The Pangea Blog
The past year has been riddled with conversations among friends, family and christian colleagues about the nature of our individual calling within the Kingdom of God. To be quite honest, this is something that i have struggled with most of my life even though I grew up in a christian home. My father was, and still is, a pastor of a local church here in Dallas with a strong and loving congregation who has been family to me since i was born. I used to feel it was expected of me to grow up and become a pastor like my dad and don’t get me wrong, that is an amazing thought and one that screams following God’s plans. And growing up with great examples of parents in full-time ministry, you begin to think that “if you want to be a good christian, your life will be in a full-time ministry position”. Except when you feel that the Lord is NOT calling you to be a pastor.
This was a bit of a shock to me during high school and college as i felt drawn to more of a creative field. As i began studying photography and design, i felt that i couldn’t be further away from a job in full-time-ministry. I mean let’s face it I was studying know to make things looks pretty.
The reason why this sounds so strange to most of us is because it is phrased incorrectly. Full-time ministry is not always at a church, or ministry, it is in our neighborhoods, workplaces, homes and schools. We are all called to do specific things because we are tools for the Lord to use for His purposes and His glory.
For me it was a long road of prayer and conversations with people who encouraged me along the way. Eventually I began to understand that because of all my experiences with non-profits, ministries, traveling quite a bit for work and the overwhelming creativity that stems from all of these my things, my desire to work with ministries and non-profits was an opportunity to serve the Lord with the gifts that He had given me. A lot of times i still have no idea what this will look like, but i constantly remind myself to look to scripture and trust in the Lords plan, even when I don’t know the details! Remember what it says in 2 Peter?
“Each one of us should use whatever gift he has received [from God] to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 2 Peter 4:10
I spent many long nights trying to understand that He was calling me to have a ministry through my work. It wasn’t until i moved back to Dallas two years that i began to meet other creatives with the same vision and purpose for their gifts that i began to put it all together. One great catalyst for this was getting involved with an amazing organization called Art House America, which is now in the midst of forming a Dallas chapter. Their tag-line is a beautiful picture for those of us who are called to this trade. “Creativity for a common good”.
That common good, is the Kingdom of God. We live in it now and we are called to share in building it through opening up the gifts we have received for the Lord to work through us.
- “Creativity for the Kingdom”
- “Accounting for the Kingdom”
- “Management for the Kingdom”
- “Church planting for the Kingdom”
- “Neighborhood Evangelism for the Kingdom”
See where am I going with this? Where has the Lord placed you, where are your greatest passions and excitement found, do they intersect with an area where the Lord can work? I bet they might. We were created to be used at tools for ‘Kingdom Work’, and we were all a created differently. With different skills, passions and gifts so that whatever we are doing, or lives I’ll be a full-time ministry.
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Clinton Brewer Photographer out of Dallas focusing on working with non-profit organizations and ministries to help tell the stories of the work being done. clint@clintonbrewer.com
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