Dear ministry people: Stop using the word "Call"

 Dear Ministry People,

You use the word "call" too much.  You use it when someone is pursuing ordination or on a path toward ministry. Then they are "called".  

You also use it for someone to decide if they want to go on a retreat, or if they should help plan a prayer service.  

Those are very different types of decision making.

To be called to ministry, called to a job, called to marry someone, called to engage in a justice work, called to have children, called to pivot in a a big life way.  These callings are BIG.  We are all called. Called to a life of service and justice. How that "Call" is manifested can be wild and varied.

But that is not the same as being "called" to read a book, "called" to plan an event, "called" to ask someone to coffee. These things can be important, vital and sometimes transformative. But often they are important small steps in the larger call of our lives.

It's okay to make a decision that is important and values based and not call it a "call"

You can decide to go on a retreat without being "called"

You can decide to be a on a church committee with out a "call"

You can just want something, and do something with your very best intentions.

That is different than the deep ego destroying digging of sorting out our larger "call"

and that's okay.