If you are wondering if you are doing ministry, even though you aren’t in ministry, you are.
Your calling is deeper than this current job or season. Your calling penetrates everything and everyone you encounter. It was real. It is real. You are a person of God in this world.
You have been given gifts from God, and those gifts are being used day in and day out. Indeed, you have all the tools you need. It must be so hard not to use them exactly how you thought you might. But trust that even now those tools are being sharpened.
Your daily tasks are significant. Your everyday, ordinary rhythm is meaningful.
If your place of work is not what you had hoped for, tell yourself: “I am not just working a menial job; I am forming important relationships. I am discovering new opportunities. There is purpose here.”
If you are staying home, parenting little ones in this season, tell yourself: “I am not only wiping butts, I am shaping souls! There is purpose here.”
And tell yourself: “I will learn to find the holy, sacred, God-things of each day. I will share these revelations with others through my words and by my presence. In every moment, there is purpose.” After all, this is what people of God do. This is the real work of a minister.
If you are wondering if you are doing ministry, even though you aren’t in ministry, you are.
And if you have trouble believing it, we will believe it for you. We will promise to see in you what you can’t see in yourself. And when you don’t have the spirit to pray about it, we will pray for you and over you. And as your fellow women ministers, we vow to affirm your gifts through action.
We will ask you to preach in our churches. We will share our resources and networks with you. We will keep you connected to opportunities, and we will support you as work through your calling, even as we struggle through our own. We will stand together, empowering each other every step of the way. Why?
Because you are a person of God in this world. You are a minister. And you are not alone in this season.
Aurelia Pratt is teaching pastor at Grace Baptist Church, Round Rock, Texas.