Church: Encouragement

Applying to the church to become a Minister is a scary thing! In the Uniting Church you have to go through a year’s ‘Period of Discernment’ in which a supervisor helps you reflect on whether being a Minister of the Word is what God is calling you to, or whether it is some other form of service to God. You are given opportunities to study and to try out ‘Minister type things’.

If you still hear God’s calling then you ask your local Church Council to approve your application. If they do then you go to a Presbytery subcommittee that will then bring you application to the full regional Presbytery gathering. If they approve, you then go to “the weekend” meeting of experts who evaluate you for mental health, spiritual maturity, and ability to handle tertiary study.

If you get through all this then you are a trainee (candidate) who on completion of studies must still convince Presbytery and Theological College that you are ready.
I went through all this when I was 24 years old.

While I was at “the weekend” being interviewed and anxiously wondering whether I had the ‘right stuff’ that they were looking for, my whole self-esteem hung on a knife edge. I didn’t doubt God’s calling but I was full of questions about my readiness and the process was not interested in relieving those anxieties.
But at the second last ‘interview’ something special happened that I have never forgotten.
One of the panel said to me, “I think you will make a good minister. I would be pleased to have you as my Minister”.

Wow! What a difference it made that someone believed in me. This person had given me a great gift; encouragement.
I remember it 27 years on as if it were yesterday!

The church is the home of encouragement. We have a God who believes in us so much that he goes to the cross trusting that this outrageous grace will bring us back to him. And it did. The cross is God’s encouragement to your.

His Spirit lives in you because you are so forgiven, washed and clean, and loved. What encouragement!
But also the church is the home of encouragement because there are people here who believe in you and see you as precious. This is exactly what Barnabas did when he fetched Paul from his home town to come and work with him as co-Pastor in the new gentile church in Antioch. Everyone had forgotten Paul from 10 years before when he had his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus. But Barnabas believed in Paul as Christian and as a leader with untested abilities. Acts 11:19-26.

But what about you?
You have the power to say words that will echo in the hearts of people in 27 years time. Do not leave such words unsaid. Perhaps today is the time for you to encourage someone.
Invest your words and your time in someone and build up something good in their life.
This is encouragement modelled on our God. This is church as it is meant to be.

Graeme