Becoming a churchwarden

04/11/2020

One Sunday, our vicar came over to talk to us. My husband and I joked that she was coming to ask one of us to be churchwarden. She turned up and we told her that we’d just joked about that, and she said, ‘Well, that is what I’m here to talk to you about.’

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I said no straight away. I was afraid that it would stop me from doing the things that I had felt God calling me to do – being available in the community, sharing my faith with other people. I didn’t really want to get bogged down with church logistical things.

I asked a couple of people to pray about it and over the next couple of weeks I had a sense of God saying that he wanted me to do it but the timing wasn’t right. I felt that he was telling me to take some time to birth that gifting and ministry.

I went back to our vicar. The timing fitted: someone else was stepping into the role, but the other warden was stepping down the following year.

During that year I was able to shadow people and I felt a sense of God saying, ‘Don’t look at what’s gone before. You will be who I’ve made you to be in the role. You’ll bring your giftings and your ministry to the role, and other people will fulfil the things that they’re supposed to fulfil.’

Being churchwarden has stretched and challenged me, which is a good thing. I’ve realised that the whole process of being a churchwarden is more about what I’m learning about me and God, rather than how to be the perfect churchwarden. It’s about what God is saying to me about who I am.

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