First Steps On The JourneyAs I write this, I am about to graduate from Vanderbilt Divinity School and will be ordained at Bellevue Christian Church, Nashville, in just a few short days. I have served at Bellevue for two of my three years as a student. It has been an amazing and affirming place and I look toward my ordination with a feeling of gratitude for the path I have already traveled. My decision to enter Divinity School was not an easy one. For some it may be, but not for me. I agonized over it. In college, I accepted a position as ministerial intern at First Christian Church in Madisonville, Kentucky, only after Tom Webster, the minister, assured me that being a ministerial intern did not mean I had to go to seminary. I wanted to make sure that was clear for everyone – including myself. Still by the end of the summer, I had to admit the internship felt so clearly right. Theological education was in my future. However, I didn't know the future would come so soon. I was already in a graduate program in social work when I left to enter seminary. A few months ago, I came across a journal note that I had written at a church event, when I was around eighteen. My assignment was to answer the question, "What is my call?" I read that note today with surprise at my certainty at what I felt called to do. I never mentioned the word "minister" but the woman at eighteen is still in many ways the same woman I am today. I believe faith should impact our lives, and I want what I do to be a response to God's love in this world. At one point in the note, I wrote about my discomfort with the idea of being "called." It's scary because it made me feel as though I wouldn't have control over my own life. Today, I know it is okay. I no longer believe I can ever really have control. None of us knows what life may hold. All we have is today. My prayer and my hope is that each day I well accept the call that is before me. This Sunday, when I stand before my community of faith, friends and family, and make the promises of ordination, my prayer will be that I well relish the unknown and celebrate the first steps on the path that is ahead. Kara has been called to a position at Central Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky as one of their Lilly funded "ministers in residence." By Kara Kleinschmidt |
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