Following is a portion of the Proposed Ministry Statement I submitted to the Florida Annual Conference bishop and cabinet in November, 1998.
My Call
I have been interested in cross-cultural ministry and ministry in a multi-cultural environment since 1990. While contemplating my call to ordained ministry I also considered that God might be calling me to serve overseas as a layperson while continuing to work as an engineer. I decided that my call was first and foremost a call to pastoral ministry as a vocation and felt that this would not close the door on a call to work elsewhere. Perhaps I would later serve in a cross-cultural appointment within or beyond the United States.
The call to cross-cultural, multi-cultural and missionary types of work has not left me. Since 1991 I've taken advantage of several excellent opportunities for short term ventures, some while I was in seminary. Over these past seven years I've been on Heifer Project International work/study trips to the Dominican Republic and Bolivia. In 1994 I participated in the Southeast Asia Regional Evangelism Seminar held by the World Methodist Evangelism Institute in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Later that year I served as a summer intern in the Ecumenical Vacation Church School program provided by the Miami District Disaster Response. We provided VBS programs at various churches and community centers of hurricane devastated South Dade County, leading volunteer youth groups who split their days between construction and VBS. We worked with children from Haitian, Cuban, Anglo and multi-cultural churches.
Some of my cross-cultural experiences I've pursued as an individual. In 1995 I spent a week with a fellow seminary student who had taken a one year appointment with the British Methodist Church. I got a feel for both the country and the churches there. This exposure may serve me well in the Utila churches; their roots are in British Methodism.
At the close of the summer spent in the Miami District I traveled to Guatemala for three weeks of Spanish language study. While there I visited with United Methodist and non-denominational missionaries who were working in the country. I also worshiped in a variety of churches. I lived with a Guatemalan family during most of my time in the country. The most valuable aspect of the time away was my experience of culture shock. This was the most isolated I'd been from fellow Americans; I found myself in a truly foreign place where almost no one near me even spoke my language. I will be prepared for a similar experience in Honduras.
This past March I traveled to Cuba with a Tallahassee District UMVIM team. Our team did construction work at Camp Canaan. We also traveled extensively through the Central District, our sister district under the Florida Cuba Covenant. We visited all twelve of the churches there; I preached in five of them. This was my first experience as a pastor beyond my own culture and I found it both challenging and rewarding.
I should state that it is a firm conviction of mine that the church is truest to its nature when it spans racial and ethnic boundaries. It is a witness to the world that Christ came to reconcile us to God and to each other. It is also a witness to me. From 1982 through the time of my ordination as Deacon in 1995 I was a member of Palm Bay United Methodist Church, Melbourne District. 15% to 20% of the members are from the Carribean (Jamaica, primarily), some of whom I still count among my closest friends. These are relationships that run counter to the normal way of things in our society; they are relationships that would not have formed apart from Christ and the church. I have been greatly blessed through this facet of the church.
I find that my call has been affirmed again and again over the years. I think back to conversations I had with lay and clergy missionaries at the Missionary Resource Center at Candler; I remember how my heart would burn within me. I came to be in the habit of attending every consecration and commissioning service I could as these friends were being sent forth. (I still keep in touch with some of them by e-mail and when they return home on furlough.) I recall well our own commissioning service of GBGM missionaries at the 1997 meeting of the Florida Annual Conference. Bishop Henderson called forward those who sensed God calling them to missionary work. I was on my feet and walking forward in a moment's time. It is work to which I am called.
As a pastor in Honduras I will continue to fulfill my ordination vows to preach and teach the Word of God, administer the sacraments, and order the spiritual and temporal life of the faith community. I will seek to equip others for the ministry of service we share. I will continue in my own commitment to live out as well as to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.