Discerning a Call to Lay Leadership

In discerning a call to lay leadership, it is helpful to look at the following four areas of lay ministry:

1) “Church work” involves lay ministries that support the local congregations. These include things like serving as ushers, greeters, alter guild members, vestry, Eucharistic Ministers, Eucharistic Visitors, and coffee hosts. Special training or licenses are sometimes required for “church work”.

2) “Service in all of life” where one’s whole life is ministry. People called to this form of lay ministry have a natural inclination to see all of life as sacred and holy. They serve others without a thought of receiving anything in return. They serve within a spirit of gratitude and a sense that they receive as much as they give.

3) “Discipleship in the marketplace” is where lay ministry is performed while carrying out one’s occupations. Whether a teacher, artist, poet, writer, doctor, nurse, truck driver, chemist, lawyer, banker, police officer, or any other profession, they ask themselves, what greater goal of God am I called to serve through my work in the world? 

4) “Faithfulness to a particular call and focus” is where one is called to a specific lay ministry. It may be a call to form a non-profit for charitable purposes, to organize a clothing drive, or become a prison chaplain.  The possibilities are endless. One needs only to keep listening for that “still small voice” and be faithful to where it leads.

Continue on in this section on Lay Leadership (Next Page – lower left) for resources that can assist the laity in discerning a call to lay leadership in Christ’s name. While this section speaks in terms of lay leadership, these tools are helpful for discernment of call to any type of lay ministry. Click below on the “Leadership Qualities” picture button for a list of the qualities that the Commission on Ministry has identified as indicating the gift of leadership.