I am trying to get a clearer sense of how I can better serve God in the twenty first century. In the Episcopal Church there are certain steps that need to be taken if that calling leads to becoming a priest. The church is also reimagining what it should look like in the twenty first century, so part of my process includes reimaging discernment.

As a starting point, I have a strong sense that God is calling me to the priesthood. I’m not exactly sure why, and I hope to get a better sense of that as time goes on. I hesitate to say this out of fear of being mistaken and embarrassed, or of somehow jinxing the process, but I hope my thoughts here will be helpful for others seeking discernment, whether or not it is in the Episcopal Church, and whether or not it might lead to Holy Orders.

I remember, years ago, hanging out with very committed fundamentalist evangelists who would often say things beginning with something like, “God has told me that you should … “. How do you respond to something like that? I eventually discovered a response that seemed to affirm the speaker, while leaving plenty of room to explore what God really thinks I should be doing. “That’s great! Pray that God tells me the same thing.”

It seems like something similar should apply in the discernment process. For Episcopalians, with their Trinitarian views, as well as their commitment to the three legged stool of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, a three legged response to discernment makes sense.

To me, the discernment process is about aligning my will with the will of the church and the will of God. We need to find, and act, on God’s will. We need to seek to discern God’s will. We need to seek to align our will to God’s will. I suspect we all have a bit of Jonah in us, a hesitancy or fear of responding to God. We also need to seek to better understand the needs of our church. What does our church need? By way of analogy, if a football team needs running backs, but not another quarter back, then seeking to be a quarter back is going to be much more difficult. We should seek to serve where we will be of the most value.

What does God want? What does the organizations we are part of need? What are we willing to do? It seems like three questions all of us should be asking about our lives, no matter what we are seeking to do and no matter what organizations we are seeking to do it within.