You can contact your diocese here.
Whole life discipleship
There are many fruitful vocations outside of church structures
Priests
Serving God as an ordained Priest
The ordination service for Deacons and Priests at Manchester Cathedral 2024
In order to become a Priest you must first be ordained.
Training for ordination is unlike any normal recruitment process. It is best seen as a time of discernment, and is therefore more like a journey or pilgrimage than an examination.
Your starting point is to meet with your own vicar, chaplain, or equivalent, to talk with them about your sense of calling. You should also arrange to meet with the vocations team in your diocese.
It is important you continually pray about your vocation throughout the discernment process.
You may have a particular calling to become an incumbent leading a parish or group of churches, or you may be called to chaplaincy (for example at a university or hospital). You will also need to consider whether you are called to be a Self-Supporting Minister.
Max Drinkwater: To hear the way the children have received the message is wonderful
Sundays are busy, we look after two churches, but we make sure to give time to the pastoral side of worship as well. It’s not just services to lead but people to see.
Throughout the week there’s a lot going on. We have weekday services attracting different congregations to come and worship. It’s lovely to see different people and how our different styles of service speak to them. There’s plenty of visiting to do. We have many retirement homes and care homes, so we go in to take services or bring people to church.
Schools are wonderful for engaging with families, not just the children but the parents too. We take ‘Open the Book’ into primary schools, and I’ll sometimes lead assemblies. I find school work particularly rewarding. At the end of the day you’ll overhear them say what a wonderful story they’d heard. They’ll retell the story to their family or carers. To hear the way the children have received the message and are passing it on is wonderful.
Weddings, baptisms and funerals are a big part of our time. These are the occasions where people come to you and say, “This is when we need you in our lives”. It’s such an important part of our ministry.
My own journey began at university. I spoke to my chaplain, who was very helpful supporting me to discern what God was calling me to. I always say though the first seed was planted as a teenager when I went to Walsingham, a youth pilgrimage they still run. I went with my church youth group. There was a talk on vocations and ministry, which was the first time I ever thought ministry might apply to me. It was the first time anyone had even spoken to me about ministry or vocation or what it might be to take an active role in church leadership.
At the time I thought “that’s something I might come back to”. It wasn’t an immediate, “I must follow this up”. Nonetheless, from then on it was always there, nagging away at the back of my mind.
Max Drinkwater
Self Supporting Ministers
Ordained clergy serving the Church
Self-Supporting Ordained Ministers (SSMs) hold the Bishop’s Licence as ordained clergy but are not in receipt of a stipend. They are usually licensed to a parish, but some operate as sector minsters or chaplains or as ministers in secular employment (MSE). There is some debate as to the precise terminology that best describes their work, but essentially, SSMs fall into one of the following broad categories:
- They may be in either full or part-time employment, but see the main focus of their ministry as in the parish.
- Some see the main focus of their ministry as the workplace (often referred to as “ministers in secular employment” or MSE
- Some SSMs are not in any form of employment at all, but offer their services free of a stipend on theological grounds or because their circumstances are such that they do not need to receive a stipend.
- For some, family responsibilities or other commitments mean that they can only offer limited time to parish ministry.
Regardless of how SSMs are trained or licensed, they are all ordained as clergy, valued on equal terms with their stipendiary colleagues. The Church makes no distinction between them, and the nature of their ministry is a matter for discernment as to ability, skills and gifts.
Some stipendiary ministers move to SSM because of changes to domestic circumstances, employment and calling, and vice-versa.
Real life stories
Gaynor
My name is Gaynor and I am a wife, a mother to three grown-up children, a grandmother, nurse. and since last June a Self-Supporting Ordained Minister (SSM) in Thurstaston and Irby on the Wirral.
As a child I felt a strong call to caring for others and I have been a qualified nurse for forty years working in various settings including busy medical wards, end of life care and accident and emergency. I currently work in a busy fracture and orthopaedic unit caring for those with acute injuries and long-term orthopaedic conditions. I love my job working alongside a great team of nurses and doctors and I love meeting patients and caring for their needs.
Alongside caring for others I have always had a passion for evangelism and volunteering at my local church. In 2007 I felt called to ministry within the church and became a pastoral worker in 2009. In 2020 I felt God calling me to ordained ministry but also still felt very committed to my calling to be a nurse. Becoming an SSM allows me to continue as a nurse and still follow my calling to ordained ministry.
I feel God is using me in both roles and they complement each other. My years as a nurse have given me skills and experiences which help equip me for ministry and since I have become ordained I have had many opportunities to chat to my colleagues about my faith and ministry.
Tony
I am part of a ministry team in rural Suffolk, with pastoral responsibility for four small village communities. I am also a consultant historic buildings specialist, a conservation accredited chartered building surveyor, and a bit of an artist. I used to run an architectural and surveying practice until stepping down in 2016.
I trained as a reader in 1976 when I was very young, and was ordained priest in 2003 when I was a little bit older. I trained on the Cambridge based EAMTC, and also achieved a Masters degree in pastoral theology.
I am increasingly of the opinion that self supporting ministry is a vital link between the church and the world beyond. I cherish the ability to work within the church to bring about much needed change and to engage with the community in ways which an incumbent might find difficult. I am also passionate about the role of buildings in mission, and therefore work with parishes, deaneries and dioceses in trying to solve building issues.
Lisa
I’m not an Minister in Secular Employment – my working situation is that we serve a wide variety of people of many faith backgrounds and none. But my vocation as a parish minister means that I can serve the community that I am in and the Christian people who gather in his name.
A typical working week involves dealing with difficult situations – difficult medical decisions, decisions about how best to use resources and employ people’s skill, helping to shape and train new doctors, working collaboratively with nurses and other professionals and helping others develop their skills. My service in the church is different but it is still collaborative – helping to lead worship, preaching, administering the sacraments. I often feel that my life has given me an insight into the real pressures many Christians face in the workplace and so helps to shape the messages that I draw from scripture.
Weekends generally finds me spending some time in ministry, primarily on Sunday – that might be preaching, taking a service by myself or co leading All Age Worship.
Training for the ministry was a juggling act – at the time my children were at junior and high school – but achievable due to sessions based a the evening and weekends. Looking back, some of the residentials were transformative times and if there is one thing I would change, I would take up the opportunity to spend more time residentially.
If you are thinking about ministry my advice is go and have a chat with your minister or a licensed lay leader. Find out as much as you can. Our church vitally needs people from all walks of life in Ministry, who can make Christianity relevant to everyone.
Julie
Being an ordained minister in secular employment requires surrendering my own agenda in order to be enfolded and invested further into God’s agenda. Whilst the cost of such is high, the blessings remain greater!
Rather than being called out of the life I was living, I believe I’ve been called deeper, to inhabit life more faithfully for God’s glory. Like mine, any ordained life is lived out in response to an invitation centred on Christ. Yet unlike other ordained ministries, mine was not a call focused on inviting others to come to the church. Rather a self-supporting ministry, carrying the essence of the gospel out into the workplace.
My workplace is a school where I’d been employed for several years, prior to my licensing as Reader in 2016 and ordination in 2022. A primary school, located in the parish where I live and worship, led by people who fully supported me becoming a minister in secular employment. I’m in good company as Jesus, Paul, Lydia and many others faithfully ministered from their workplace too. Despite being less familiar, it’s soundly biblical.
Through my employed role as a teaching assistant with a priestly presence, bonds between church and school prayerfully continue to strengthen. I’m thankful to share in such a ministry; one which incorporates pastoral care, teaching, reconciliation and a bountiful supply of joy, peace and hope. It’s a ministry characterised by genuine care and compassion, through which God’s glory is glimpsed in new and exciting ways.
Rebecca
Recently I have been asked, “when do you plan to become a ‘proper’ vicar?” This maybe because the Vicar in my parish has retired and I’m holding the reigns in the vacancy, with a fantastic and supportive PCC. So many questions from the community nearly had me convinced this was the voice of God and these were his nudges.
But then I stopped, and asked what is my calling?
Part of my calling is to my community and my church - to be a blessing to them, support them and to use my skillset to further the work of the church. While in vacancy this is a lot of parish priest work, this is just for a season and will soon return to a supportive and missional work. This part of my calling is vital as it gives stability to the church and grounds me in a loving and supportive family, letting me use my entrepreneurial gifts to try new things and see where God wants to take the church.
I believe I am also called to be a Priest in my local business community. As a lawyer, I go to business network meetings with non-churchgoers. While my registration for the meeting is as a lawyer, I regularly bring my faith in. The members are always respectful with the odd holy joke or the need for confession comment. If there is a death of a family member, I’m told because they know I’ll step in and support. I’m asked for prayer regularly and even asked to do the wedding of one member because, in his words, “you’re our vicar”. He doesn’t live near me; he’s never been to church but by being present in this community they see me as their ‘vicar’. I’ve never said this or offered this. Will I start a Bible group for this community? Will I run a Alpha Group for them? Probably not but I do invite them to special events and I sow the seeds slowly but surely. So, I might not fit the vicar role in a parish but I am called to be a Priest in the workplace and in the business community where God called me to be.
Further reading
Some further reading suggestions recommended by the Revd Tony Redman, national officer for self supporting ordained ministry:
“Tentmaking, Perspectives on Self Supporting Ministry” J. M. M. Francis and L. J. Francis, eds. Gracewing 1998
“Busking the Gospel, Ordained ministry in Secular Employment” J. Francis. Sacristy Press 2021
“Priests in Secular work, Participating in the Missio Dei” J. Gage. Sacristy Press 2021
“Self Supporting Ministry, a Practical Guide” J. Lees. SPCK 2018
“Britain’s First Worker Priests” J. Mantle SCM Press 2000
“A new Lease of Life: Anglican Clergy Reflect on ministry in Retirement” T. Neal and L. Francis Sacristy Press 2020
Are you called to this ministry?
If you feel God is calling you to self supporting ministry you can speak to your local minister who can put you in touch with your Diocesan vocations team. You can also register your interest here.
Distinctive Deacons
Building bridges between church and society
A Distinctive Deacon’s ministry is marked by mission through service. Distinctive Deacons are:
- Outward moving and community minded.
- Often radical in their outlook and ready to try new ways of serving God in the community.
- Have a particular concern for poverty and justice, seeking to be the voice of the voiceless, advocating for those on the margins, and loving those in need.
- Ambassadors, taking the gospel into the community, bringing its needs back to the church for intercession and practical action.
In worship Distinctive Deacons may read the Gospel, assist the Priest, encourage intercession, and send out the congregation, going with them as we all play our part in God’s mission.
More information is available from the Network of Distinctive Deacons website.
Real life story
Alice
I’m Alice and I’ve been ordained as a Deacon since September 2022. Ever since I came to faith as a teenager, I’ve been involved in some way in church leadership and particularly youth ministry.
I currently work for Youthscape, leading our Launchpad programme, which works through Dioceses, with clergy and church leaders, helping to see new youth work start across the country. I’m married to Andy, who is ordained as a Priest, and we live in suburban Essex with our two teenage children.
Why did you feel called to the Distinctive Diaconate?
I’ve spent most of my adult life around the church in some way – in paid employment and later Diocesan roles, then lecturing Christian youth workers, volunteering in my home parish and latterly as a clergy spouse.
Lots of people suggested I should get ordained, meaning ‘as a priest’, at various points in that time. I considered it and prayed a lot, but always had a clear sense that God wasn’t calling me to lead a church in the way that a Vicar primarily would – up front, preaching, presiding at the Eucharist etc. I was much more drawn to the back row, preferring to hang around the door to chat with those who left super quickly after the service!
Nobody that suggested ordination to me had ever highlighted that ordained ministry wasn’t automatically as a priest or encouraged me to consider remaining a deacon. I recognised that God was drawing me into work in places that were often hidden or on the fringes for most churches - with homeless young women, those experiencing poverty, young people.
So, following 3 different conversations with a Bishop, a colleague and my husband over the course of a month or so in 2019, I sat and read the ordinal more fully than I had ever done. In the end, my clarity of calling emerged from a place of obedience to God and to the wider church, acknowledging that I was already ‘Deacon-shaped’ and that the next steps were to offer that to the church in an ordained capacity.
How did you become a Distinctive Deacon?
Speaking out the words – “I think I might be called to be ordained” – was the first and slightly scary step! I had several conversations with the Associate Priest in my parish and he referred me on to the Diocesan Director of Ordinands (DDOs). I did a lot of research, connecting with the Church of England Network of Distinctive Deacons, meeting with and talking to other deacons (I’d never met another Distinctive Deacon until 2019!) and trying to understand more fully what I was getting into and how it might work!
By this point, we were in Covid lockdowns, so all my DDO meetings and selection panel were online. I trained for ordination at St Mellitus Chelmsford. From an outside perspective, my pathway didn’t look very different to those training for the priesthood, until the point, one year in, where my fellow deacons were ordained as Priests and I wasn’t. For me, it was here that the ‘distinctiveness’ of my calling became more visible.
Can you describe a day in the life of a Distinctive Deacon?
I work for Youthscape (most distinctive deacons are ‘self supporting’ clergy) so my weekly pattern usually involves travelling to Luton to our base there on 1 or 2 days a week. Other days may include wider travel around England, working with my brilliant team as we partner with Dioceses to help them to implement Launchpad and see churches start new youth work. In some of my work, I wear a collar, in other spaces, I don’t!
When I’m not in my paid role, I currently offer around 10 hours a week in my parish. Primarily this involves oversight of our youth and children’s work, leading our women’s community, some pastoral care and baptism visits and regularly deaconing the Eucharist on a Sunday. So much of what I do as a deacon, in both my work and my parish role, is with others, in a team. For me, this collaboration is at the heart of a Deacon’s ministry. Deacon as servant and Deacon as bridge builder and ambassador, working alongside Priests, Bishops and people, calling the whole church to attend to the margins and join in with God’s mission.
Is God calling you to this ministry?
Do you believe God is calling you to serve as a Distinctive Deacon? To become a deacon you must first be ordained.
Training for ordination is unlike any normal recruitment process. It is a time of discernment, and is therefore more like a journey or pilgrimage than an examination.
Your starting point is to meet with your vicar, chaplain, or equivalent, to talk with them about your sense of calling. They can put you in touch with the vocations team in your diocese and you can register your interest too.
You may also find more information from the network of Distinctive Deacons.
Readers and Lay Ministers
Serving alongside clergy
Readers (also called Licensed Lay Ministers) have a leadership role serving alongside clergy to support people in faith and enable mission. They are lay people who are trained and licensed by their bishop. Reader / LLM ministry looks different in different places depending on the local context. Many Readers / LLMs teach, preach, lead worship and are involved in mission. Some also take funerals after additional training. Many Readers carry out their church ministry at the same time as having another job.
How do I become a Reader or Lay Minister?
Before becoming a Reader / Licensed Lay Minister you will take part in a process of discernment. If recommended, you will be training through your diocese and be given a licence as evidence of your training and ongoing accountability. Training courses vary, so visit your diocese’s website to find out more.
Your starting point is to meet with your own vicar, chaplain, or equivalent, to talk with them about your sense of calling. You should also arrange to meet with the vocations team in your diocese.
It is important you continually pray about your vocation throughout the discernment process.
You may also want to visiting Transforming Ministry, the website of the Central Readers' Council to find out more.
Other authorised lay ministries
There are a variety of other authorised or commissioned lay ministries in different dioceses. Many of these have a particular area of focus, such as worship or pastoral care. Training courses and other requirements vary, so visit your diocese’s website to find out more.
Stories of a calling to Reader ministry
Richard
I have been part of a church which was very good at releasing people’s gifts. A great variety of people would be invited to preach. It had a massive impact. So many of those who have a go discover a call to some kind of ministry. I noticed that just giving chances can really help people discover their gifts.
I had a go and when I moved to a new place I realised I wanted to continue to preach, but would probably need some training and to formalise the arrangement. That was when I considered becoming a Reader. It came from a call to preach, something I found I was good at, and others encouraged me. I also received wise advice for discerning the root of that call and working out what my call was to.
When I became licensed I focused initially on getting experience of preaching, whilst also looking at mission work.
I’m building relationships with people. That means my whole self: being an entrepreneur, being a dad, being a Reader. I’m bringing all these elements of my life together.
I’ve been talking to church leaders around the city about how I can develop this leadership work with them and their congregations. I’m now trying to unify work and ministry, looking to serve the church in a similar way to how I serve my customers.
I think it’s also part of my role to be in the church and in the workplace, and to share a lay perspective with ordained ministers, but also to think about what it means to exercise pastoral responsibility on behalf of the church.
Caroline
I am the Warden of Readers and Lay Ministry Adviser for the Diocese of Chelmsford. I am also an LLM serving 6 rural parishes on the Hertfordshire Essex border.
I grew up attending church most Sundays, got confirmed at 14, helped in the Sunday school and read in church occasionally. Church was part of my weekly routine. It wasn’t until I went to University that I ever questioned my faith – why did I go to church? What did I really believe? What did Jesus Christ mean to me?
In my early 20s when I was concentrating on my career as a Research Scientist and I got married and started a family, I drifted away from regular church attendance, perhaps feeling my life was fulfilled by other things. However, when my mother died unexpectedly, I recall standing in the familiar surroundings of the church where I had grown up, where I had been confirmed and married and feeling the overwhelming presence of God as he carried me behind the coffin and held me as I gave the eulogy. I realised what was missing from my life. I responded by doing a Diocesan Course in Christian Studies during which my faith was reignited. I attended Vocations Days, worked out quickly that I was not called to ordained ministry, but that my call was to walk alongside others, to point them to Christ, to lead them in worship not through a sacramental ministry but through opening up scripture for them, demonstrating Christ’s love. I enquired about becoming a Licensed Lay Minister, successfully attended a selection day and after 3 years of training at a TEI for a Diploma in Theology was admitted to the Office of Reader and given a licence to be an LLM in the parishes where I lived.
I continued to realise and encourage the importance of the plethora of ministries within the church, lay and ordained, and how we are all called to be part of the Body of Christ. This passion for lay ministry led me to apply for the job of Lay Ministry Adviser in the Diocese of Chelmsford. It is my genuine privilege to hold this role and help fellow disciples of Christ to work out how God is calling them, to equip them to fulfil their call, and to then celebrate and champion their ministry.
Caroline Harding
Pioneering
Planting fresh expressions of church
Pioneering is about firsts. Pioneers must be able to see a new future, and have the skills and gifts needed to make the future accessible now.
Pioneers connect with those outside the Church, working alongside them to create fresh expressions of Church in those places.
Pioneers are leaders of innovation, with a gift for seeing what God is doing and responding creatively to it.
How do I become a pioneer minister?
Do you believe God is calling you to serve as a pioneer minister? Most pioneers are lay people, some are ordained. Your starting point is to meet with your own vicar, chaplain, or equivalent, to talk with them about your sense of calling. You should also arrange to meet with the vocations team in your diocese. Next talk to the Pioneer / Fresh Expressions Officer in your diocese about selection and training.
It is important you continually pray about your vocation throughout the discernment process.
Nic Findlay: Loving someone fully is to stand with them in their joy and in their mess
I was baptised aged sixteen, shortly after becoming Christian. Not having a church background, I found it difficult to understand the different traditions.
For a long time, God has been speaking to me about the need to engage with people outside traditional church settings. Not just to tell them the good news about Jesus, but also to walk alongside them in the whole of their life. For the practical support to be more than an add on, not “oh, I’ll be nice to you and help you sort out your debt if you let me tell you about Jesus”, but for that to be part of it. Part of loving someone fully is to stand with them in their joy and in their mess, not to treat them as a project.
Some friends of ours were leading our marriage prep course. We went to meet with them and they started talking about similar feelings of wanting to do church differently. Church where people were, with a heart for the poor and the broken.
I’d trained as a teacher following university, and after three years I was getting frustrated that I couldn’t access the whole of these kids’ lives, I didn’t know their families.
My friend had similar experiences to me. He’d run a very cool youth event for teenagers, which met in a local café. Some teens had rocked up from one of the poorest areas in Cambridge, and they just couldn’t access it like the others. They didn’t have money to buy a coffee themselves, so they couldn’t really sit down and join in.
Others didn’t know how to sit down and pay attention long enough for the format, so my friend found himself effectively acting as a bouncer on the door, preventing these young people from hearing about Jesus, because they didn’t fit in with the culture in which Jesus was discussed.
I’d had these experiences at the school, so for the four of us, as we started to meet together, there was a sense of wondering what it would look like to take church to where people are at, rather than expecting them to fit into a model of church we have created.
Together we set out to pioneer a new way of making disciples within community, which became known as Barnwell Oaks. Located in one of the poorest areas in Cambridge, it was an entirely lay led community. None of us were ordained.
In the early days we didn’t really know what we were doing. We were doing things like playing football on a Sunday afternoon, because the teenagers were playing football then, as a way to get to know them.
There was a lot of praying and walking around and asking God what he was up to, and then gradually structures and rhythms began to form. Rhythms of meeting local families for Sunday lunch, which then became a kind of church space, and bigger gatherings of families together, which looked more like a Sunday congregation, and then in amongst that, mentoring and hanging out with individual young people and youth groups. With my teacher background I did quite a lot of work in schools and in mentoring.
We did a lot of trying and experimenting. It didn’t always work out well, but we were always moving forward. It was really hard, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else. We have since moved on to pioneer new ways of making disciples in Liverpool. It’s tough going back to square one but we are confident for what the future holds!
Nic Findlay
The religious life
Committing to a life of prayer and service in community
Members of a religious community, such as monks or nuns, live according to the gospel of Christ with prayer as a regular part of daily life. Some give the opportunity of life-long commitment after several years of training and discernment.
In most communities, promises are taken or vows made in community before God and the church. Such vows include poverty, chastity, and obedience. Usually, but not always, vows are made for life.
Most communities are women only or men only. Some wear distinctive clothes (a ‘habit’). Some are engaged in the world, others are more oriented to prayer. Members of communities can be lay or ordained.
In general, religious communities can be described as either active, contemplative, or new:
Active communities have active ministries in society: in education, health and social care, evangelism and parish work. What makes their ministry different is the way it is anchored in a life lived together. The support of sisters and brothers acts as an encouragement and a witness. Caring for the poor and reaching out to the vulnerable are central to the witness of religious communities.
Contemplative communities revolve around set times of prayer and worship. Much time is given over to seeking God in private prayer and silence. The community’s home, which may be called a monastery, priory or convent, is a place of God. Some members will leave the monastery at times to preach and minister, but such outside commitments are secondary to the life of prayer. Some communities confine their work to the home and its grounds, maintaining what is called ‘enclosure’. This helps keep distractions from prayer to a minimum.
New Monasticism traces its history back to the activities of the Confessional Church during the Second World War. In resistance to Nazi oppression, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer advocated a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ.
Since then, there has been a revival in the place of Christian groups living out a sense of community, loving service, and rhythm of life. New Monasticism was recently named as a fresh expression of church, for which a number of diocesan-funded initiatives have grown up.
A prominent example is St Anselm, a residential community based in Lambeth Palace, which has given young adults selected from around the world the opportunity to live a life of prayer, community and loving service for up to a year.
This model is now being expanded to Leicester Cathedral and Sheffield Cathedral, with others also considering it.
How do I join a religious community?
Do you believe God is calling you to serve in community? Your starting point is to meet with your own vicar, chaplain, or equivalent, to talk with them about your sense of calling. You should also arrange to meet with the vocations team in your diocese.
The best way forward for anyone interested in this way of living is to visit different communities and experience their way of life as a visitor first.
Many communities provide opportunities for people to live alongside them for longer periods of time. Participants commit to helping with the work of the monastery or community - and there is no obligation to join the community afterwards unless the person wishes to explore further.
It is important you continually pray about your vocation throughout the discernment process.
Find out more about Religious Communities in the Church of England.
Elizabeth Pio: I have time to be still and quiet with God
Prayer is our main work. Solitude and silence are my joys. I have time to be still and quiet with God. I’m blessed to have the opportunity.
We have a guesthouse as well with people staying for retreats and quiet times, so there’s quite a bit going on. I tend to follow a contemplative life, so I don’t go out as much as some of the other Sisters might do. I spend a lot of my time in prayer and in silence, working in silence, and walking for recreation.
I’d say to anyone exploring their call, spend time with God, and spend time in silence every day. Give time to listen and not say anything. Keep your eyes open. Keep your ears open. Open for anything that he might bring to you. Anything he might put in your way. Go and visit places. One of the quickest ways to know is to visit and see if you feel a draw. Go and see for yourself.
Before my thirties I hadn’t had any interest in religion whatsoever, no faith background at all and none in my family. I wondered why people went to church, what did they get out of it? Why would they do that every Sunday?
Then I started having a look at what Christianity was about. I bought a Bible. It was actually a children’s illustrated one, much to the amusement of my family. I didn’t think I could get through the adult one, it would be too much at first.
My conversion was quite dramatic. A St Paul moment really. I took my new Bible home, opened it, and something amazing happened. I heard a voice saying to me, “In this you will find everything you have been searching for”.
I had no idea who or what the voice was, or what it meant. I wasn’t even sure what I was searching for. I did know that it changed my life. I read my new children’s Bible from beginning to end in a week. I didn’t understand all of it, but it was the beginning of my Christian journey.
I was in a career that I absolutely loved, a marketing manager for an international engineering group. Yet something had changed. Within eight months I’d left my job and started studying theology.
I felt called to the Religious Life, but it was only once I had plucked up enough courage to explore that I knew it was the right path to follow. I visited this convent, and heard the voice, “I’m calling you here. This is where I’m calling you”. Nothing else made sense but to live in this house, but at the same time I thought "who would do this kind of thing?" I knew it was what God was asking me to do. So that’s what I did, I just obeyed.
My spiritual director, vocations advisers, and parish priest were all encouraging me towards priesthood. I knew though that wasn’t my calling. I said to my vocations adviser “I’m not sure I’m right here, but I think the Religious Life is saying something”. So he supported me and looked out for opportunities for Religious Life weekends, convent experience weekends and that sort of thing.
At times I thought it was mad to give up everything and live like this. I remember thinking this doesn’t make sense, it’s not even an attractive place, I don’t like anything about it. In chapel I felt so uncomfortable, so stuffy. Nothing drew me to it at all. Everyone was so much older than me, and with so much more biblical knowledge. I worried we had nothing in common. I said to God, “If you want me to come here, you will really have to say, otherwise I’m not coming back”.
When I came out of Evening Prayer, one of the Sisters asked, “So when are you coming back then?” And then I had that feeling again. That I was being called. I’d come with a friend because I was scared, I didn’t want to be obvious, but I said to my friend “I’ve got to go back, I’ve got to go back.” On subsequent visits there was always a really strong draw back, and then eventually I came back for good.
I knew it was the right path for me.
Elizabeth Pio
Youth and children’s ministry
Allowing every child to encounter faith and Christ
What do youth and children’s ministers do?
Young people are not the Church of tomorrow, they are the Church of today. Youth and children’s ministers might work in a parish, in schools, through a deanery, or with a Christian organisation. There is a strong emphasis on Christian formation in peer groups, including preparing young people for confirmation.
A great many Christians consider their youth minister to have been integral to their faith journey.
How do I become a youth or children’s minister?
Do you believe God is calling you to serve as a youth or children’s minister? Each position is different so check out what parishes and organisations are asking for.
Your starting point is to meet with your own vicar, chaplain, or equivalent, to talk with them about your sense of calling. You should also arrange to meet with the vocations team in your diocese. Next talk to an adviser in your dioceses about training.
It is important you continually pray about your vocation throughout the discernment process.
AJ Wade: I’m there to support and encourage young people in their leadership
I first got involved with doing youthwork when I was about seventeen. My church was excellent at raising up young leaders. I’d grown up in the youth group and became a junior leader. That started my journey in youth ministry.
I thought God might be calling me to something else, but I wasn’t sure about it. I also knew he was calling me to work with young people as well. I spoke to my church leader and decided to apply for a two-year youth ministers training scheme with a church in north London.
I was leading groups, mentoring young people, organising teams, trying to get people together to do stuff. I was really thrown in at the deep end. This is what youth ministry is like, do it!
I’m now the youth minister at Christ Church in Bedford. In a typical week we could run between three and five different groups, catering for the different needs of young people. I’m also involved with a local secondary school, with their Christian Union, which the young people there wanted to set up - I’m just there to support them and encourage them in their leadership.
We are beginning to do work in schools for RE lessons and assemblies, and linking to other churches in Bedford. We run a Bedford-wide youth event a couple of times a year.
At the heart of my ministry is young people engaging with God and to support them in that journey. If they’re in a place where they’re not sure about God, I come alongside them and help them to find God for themselves and understand God as their friend and someone who loves them and cares about them.
If you feel called to youth ministry I would encourage you to talk to your church leaders and to your best friend. It’s great when you feel called into ministry, but others can also see gifts in us as well. They may see something you’ve not considered, and encourage you to explore other calls too. There’s always a risk in there. I’d also say to consider different ways you can get involved in ministry in your church, ways to train and get more experience.
Aj Wade
Ministers in secular employment
Taking the gospel into the workplace
Churchwardens & parish officers
Serving in the local church
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah 6:8