Call to Ministry 5

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15. At some point late in my first semester of college, I began to feel that God was calling me into ministry. It wasn't that I had stopped liking science. In fact, I still wanted to finish my chemistry major, even add a math and physics major. It was a mystical thing, like my sense that God wanted me to go to Central.

I told my parents over Christmas break. My mother indicated that she never thought I was called to be a doctor. It fit with their sense of things and their sense of me. I think my sister had even had a premonition that I would be called to be a minister.

They wisely suggested I finish out my first year as a chemistry major. If I still felt the same way at the end of the semester, I would change my major to religion then. So I kept the same spring schedule.

As you look back, there are certain decisions that are life-altering. Most aren't. The decision to put your faith in Christ is the most momentous, of course. But that decision was not really a question growing up. It was the trajectory I was on from birth.

The decision to go to Central was quite substantial. Would I have received a call to ministry at the University of Miami? It would have been harder to hear, I believe. It is an argument for studying at a Christian college. There may be directions for Christ that you won't see or hear as well in a secular environment.

Alongside my decision to marry Angie, the change of direction to ministry is one of the two most consequential decisions of my life. It was one of a small handful of mystical decisions I have made, along with leaving the seminary and coming to Houghton. I have never looked back after these decisions. I cannot explain the confidence I've had to make these decisions, especially given the tendency of my personality to doubt, introspect, and second guess myself.

16. If the fall semester was difficult, the spring was delightful. I always found spring semesters so much more delightful than the fall. The fall was a journey into cold and darkness. The leaves fell and the rains came. It was a dying.

The spring was resurrection. The leaves and flowers of spring were something I had not grown up with. There was always a point in the spring semester when the flowers at Clemson were beyond beautiful. The temperature warmed. I loved the spring, especially late spring. It was my favorite season.

I finished my science path that spring. I took Zoology and Differential Equations. I got back at chemistry with an A in organic analytical chemistry. I'm not sure how. There was one sample I couldn't figure out. I went around the stock room sniffing chemicals to try to find a match--not a preferred technique. Micah and Rodney seemed to think they were giving me a hint by pointing out a similarity to the smell of a Moon Pie. It didn't help.

One aspect of the spring I enjoyed was taking a Physics course at Clemson, Physics II. They didn't offer physics at Central. It was a very large class, probably a couple hundred. The professor swore he wasn't going to curve this semester but he did. I didn't have to take the final because I had an A up to that point in the course. Good thing for me. I got straight As that spring somehow.

I forgot to mention that the first semester I had taken a one hour freshman seminar. It was about study habits and being ready to survive college. The only principle I remember from it was "Be here now."

It seems to me that I went to Clemson at one point to do some "soul-winning." The idea was to share the gospel with anyone we might happen to run into. I don't remember running into anyone.

I do remember on one occasion going for pizza at Clemson and being followed by some people reading the Bible. They never asked me if I was a Christian. They just assumed we weren't. I suspect that reading verses behind a person isn't a very effective evangelistic technique. In fact, it is annoying to both Christians and non-believers alike. I wondered if they were basing their approach on Isaiah 55:11--"My word will not return to me empty."

17. I spent the first part of the summer in a trailer with Micah and Rodney. That was probably the May that I took developmental psychology. I believe that was also the summer that I did construction with Casey Walker in Fort Lauderdale to earn a little money. Being a theoretical person, construction was a challenge.

The foreman thought for sure I would quit. But I made it the full five weeks I had planned. I was getting the hang of it by the time it ended. I do remember the first time I tried to tie steel on a commercial site. I couldn't quite get the twist to get it right. The foreman was so ticked. He ripped out all the ties and had me do it again. I did get the hang of it.

I believe the first sermon I ever preached was at the Fort Lauderdale church that spring. I don't remember what I preached on. It seems ridiculous but I believe I spent the last part of the summer preaching at Zephyrhills, Florida while my brother-in-law Eddie was out of the country. Mind you, I had not had a single ministry course yet.

That was in keeping with the flavor of the holiness movement. God called you to preach and you preached. You didn't need training. You just needed the Holy Spirit. I had the theological training of my church and camp meeting. I had models to emulate.

So I did preaching and some visitation. It was mostly an older congregation. Such congregations love young single (male) preachers. Visitation was somewhat torturous. Being of short attention span it was hard to pay attention to someone for over an hour. And they were lonely people. They were happy for me to stay infinitely. It was hard to get away.

I would later learn to say you only have x amount of time up front or to make an appointment so you needed to go in an hour. Of course pastoral visitation is done less and less these days. As part of my ministerial training, I would do regular visitation in Central with Jim Wiggins. His philosophy was not to make an appointment but just to show up. He wanted people to be as they were, not to prepare because he was coming.