Called to Preach

Grandson Tristan with his Grammy on Christmas afternoon

It was last Monday morning. I was working away on the last bits of my Christmas Eve messages and just preparing to start work on my Sunday message when I received a most unexpected email from our 18 year old grandson, Tristan.

"Dear Grandad, our family is considering visiting a new church for Christmas Eve service this year but I really don't want to go somewhere we've never been.  Could you give me some help with writing a sermon so I could lead our family in our own service right here at home?"  Wow.  Could I!

An hour or so, dozens of site links and about 5 pages of email later I sent him my 'help'.

On Christmas day he was more than kind as he thanked me for the assistance. However what I heard from him and the family about the service was that it was created with input from all of them and was led by the Holy Spirit.  You can't get a better worship service, in my opinion, than that.

The five of them, Jenn, Chris, Kaream and Khalif with Tristan leading had prayers, readings, songs, the sermon, and communion (Yes, communion. Amazing that you can have a real communion service without an apostolic descendant initiating the sacrament, isn't it?). Tristan even went his grandad one better and wore a robe and stole!  His Hempfield High School graduation robe and a stole his last pastor gave him when he joined that church. I wear neither.

When Tristan was a baby, and later a toddler, his Great Grandpa Snyder told us and him that he was destined to be a pastor.  Some years ago he actually explored the idea a bit and spent time with me and the pastor whose stole he would eventually be given.  To my knowledge this Christmas Eve was the first time he led worship and preached.

Only God, and Tristan, knows.  I thought I was being called into ministry when I was 18.  Then I learned you had to take 7 years of college and seminary before donning the robe and stole.  Later our good friend Laverne Buckwalter told me that he knew I was going to be a pastor. And that was while I was in the midst of denying the reality of Jesus Christ as God. Then, well, you know the rest of this story.

God has a way of reaching into our lives and calling us forward when His time is right.  Then the Holy Spirit just grabs our hearts and we ride that wonderful wave of light called Shekinah into the future.

Hangin' ten with Jesus, and the surf is UP!

-Ken