Preach It, Sister!

Though I do not regularly attend chapel services this year, I gladly go when I learn one of my classmates is to preach that morning. So, last Wednesday I arrived at school early to hear my former roommate of two years, Sarah proclaim the word. She preached from the lectionary passage of Mark 1. Above all, her gifts of proclamation were amazing to behold (although I had no doubt that they would be). Sarah has a voice that commands the attention of any who are around her, and delivers her prophetic messages with confidence and ease. But, more than just how she speaks, Sarah has insightful (and often hard) things to say as I know she has spent many hours sifting through a text trying to find its jewels to give to her audience.

Personally, I left the service awe inspired (and from what I could tell so did everyone else in the room) to consider how my life might be better attuned to Jesus’ message, presence and direction rather than my own, as Sarah exhorted us. There was just no wiggle room presented to us in her sermon.

Sarah was the first Duke friend I made when I first moved to Durham in August of 2003. We had been told by the admissions director at Duke that we would probably make good roommates and after speaking once on the phone, it was pretty obvious to both of us that Donna was right about us.

One of the blessings of living with anyone is the spontaneous conversations that transpire, often at the most unusual times. Sarah and I had many of these while watching endless hours of Law and Order, while one of us sat on the steps and the other one of us cooked dinner, or while laying prostate in the hallway upstairs after having a bad day. Of course, we talked about stupid and silly stuff sometimes, but often we conversed about the formation of our calls to ministry and how they were being shaped by what we were learning in our classes and internships. Very soon after I moved into the townhouse, Sarah recounted to me how she knew God had called her to preach when she was in 7th grade at a national Acteens convention. (For the non Southern Baptists reading here, Acteens is a missions actions group designed especially for high school girls. Sarah and I both grew up in strong an Acteens group, which was one of our immediate connections to each other).

Once I learned this about Sarah I was amazed at her vocational clarity from such an early age. But, now as I think about it, God does have God’s own timing with call in all of us. Some of us know from childhood exactly what we want to do, and for most of us, our career directions change over and over again for most of our lives. Not one approach is better than the other. I realize that God has different purposes for all our lives. But, I guess I have to think for those who receive such passion early on as happened to Sarah; God is up to something amazing. Even if Sarah doesn’t work on a traditional church staff, I am confident that she will always be preaching. I can’t wait to invite her to the first revival at my own church own day! She will surely tell it like it is and bring God’s Spirit in a powerful way.

But, while I’ve been at Duke, I’ve met more preaching sisters other than just Sarah. I meet weekly with a whole group of them! If there was any doubt that God calls women to preach in your mind, I would invite you to get to know any of these wonderful women in the picture below. Each are from a variety of Protestant denominations including Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterian, and Episcopal. While all of them have unique passions and interests, these wonderful friends of mine are very gifted at what they do. And, most of them see regular preaching as a part of their calling to the church. I say, watch out world, here we come… a new day is coming in who you see behind your pulpits in the years ahead!