Please, don't turn back - not yet. The Lord is ahead!
I have been pastoring for just under 30 years. I remember the call, or at least when I responded to the call. I had graduated from Moncton High School and went off to Loyalist College in Belleville Ontario to study police sciences. What I saw on campus at Loyalist was a sea of young people chasing after fulfillment, looking for hope, and drowning in despair. One image that still hangs in my memory is of a young student sitting on the steps in one of the stairwells - weeping. These are the people Jesus often noticed, I thought to myself. I could not help but also have the thought go through my head - 'she needs Jesus.' I withdrew from my program to go to Bible school and begin my journey of becoming a minister of the gospel. All I have ever wanted to do was show people the Jesus that met me in my own despair, brokenness and hopelessness. I have sometimes gotten off track with this agenda - as have the churches I have pastored. For people to find Jesus, they will find Him in us. ...