People ask me all the time, “ Do you feel called?” My internal voice always whispers…”I feel pulled.” Call used to seem like I needed to hear a loud booming voice clearly calling my name, with defined and alphabetically organized directions that followed.

When I first signed up for the Certified Lay Ministry Cohort, my heart felt pulled…pushed…dragged, kicking and screaming, toward ministry with women. I just knew that was where He wanted me to serve. I do believe He wanted me to learn more about women of the Bible and what they could teach me today… and boy did I!

But THEN…God placed me in several small churches for longer than one Sunday, and suddenly everything in my body was feeling for the first time and with clarity, a call to serve small struggling congregations and not necessarily just in the pulpit. God is so creative! We can be too.

I didn’t get a clearly defined list, but I did get a clearly received call. That time of discernment would have never happened had I not committed to personal discovery through the CLM Cohort this year.

Coming up in May is a time for YOU to explore where God may be trying to steer your life. Clarity comes with being still and being open. Sign up for the Day of Discovery and be open to the creative direction of our Savior.

Kim Rice Smith
NCCUMC Sound District
Lay Leader