I feel a sense of calling to a church-related vocation that has slowly grown in me since I was in high school, but I have recently focused on church ministry as my goal.
I hope to minister to people because I strongly believe that our faith offers good news to people living in a broken world. In my experience, Jesus has been a catalyst for transformation that heals my relationship with other people, with the earth, and with God. I hope to facilitate a space for people to have an encounter with God and expand their possibilities for meeting with God so that they are able to have the same transformation that I have experienced. As part of my ministry, I also hope to provoke people to live a life of good news, embodying the justice, peace, and healing that God desires for all of humanity and earth.
While my understanding of ministry is growing as, my exact philosophy will continue to develop throughout my career. I do believe that my role as a Christian minister is to curate an encounter with the Divine and the good news of Jesus that transforms life into something full and meaningful.
The good news seems to call us to a life that is personally satisfying and wholly healthy, but also that is transformed so that we embody God’s love and justice in our day-to-day lives. We will only live as healed and redeemed people when personal faith and meaning intersects with action that embodies the justice, peace, and healing that God desires for all of humanity and earth. I hope to be a minister of good news and reconciliation to those who have been alienated and hurt in some way. I believe that a Christian minister should communicate the heart of God to people so they will be transformed and therefore contributed to the healing of the world. My greatest talents lie in ministering to people with doubts and skepticism, but who are still drawn to the Jesus traditions as a way of making meaning. Specifically, I hope to foster people's full participation in the Christian life and church leadership that is open to all people, regardless of class, race, gender, or sexual orientation.
Hopefully, my ministry can be a reconciling one that also shows the impoverished and vulnerable that the church is concerned with justice for them, and shows the typically outcast that Jesus loves and affirms them. As a church-based minister, I hope to show this reconciliation through a particular congregation, but I also aspire to find ways to innovate and take church to hurting people in creative ways.
For more extensive explanation of my theology, please contact me.