April 6thMy Own Courageous Imagination Journey
How did I know that it was God's leading for me to take this role - to take a big leap of faith from working in a social services management job into a role in church leadership?
Hello, MCEC family - Leah Reesor-Keller here. How do you listen for God? What has that looked like in your own life or in the life of your congregation? On our journey of courageous imagination as we look to live into what God is calling us to as Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, we're beginning by asking this question: How do we listen for God?
It is about exactly a year ago since I was appointed to this role as executive minister by the executive council of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. And as I think about that journey and I begin to explore what call looked like for me, how did I know that it was God's leading for me to take this role - to take a big leap of faith from working in a social services management job into a role in church leadership? I think for me the way that I listened for God in this was through others, through the voice of others encouraging me to apply, through the voice of others helping me think about my gifts and what I might have to contribute to the church at this time. And I think also one of the ways that I listened for God was through my own values, through my own sense of what was I willing to stand up for, what was I willing to take a risk that I might fail at but am so passionate about that I'm willing to try anyways. And I realized for me that was a call to serve God's church and a call to move forward this movement of love and justice, and a desire to not only try to follow Jesus myself, but to work with our whole community of faith - of people who are seeking to put God's love in action, seeking to make their own life look more like Jesus as we follow God together.
That's what it looked like for me to listen to God and it's still something I continue to do reading my Bible, praying and continuing to meet and discern with others. This is a big endeavor that were on looking to hear God's calling for our whole community and looking to do that through hearing from each other.
So I invite you to share your story. How do you hear God best? What has worked for you in your life and in your congregation when you're looking to discern God's leading? I would love to hear from you. You can send me an e-mail - lreesorkeller@mcec.ca, leave a comment on this video or write a post commenting on MCEC's Facebook page or Instagram account, and look out for the videos from others that are coming soon. We would love to hear from you on this because that's part of how we'll do this discernment together - is to hear each other stories.