the hymn, “Here I Am Lord” to finally confirm my called to ordained ministry. There was a period of a month when it seemed that this song pursued me. To this day, I cannot sing that hymn without emotion and a recollection of the strong urging of God to answer the call with “I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.” The timing was finally right. I began seminary the next fall and have pleasantly discovered that the “adventure” continues as God leads me in the joys and challenges of this incredible calling.

Pastor Anjanette Rist

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:19-20)

I’m always amazed by the story of Jesus calling his first disciples. Here are four working men going about their everyday lives when Jesus simply says “follow me.” No questions, no doubts, no “buts,” they IMMEDIATELY listen to the call and follow. If it were only that easy for all of us!

After five years in college and still searching for that perfect major, I took the summer “off” from the real world and found myself changed forever. In 1995, I spent my first summer working at Carol Joy Holling Camp, that’s where I first recognized the call into ministry. I had the wonderful opportunity of working with many different confirmation groups and their pastors. It was through much conversation and some pushing from these pastors that the call became clear. Following that first summer at CJH, I changed colleges and my major once again and I found myself at Midland Lutheran College majoring in Youth and Family Ministry. For once in my life the plans I was making for my future felt right.

It was at Midland that I really learned what it meant to “fish for people.” I was blessed to be part of campus ministry and to find internship sites that challenged my ideas and taught me more about all the children of God. I continued to grow into my call through my education, the next three summers at CJH and many days and nights of questioning this life decision.

My call has taken me in many different directions. I made my way from outdoor ministry to campus ministry to congregational ministry. I have been able to share my faith through writing for Augsburg Fortress and Lutheran World Relief. The call is ever evolving. It’s an ever changing and growing process to listen to the call of God. Eventually, I was called from full-time youth and family ministry at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Omaha into full-time, stay-at-home mom, as my family and I moved to Kansas City. I continue to listen to God calling me to use the gifts he has given to me. Today, I’m being called not only to mother but also to volunteer in confirmation education and committee work at our current congregation.

I’m constantly searching for what it is that God is calling me to do with my life. Listening to God’s call has changed my life in super ways. I never want to miss another call or go without searching. There are too many things that could be missed. Right now as I enjoy volunteering I look toward the future and where God is taking me. I feel called into the ministry of spiritual direction and if that call is still loud and clear when we relocate back to Omaha I will answer that call and return to school.

Lord only knows where the call will take us. And thank God the Lord knows. As he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately, they left their nets and followed him. May God bless you in your call as He has blessed me.

Mindy Muller

I was a desperate college freshman in the spring of 1993. The end of the semester was quickly approaching and I hadn’t lined up summer employment. A chance encounter with an acquaintance reminded me that I’d always loved going to Carol Joy Holling Camp when I was younger, and so I applied for a counselor’s position, figuring that at the least I might learn how to play guitar.

As it turns out I completely underestimated the change that would take place in my life. I found that I really enjoyed sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, even when I didn’t know all the answers. During my second summer as a counselor, I was asked to consider whether or not I might be called to professional ministry, and from that time on I was never able to get it out of my head or my heart. I finished my college degree, headed off to seminary, and eventually became a campus pastor.

There were times along the way when I wondered if I was really doing the right thing. There were times when I wondered if the church was ready for me, or if I was ready for the church and its demands on professional ministers. When a personal crisis completely changed the shape and scope of my internship, I didn’t know if I would have the strength to do what needed to be done. But through it all, God steadfastly comforted and lifted me up when I needed it, and I realized more and more that God’s mercy, love, and presence could defeat all my insecurities, anxieties and demons, even when it seemed impossible.

Would I change a thing about it all today? No… I love my work. I am amazed that I might be able to spend the rest of my life in a vocation that gives me far more joy than I could ever deserve. When we discover our true vocations, those callings God is putting on our hearts, we discover a life that is fulfilling even when it is most frustrating. I pray that YOU might find that fulfillment in God’s calling in your life, and I pray that YOU might be open to serving God in public ministry – your work is needed.

Pastor Scott Johnson
Lutheran Campus Ministry
Iowa State University

The call has presented its self in little bursts of surprise and amazement!

About 14 years ago I answered my door one afternoon to find my cousin Tim, who I hadn’t seen or spoke to in several years, standing on my doorstep. Now Tim and I had always been close in school, hung out together during our small town Iowa high school years, but lost touch when I married and moved to Nebraska and he joined a Peace Corps organization and lived in areas of the world I couldn’t even pronounce.

But surprise, there he was! We had a brief afternoon of visiting, and lots to catch up on, but within that time he was able to articulate the question to me… “Teresa, what are you aching yet to do?” It was then that I told Tim that strangely enough, I wondered if I shouldn’t be somewhere in ministry.

As a family, we continued to be active in our church, keeping up the baptismal numbers with our five kids… and then about 31 years later I was surprised to be asked to head up a youth program in our church, which I amazed myself and agreed to without hesitation. Within a few more months I was asked to join the staff of our church. More surprise and amazement! It’s been more than 10 years now, and the Holy Spirit continues to surprise and amaze me. But as I reflect, I realize that on each of these significant steps towards my call to ministry there was someone beside me who asked. Who surprised me, caught my attention, and asked.

Teresa Carlson

I first became aware of my call to ordained ministry while in high school. I went so far as to visit with my pastor and a representative of the seminary in Fremont. But it was as if God was telling me what my future was going to be, and that I should prepare for it, but there were other things I needed to experience first.

After one year of college following high school (’66-67), I joined the work force, married, started a family, took on a mortgage and generally got on with life. I remained active in all aspects of my home congregation and I always knew that I would return to school. How I knew that I don’t know… I just knew it.

In 1984, I went back to school. I thought I was too old with too many responsibilities to even consider seminary. But after one semester as a business major, God convinced me to get onto the seminary track. I did and I haven’t looked back. Whenever a major roadblock stood in my way, a way over it always appeared. This is what I was intended to be and to do. No fireworks. No books falling off the shelf pointing my way. Nothing spectacular.

Pastor Howard Rasmussen