God calls pastors in many ways, young people learn

United Methodist News Service
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Clergy members told their personal stories of answering God’s call to ministry to 525 young people attending EXPLORATION 2006.
The event, sponsored by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, invited young people to explore whether God is calling them to ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church.
More than 300 high school seniors and young adults from 42 states stepped forward Nov. 18 to pray with elders, deacons, local pastors, chaplains and campus ministers in a commitment service.
At the end of the night, 198 youths and young adults signed commitment cards indicating their definite interest in ordained ministry.
The Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, top staff executive of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, welcomed young people to the Nov. 17-19 event.
“You are here to struggle with the idea that you might someday speak for God,” Del Pino said. “You are here to dive in and make waves as you endeavor to discern, ‘What is my path? What am I to do with my life?’”
The Rev. Telley Gadson, pastor of St. Mark UMC, Sumter, S.C., spoke of hearing God’s call as a teenager.
“But I was going to law school,” she said. “I advised God of my plan to preach during the weekend and be a lawyer during the week. God laughs when you tell God you have a plan.”
Then, Gadson said, she heard the late Bishop Cornelius Henderson preach at an EXPLORATION event.
“It was as if God was asking me, ‘Is my calling nothing to you?’” she said.
After that, Gadson said she got the “true wireless communication,” the one that “takes you by hand and calls you by name.”
Young people attending the event, high school seniors to age 24, said hearing the stories, both in the main worship and plenary session and during workshops and small group sessions, was helpful in clarifying what God was telling them to do.
The Rev. Meg Lassiat, the board’s director of student ministries, vocation and enlistment, said people trying to discern God’s call often find it is hard to meet others struggling with the same questions.
“EXPLORATION gives youths and young adults the opportunity to meet others who are listening for how God is calling and how they can respond to that call,” she said.
“Knowing there are young adults from around the country willing to support young people in their discernment process is very empowering.”