3. Being called to ordained ministry by God and the Church

Throughout most of my discernment process, I have wrestled with the idea of being “called”. I couldn’t find a place for it within my thinking until Dr. Joshua R. Paszkiewicz, my favorite professor at Central Seminary, posed this question:

What if one’s calling is opportunity, interest, and ability all coming together under God’s grace?

My mind immediately put forth this equation:

Calling = Grace (opportunity + interest + ability)

When I substituted my experiences into the variables, I determined the following:

Opportunity: Through the grace of God, I found my way to a ministry as a Staff Chaplain at Chelsea Retirement Community—Glazier Commons.

Interest: By the grace of God, the job is uniquely fitted for my interests. It allows me to function within two roles.  The first, as a regular chaplain who visits every resident, walking alongside each on their life and faith journeys; respecting their own spiritual backgrounds and beliefs; and acting as an accompanying presence, as I actively listen and reflect back to them what I hear.

The other portion of the role is as a pastor to the congregation of residents who regularly attend the weekly Ecumenical Chapel services, Bible study classes, and programming that I facilitate. In this role, I lean more heavily into the Christian norms of being a pastoral guide and look to foster spiritual community, growth, and personal relationships with Christ.

Ability: God has graced me with a natural ability to bring calm and a sense of being seen and heard to residents. I genuinely love the population I work with and respect their struggle to find acceptance within their ever-changing bodies and environments. I am drawn towards places of interfaith and ecumenical worship. I value differences as ways to help us grasp larger perspectives. I have a fair amount of natural patience and desire to hold people in grace, which serves this population well.

Call: Staff Chaplain at CRC—Glazier Commons