Keeping our Baptismal Vows

I attended the ordination service of a classmate of mine from seminary and college recently. The steeple of the church stood tall against the crisp blue of the morning sky and all around was quiet that early morning. A couple of hours later, the church filled with people from the church, young and old, who would receive their newly ordained pastor and her visiting friends and family.

This friend of mine stood receiving ordination vows, kneeled to receive the hands laid on her shoulders by other ordained ministers, elders, deacons, and family, and with arms raised gave the blessing to the people as their pastor—all this with tears in her eyes and voice—tears of wonder, tears of gratitude, and I imagine, tears of 'finally’.

In our undergraduate studies, we were both in the capstone course of our Congregational and Ministry Studies minor, along with three other classmates. All five of us headed off to seminary after college, three of the five to Calvin Theological Seminary (CTS), and we earned our Master of Divinity degrees in the next three and four years from CTS.

In those three to four years, we studied, prayed, wrote, cried, preached, studied some more, wrote some more, preached…and then the end of our careers in seminary drew upon us. I was called to serve at the denomination’s college as one of the chaplains. She was called to serve a local church as their pastor after an interim pastor helped them to prepare for who was coming next.

It is almost a year to the date that I took ordination vows, kneeled to receive the blessing of hands holy and heavy upon my shoulders.

It is almost a year to the date that I took ordination vows, kneeled to receive the blessing of hands holy and heavy upon my shoulders—hands of those who also committed to walking the road of ministry along with me as sisters and brothers in Christ. It is almost a year since I first spoke the words of God’s blessing on to the congregation, arms raised.

I didn’t always know I was going to be in ministry. I had always loved the church, always found sure footing in the community of saints. But I didn’t take my affinity for dwelling in the words and pages of the Bible, the insatiable draw to matters of the spirit and connection with God, and the longing to communicate and share that with others for what they were: indications and pointers to a vocation in ministry, indicators of how God has wired me and formed me for the purpose of serving particularly, the Church. And I grew up in a family and tradition that was always affirming of women serving in leadership in the church.

It wasn’t until college, at the urging of professors and the patient encouragement of family members and mentors that I began to heed their words: “Have you thought about how you might be able to serve the church? Have you thought about seminary?”

I have the privilege of working in a context where, on a regular basis, I get to bear witness to young people stepping into who God has made them to be. It is a remarkable and breath-taking sight to see the light beginning to shine through the eyes of students who come to realize and live into the vocations for which God has created them. And for me, it is especially a wonder to see the particular students who recognize and begin to embrace God’s invitation to them to serve the Church. Many of these students are young women.

It is a remarkable and breath-taking sight to see the light beginning to shine through the eyes of students who come to realize and live into the vocations for which God has created them.

Scriptural witness tells us of God’s Spirit being poured out on sons and daughters, old and young, men and women^[1].

I don’t know how any of us, women or men, who are serving the Church, and particularly serving in ordained ministry, would have come to be where we are if not for the mentors, advocates, advisors, parents, friends, family, professors, teachers, and pastors who saw something in us—something pointing to the capacity to serve and lead in the church—and who gave us opportunities to cultivate those gifts, who invited us to lead, who trusted us.

Think of the young people around you. What gifts do they have to serve the church? Each person has gifts to serve the body of Christ. Some have gifts for leading in the church. How are you, reader, keeping your baptismal vows in helping those individuals to cultivate their gifts? Are you inviting them to take on responsibility in the church? Apprenticing them to what it is to be an elder or deacon in the church? Training them in the way of studying Scripture and proclaiming God’s Word? Walking with them in the way of discipleship?

It is my joy to see young people and especially young women come to understand how God has gifted them for ministry.

It is my joy to see young people and especially young women come to understand how God has gifted them for ministry. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. I get to see very many young workers ready to be trained up and sent out. Are we equipping and empowering them to live into their gifts for serving the church?

I, my friend, and everyone else in our peer group would not have finally arrived at being called to serve in our ministries and in ordained ministry, if not for the people in our lives who empowered and encouraged and trusted us to step into who we were formed, called, and equipped to be as members and leaders in the church. Support the workers around you as they rise to the task. They’ve been waiting. They’re ready.

[1] Joel 8:28-29