I just returned from an Associate Pastor’s Conference at the
Montreat, NC PCUSA retreat and conference center. It was
heavenly! The blossoms were starting to come out and the
trails through the Blue Ridge Mountains where they meet the
Great Smokey Mountains were gorgeous and peace-filling!
Besides taking a little time to hike and nourish my soul, I
attended the seminars and worship times offered. One of the
seminars was entitled, “Associate Pastors Can’t Do It All.”
This seminar was led by Rev. Jim Dunkin, who has been both
an associate pastor and a head of staff. He suggested ways
to not “burn out” in ministry. One of his suggestions was to
recall our “call to ministry” around the anniversary of our ordination every year.

Since I have been ordained two years this May 13th, I will share part of my “call” story as it relates to Pentecost and our church’s Faith and Health Fair on May 4th.
I first felt the “tug” of the Holy Spirit on my soul when I was small, growing up in our
tiny Presbyterian Church in Neola, Iowa. As a child of one of the first female elders, I
was involved in just about everything a kid in the church could do. Little did I realize
that my comfort with getting up in front of church to: sing in the choir, light candles,
collect offering, read scripture, entertain the Presbyterian Women circles, co-teach
Sunday School, attend church camp, and co-lead our high school youth group, would
give me the kind of leadership confidence and foundation to becoming an ordained
minister today. But I look back now and see that God steadfastly gave me many
opportunities to build a sure foundation of volunteer participation to inspire me to
pursue ordained ministry in my later years.

One of the most formative parts of my journey towards ministry was when I became a
Parish Nurse and developed the Faith and Health Ministry at the National Presbyterian
Church in Washington, D.C. This was a great leap forward toward ministry that I took
in the early 90’s. I had been a psychiatric nurse therapist for 14 years by then and
knew that tapping into faith resources was an important way to facilitate healing from
mental health traumas of all types.

The skills and knowledge obtained in nursing school and my experience as a
psychiatric nurse therapist enhances my ability to provide pastoral care to our
congregation. And I am so thrilled to serve in a church now that supports a
Congregational Care Committee and the Congregational Health Ministry!
When I was in seminary it became clear that many nurses also responded to the call to
ministry because there were six other nurses in my class. It makes sense when you
consider how God calls us to be good stewards of our health. As Christians we believe
and know from Scripture that:

+ Our bodies are wonderful creations, and how we care for them matters to God.

+ We are charged in Romans 12:1 to present our bodies as living and holy sacrifices,
acceptable to God, as part of our spiritual service of worship.

+ 1st Corinthians 6:19-20 asks, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

May you answer God’s call to care for your health by considering your body as a
sacred temple of the Holy Spirit. This can be part of your own celebration of Pentecost
this May!