I’ve been serving our synod as a layperson on the Candidacy Committee for the past two years. I feel very much like a rookie, surrounded by theology professors and clergy and others with at least a post-graduate degree. When first asked to serve, I declined the offer because I knew I had no gifts to bring to this committee.
Perhaps I didn’t see my gifts as clearly as others did. As we encourage candidates to discern their call, all of us must discern our own call to this committee as well. I and the candidates struggle with what the Holy Spirit is saying to each of us. We ask the same questions of ourselves as we do the candidates, ever fearful of the answers. If we listen to the answers we must move forward into that call.
What gifts we recognize in others we often fail to recognize within ourselves.
This message is adapted from “Gifts of the Church,” written by Syd Brinkman for the Women of the ELCA blog.
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