‘Here I am’

The Very Rev Dr Martin Fair reflects on the call to ministry.

EVERYONE has a ministry. That is the guiding principle of the work of the Towards Ministry team. All who become followers of Jesus are promised the gift of the Holy Spirit that each might play their part in the building up of the body, the church.

In all of this, these principles are important:

• We believe that God calls us to particular roles and that these are related to our unique makeup, our SHAPE; that is our Spiritual Gifts, our Heart (what we’re passionate about), our Abilities, our Personality and our Experience.

• When it comes to calling to any kind of ministry, the starting point is our availability not our ability and that, because we believe that God doesn’t so much call the equipped as equips the called

• Among the many roles we might exercise, there are particular leadership roles and, as that plays out in the life of the Church of Scotland, specific ministries: Readership, Diaconal Ministry, and both local and national Ordained Ministry of Word and Sacrament.

When we pay attention to what the scriptures have to say about leadership and the way in which individuals step up in particular moments, we see that these flow out of the plan and purpose of God. God reaches out. God calls.

And when God calls, the response is ‘Here I am.’ This is the biblical basis for the second bullet point above and comes from the Hebrew word Hineni (hee-nehnee). The various uses of the word in the Old Testament are found at key moments in the lives of the particular individuals. ‘Here I am’ is an offer that goes way beyond the everyday and ordinary. The one who declares ‘Here I am’ is on the cusp of a genuinely life-changing moment.

When confronted with the ultimate test, Abraham’s response was, Here I am. (Genesis 22)

When finally understanding that it was God calling to him in the night, the young Samuel’s response to his master was, Here I am. (1 Samuel 3)

When encountering the living God in the splendour of the temple and hearing the Lord asking, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Isaiah responded, Here I am. (Isaiah 6)

In the very same way, when Jesus called his first followers, their response was to drop what they were doing and to make themselves available. And most wonderfully, when facing up to the angel’s message that she was to bear a child, Mary’s response was: ‘I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be so.’

God has always looked for, and has found, those who have been willing to serve by making themselves available – by accepting a call to give over their lives by saying, Here I am. Even now, the Towards Ministry team is meeting with some who are considering making that response and their colleagues in the Training Team are delighting in working with those who have already pinned their colours to the mast by saying Here I am.

What about you? Are you already serving? Have you already made yourself available? Or in this new day, might God be calling you to something new, a brand-new challenge? The Towards Ministry team is here to support you as you discern – and perhaps to stand with you as you join the long list of those who’ve said: Here I am. ¤

The Very Rev Dr Martin Fair is Pathways to Ministry Manager with the Church of Scotland.