My call into ministry...this is a VERY long post fyi....

I am the kind of person that does not have the exact moment, date, or time of a conversion experience. You see when all the other friends of mine had imaginary friends I just talked to God...my relationship with God is something that I cannot boil down into one moment when it first started. I cannot remember a time when I did not have a relationship with God; kind of like Adam and Eve in relationship as soon as they were created. And since that is the case, the only story I have to tell when people ask me for the first one, is the story of my calling into the ministry.

When I was in High School I would have friends and fellow students always come to me and need to talk about their personal lives, problems, and difficulty issues. I never knew why they came to me, but I would always listen and try to be a good friend and end up not having any answers, but I did pray for them every time. I preached once in church, but in reality it was just a report I gave from being the vice-president of the Northwest Texas Conference Counsel on Youth Ministries. Well, college came around and when I was thinking about what exactly I wanted to do with my life I wanted to make sure that I covered all my bases and so I decided to try out youth ministry. So, as a college student I took a very part-time youth position in a town smaller than the one I grew up in...and let me tell you that is a small town.

During this time I went on a college chrysalises, and I even was a table leader for a youth chrysalis, and while I was there I was told by my Sr. Pastor that he could not give the clergy talk due to a funeral, so he had me give it! Me the non-clergy college student youth pastor gave a clergy talk! I wrote it during all the breaks we had and gave it. It was beyond words. I really do not remember what all I said...just that when I finished talking/preaching I walked into the chapel where a woman was praying for me and the youth listening to our talk and I fell to my knees crying. It was almost as if God borrowed my body and mouth to talk...and then he gave it back to me after I was done...and I was blown away. I gave many talks in several cases and several people would tell me that was the best sermon they had ever heard and that I should be a preacher/pastor. And my response ever time would be, “Thanks for your thoughts and suggestion, but that is too big of a responsibility to just hear it from you (no offence), I just need God to tell me... I would need my own burning bush.” This would be my response even when my wife Tiffany would tell me hat I was called into ministry, heh heh.

Tiffany would tell people all the time that she just knew (because I was hard of hearing when it came to God) our home would catch fire, our car would burn up, or her hair would catch one fire and she would have to turn to me and say, “D.G. Can you not see your ‘burning bush’ now?!) ha ha...

Well, I did the youth pastor thing for a while and then I wanted to try out a paid internship with a non-profit Meals For The Elderly organization. Funny when I wanted to try out business and make more money I was still working for a ministry! I enjoyed the raise in money and designing their website and newsletter, but something was just not right.....In hind-sight, of course I was just not being and doing what God desired for me to do, but I heard that call faintly and so I decided that I would still go into business or marketing, but just in the Christian music industry, so I could still make money AND serve God at the same time (I think Christ said something about that one time, can’t serve two gods or something like that heh heh). So, after Tiffany and I married we immediately moved to Wilmore so Tiffany could answer her call into youth ministry and attend Asbury...and I went looking for a job to support us. After a few months I realized how difficult it was to walk into a corporate office with a resume and ask for a job. So, instead, I walked right into a temp agency and they found a job for me. I started working at the corporate headquarters of Long John Silvers inc. just doing data input. They saw my work ethic and was so impressed that they paid the finder’s fee to the temp. agency and hired me after only a few weeks of working there. I was a Field Marketing Coordinator in the Marketing Department, and the funny thing was people would walk into my cubical and ask me questions like, “What is the purpose of communion, or baptism?” it was just amazing.

And then I went to go watch a movie titled, “The Prince of Egypt”. And it was that movie that I felt God was calling me into the ministry. This movie was a cartoon movie all about the life of Moses! In it I saw an amazing unbelievable showing of God’s power and might through the story of Moses. You see I grew up my entire life a United Methodist. I had wonderful youth ministers and during High School and college I knew all about the grace of God and the love of God and the friend I had in Jesus, but I needed to know that the God I serve was a powerful, almighty, strong God! And beside there was a huge burning bush in surround sound! Ha ha... I walked out of the theater excited and telling my wife and our friends, “Now that is the God I serve an awesome, almighty powerful God! That is the God I serve and God is calling me to serve him!” I applied to enter seminary the following day (and I did not even have to look around...my house at the time was one the campus of one! And so I continue to listen to where and how God directs my path, and I encourage others to do the same. This is my story, and this is your story lets continue to live it together in humility, passion, and grace!