I'm so excited....and I just can't hide it! (#Explo11)

I’m excited.  Yeah…if you know me, you know that it doesn’t actually take a whole lot for me to be excited!  I tend to run pretty optimistic about things, but today my excitement is warranted, I’m sure of it!  J  I am in Saint Louis preparing for Exploration2011, an event that the General Board for Higher Education and Ministry directs for young people to explore a call to ministry, specifically ordained ministry, in the United Methodist Church.  The Design Team has reassembled for the event, after starting work on it a year and a half ago, and as we met tonight and shared our prayer requests and expectations for the weekend, I was awash with excitement about all that God has done, is doing, and will do in the lives of the people who will be here and those whom they will serve.  We talk so frequently about the challenges in the church and in the world and hypothesize on how we are going to see our way forward.  I’m convinced that what we will see this weekend is a glimpse of the way forward.  We have young people who are gifted, called, and have a passion to serve in the world.  Hundreds of them have committed to being available to God this weekend to spend time in intentional discernment.  I’m praying, and asking for the prayers of anyone who reads this, that God will continue to draw them deeper into relationship and that out of the overflow of that vital relationship would result a passion to serve God in making disciples for the transformation of the world. 

So forgive me if I’m pretty excited!  I don’t think that it gets better than this!

PS  You can follow the Twitter feed of #Explo11 here.

Praying for Exploration 2011

A year and a half ago, I was asked to serve on a Design Team for Exploration 2011.  I quickly said yes, as I was excited to be a part of an experience that will be a “spiritual marker” for some who attend.  Exploration is an “event” (though it seems shallow to call it that—it is more than an “event,” it is potentially an encounter with the Living God in discerning what may be a call to ministry) for people aged 18-26 to explore what it means to be called to ministry, specially related to ordination as a deacon or elder in the United Methodist Church.  Representatives from the 13 United Methodist Seminaries will be there, along with leaders who can articulate various important aspects of ministry. 

I attended Exploration 1996, which seems like a lifetime ago.  It was the first time that I understood what ordination was and was particularly interested in the new order of the deacon (which I would be ordained as in 2010).  I honestly don’t remember many of the details that happened at the event, but I do know that I left that “event” being confident that God had called me to something, even if I didn’t know all of the details.  I look back on that time and realize that it truly was a “spiritual marker” of sorts, as much for setting aside the time to go, but also for verbalizing to others that I had a call to ministry.  (I wrote more in detail about that here). 

Exploration is a time to set aside the other things on the schedule to listen:  to others who are sensing a call to ministry, to the equipping opportunities for ministry, but most importantly to listen to God.  This fall, on 11/11/11, hundreds will gather in St. Louis, and even as the final preparations are approaching, I would love to invite you to pray with me.  The things that I’m praying for in the days ahead are:

• People registering—that God would bring people who are open to the work that God may want to do in their lives
• Speakers and workshop leaders—that they would articulate what it means to live out one’s call to ministry
• Churches and Campus Ministries who are “sending” people—that they would nurture the call of ministry well before Exploration and upon return home

The theme for this year is “Passion and Possibilities” and we are eagerly anticipating all that God will do in the lives of those in attendance.  I work with college students in campus ministry, in fact, 8 of my students will be joining me in St. Louis this year.  They are full of both passion and possibilities.  I am excited for all that God has in store in the days ahead.  And I’m grateful for your prayers joining in for this “event.”