Voices: Julie Wood: A woman called to ministry

It wasn’t a dark and stormy night. It was a sun-drenched and sweltering day in July.

A recent 8th grade graduate, I sat in the (formerly) open-air tabernacle at Latham Springs Camp in Aquilla. Penetrating through my sticky, sweat-drenched skin to the deep places of my heart, God asked me to commit my life to ministry. As I answered, “Yes,” an assurance of purpose, which I’ve never forgotten, welled up within me.

As the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of pastors and evangelists, I’d had a ringside seat to vocational ministry. I’d observed the gamut of elated, mountain-top experiences to deep, dark valleys of anguish. I’d seen how generously a church family can love its leaders, and how, within minutes, those leaders can become victims of vileness and wrath.

I wasn’t the stereotypical “wild child” minister’s kid. I genuinely loved the church and had few qualms about living in the fishbowl that is ministerial life.

Because my parents demonstrated authentic, day-in, day-out relationships with Christ, and consistently built confidence within me, I often avoided making choices simply to earn people’s approval. Thus, by the time I experienced God’s calling, I genuinely wanted to please him first, even if it meant I didn’t “fit in.”

But “fitting in” doesn’t matter as much, anyway, when you’re assured God’s hand and direction are on your life.

God’s calling that summer only solidified what I’d grown up knowing. Southern Baptists taught me who, why, and how to worship, and exposed me to people around the world sharing Christ and discipling believers in a vast array of methods.

Naming the primary mission offerings in honor of women silently endorsed their kingdom work and value. Chief among the lessons, therefore, was that women were equally charged with worshipping and fulfilling the Great Commission—evangelizing and making disciples.

Learning from my mom and her mom

None of the churches I grew up attending had women on staff as ministers, so it wasn’t something I’d observed. But I did watch my mom, and I listened to her story. She related how she knew as a young woman God wanted her in ministry.

At that time—the 1950s and 1960s—her assumption was she’d serve with what was then called the Foreign Mission Board. However, after meeting my dad in the early 1970s, she realized her calling was in conjunction with his—serving the local church.

In some roles, she was paid; in others, she volunteered. Regardless, her service has focused on obediently pleasing God, because he called her.

My grandmother and great-grandmother also knew they were called to ministry before marrying, and both partnered with their husbands in leadership.

Their lives prove to me God’s calling comes regardless of marital status, and if he should have marriage in mind for his children, he’ll guide the opportunities for both husband and wife to bring him glory.

My call affirmed and solidified

Following that 8th grade summer, our church affirmed my ministry calling by having me direct preschool classes at Vacation Bible School. As a teenager, I was entrusted with leading adults to lead children!

During my high school years, they also asked me to serve as a counselor at children’s camp. Throughout my youth, lay people and staff—men and women—discipled and poured into me, used by God to solidify his calling.

Over the decades, God’s calling has morphed and changed shape, repurposed and refined.

As an 8th grader, I had recently learned about a missionary kid school in Kenya. I presumed God was calling me to teach those teens. But a few summers later, again at Latham Springs Camp, while leading a Bible study about the Holy Spirit, I recognized the sheer delight of teaching God’s word to elementary children.

Throughout my college career, God intersected my life with female ministers serving on church staff. Thus, my senior year at Hardin-Simmons University, I interned under Beverley Allen, who demonstrated a remarkable example of life as a children’s minister, wife, and mom.

In the summer of 1995, I led in local churches through the Baptist General Convention of Texas Youth-Led Revival Teams.

While attending seminary in Fort Worth, I was a children’s minister in the local church, followed by work in denominational ministry.

After marrying a pastor, I led worship for our church in East Texas. Darin, my husband, knew and affirmed my calling before our marriage, through those early years, and even now.

Today, I serve as a freelance Bible study writer.

‘I’m God’s servant’

Because I’m God’s servant, he can change my assignment for each season he brings. Therefore, only he has the authority to determine whether I’m serving in obedience.

Thankfully, most of the time, others have affirmed my calling, and I’m profoundly grateful for their encouragement. And even those who may deny God’s calling on my life might be used by him for my refinement, but ultimately, they can never diminish or cause me to doubt my calling, because they didn’t call me. He did.

My life is his. I’m his servant. I know whom I have believed and am convinced he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day (2 Timothy 1:12).

I love that God made women and men uniquely different, each serving vital purposes in his world. But it’s no coincidence the first European convert was Lydia; that Phoebe, so highly respected in her faith community, was known as a deaconess; nor that Priscilla taught Apollos alongside her husband.

Jesus Himself charged Mary with preaching the good news of his resurrection to his disciples and outlining their next steps of obedience—meeting him in Galilee.

I’m grateful God called these women to advance his kingdom and deemed them important enough to be recorded in Scripture. Perhaps in doing so, he declares something beautiful about women’s hearts.

I’m thankful for my calling, and that in obedience, when God called, I responded, “Here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

I’ve certainly not been perfect and won’t claim the journey’s been trouble-free—he never claimed it would be—but it’s definitely been worthwhile. For I’ve grown because of my obedience, and his kingdom has, too. And, ultimately, that’s what Jesus wants anyway.

Julie Wood is a Christian writer, musician, wife, and mom. A former schoolteacher, in addition to her ministry roles, she’s thankful to serve in various volunteer capacities at First Baptist Church in Midland, where her husband, Darin Wood, is senior pastor. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.