Soft and Pliable

I spent the last two days participating in the work of the Multi Synodical Candidacy Committee. The committee gathers numerous times throughout the year to interview candidates for rostered leadership in the ELCA -- Pastors, Associates in Ministry, and Deaconesses. A great deal of time is dedicated to prayerfully processing recommendations that will contribute to the ongoing formation of the future leaders of the church.

Like any other institutional system, the Candidacy Process includes certain established guidelines that must be followed...specific goals which are to be met. The goals embrace areas of theological, academic, psychological, emotional and spiritual "excellence".

There is also an aspect of the process that is less measurable but critically important -- the mysterious factor of "call". This factor is the essential mark that guides the leadership of the church...and the entire Body of Christ...for it is the term the church uses to express our awareness of God's claim upon our the path of our lives. Every baptized person is called to do something...some to rostered ministry...and all to some form of service in Christ's name.

"Call" is a dynamic reality. Sometimes God reveals His call to a servant in a fashion that is brilliantly clear -- like a burst of light. In the next moment, though,it may be mysteriously elusive, as if it is shrouded in mist. It is constantly pulsing and vibrating as it flows through the veins of the body of Christ. It is manifest in emotions, thoughts, ideas, and the action of the community of the church.

When "we" (the church...the body of Christ) ask ourselves to speak of the call to serve, we are endeavoring to express a "sense" of something....rather than the "knowledge" of something. Since the Holy Spirit is so amazingly dynamic, those who are seeking to speak about the "call" must always remain soft and pliable...flexible. We have to allow God to form our ministry from within through the presence of the Holy Spirit so that it can be expressed in external actions that will meet the needs of the world.

We are all to be like clay in the hands of the divine potter. We must guard against any tendency to be hardened by self determined goals or the deception of sin. That softness and pliability is possible only through our constant surrender to God, who is constantly massaging our lives to keep us moldable. That flexibility, then, permits us to respond more effectively to the call spoken every single moment by God to the entire body Christ.

Whether you serve as a rostered leader or a lay member of your congregation, I pray that you will do everything humanly possible to maintain your flexibility and availability to God's movement in your life...and that when you have done all you can, you will let the Holy Spirit do the rest.