Discovering My Ministry

by Leanne Shawler

The following is a partial transcript/summary of the “witness” part on my talk about Education for Ministry (EfM)  on June 12, 2011. For more information, follow this link.

Download and listen along if you like:

The common lesson in EfM that gave me the most trouble was “Discovering Your Ministry”, which is like a “what are you doing?”/”what are your next steps?” kind of thing. I had no clue, no clue, what my ministry was. Dan, my husband, took the tools that EfM gave us that first year, and said: “I’m in cancer research and healing is my ministry!”

I’m like “Good for you, honey!” 

At the start of EfM, I was working part-time as an Administrative Assistant at Good Sam and I was a published author of historical romances. I wasn’t sure either one was my ministry. My writing and my favorite book (Jane Eyre) revealed that a common theme in my writing was redemption and second chances. I decided I was a subversive Christian writing about redemption and second chances, even though Christ never made it into them, but love did. But I wasn’t convinced.

Over the four years of EfM, I “tried on” different ministries: helping illegal Mexican farmworkers, listening to seniors ... but though I was passionate about it, I didn’t actually do anything for either ministry.

By the third year, I had stopped writing fiction (a long painful process of stopping and starting) and was wondering where my drive to write had gone. I’d been writing fiction since the age of 8. My first story was the school bully getting eaten by a giant monster. (I wasn’t into redemption then.)

Approaching the end of four years of EfM, I still hadn’t discovered my ministry. A month out from the end, I attended a church communications conference (my title at Good Sam is now Communications Director--no pay raise!). And there, one of the speakers said: “Most of you are here because church communications is your ministry, and not your job.” The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I thought, yes, this is my ministry! 

But -- I’m already doing it. Isn’t this a copout? Where’s the challenge, the step out of the comfort zone that I thought ministry was all about?

Part of my development through the four years of EfM was that my prayer life deepened, so days out from EfM graduation, I was received as an Associate of Holy Cross (Chris likes to say I’ve become a monk), which I’ve already blogged about (link).  I was going through the liturgy piece of being received with Br. Tom and this prayer popped right out at me:

“... strengthen her in her vocation to witness
and service to the world in the name of Christ”

That’s when I realized, that’s what I’m here to do. I am like the witness in a witness box in a courthouse. 

I am a witness to what you guys (Good Sammers) do. I am your witness to your growth in Christ. 

I am your witness to how we come here every Sunday and are revived by the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we take that gift of love and how we let ourselves be loved by God and each other, and we take that and we go out and we give it to somebody else.

We give it to the poor. We give it to the homeless, we feed them, we create these beautiful blankets of prayer that we give to those who are ill.

That’s why I’m here. I’m here as a witness to you. It’s a great honor and a great privilege -- and yay! I found my ministry!

I don’t need to make up stories of redemption any more. I have the truth right here. You’re the redemptive truth that I can now go out and tell using my writing skills.

Do you have a ministry, a way to serve others? Was it easy to discover?