Sam Oomen was ordained as a deacon at All Saints on Sunday 14 June.

‍

In John 15:19 Jesus says, “I only do what I see the father doing” (a slight paraphrase).

I’ve always loved this verse. For me it’s very aspirational, as it seems I often spend my time doing inane and insignificant things. The day before my ordination I was at the Emmaus leadership gathering. A number of people there asked how I was feeling about it, but the honest answer was I wasn’t too sure.

I had known I wanted to do ministry for a long time. 

As soon as I left school I went to Bible college and studied for two years with the hopes of graduating and becoming a youth pastor. When I completed my study, I started to look for work as a youth pastor, but every potential opportunity seemed to fall through. I remember being disappointed, confused, possibly even a little betrayed. I’d just give two years of my life and racked up a sizeable student loan all for God and he couldn’t even give me a job?

So, I went to university and started training to be a teacher. I liked it. I was living at a Christian hostel, had good friends, enjoyed class. One morning on placement I helped a girl with a math equation. I remember clearly the moment when it clicked and she suddenly understood. That felt very fulfilling. 

Then one day God told me to drop out of university. I felt a little bit like Jonah as I realised that I had been running away from what I knew God wanted me to do. Study was easy, it was something I was good at, something I enjoyed, something I could control. Leaving was hard. It meant finding a new place to live, looking for work with little qualifications, and no idea when God would call me into ministry, other than knowing that the time was not now.

I remember walking into university one morning. One of the last mornings, as I went to submit my final paper for the semester, after which I would leave. I remember wondering what on earth I was going to do, and then a strange feeling. An inexplicable peace washing over me. 

I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew that I was doing what God wanted me to do and that was more important.

There was no quick or miraculous story that followed. I found jobs to work and committed myself to listening to God and seeking to follow his will in my life. After a few years I felt that God was calling me back into ministry. The right doors opened, and I found myself youth pastoring in Nelson. I spent five years at Hope Community Church before joining the staff team at All Saints, where I began to explore the strange and beautiful world of Anglicanism. During this time, I also explored the possibility of ordination and whether that might be what God was calling me to. This pondering culminated in a really significant retreat as I went away with the bishop and a crack team of discerners to explore whether ordination was where God was leading me. I left this retreat with a deep sense of call, that yes, this was what God was calling me to. Afterwards I waited anxiously to hear from the bishop, what would the verdict be? After a week I got my answer and a date was set for my ordination, roughly two months later.

And so, as I think back to that question, how did I feel about my impending ordination? I didn’t know. But what I did know is how it felt in those two months leading up to the ordination. That same peace I had felt as I left university, seeking to be faithful to God. The peace of knowing that I was doing what God wanted me to do.

That’s a feeling that’s for you too by the way. 

We worship a remarkable God who is so kind and deeply interested in us that he’s prepared good things for our lives already (Ephesians 2:10). The point of this story, I hope, is to encourage you to think about your own story. Where is God leading you? What might it look like for you to embrace his call in your life? It’s not always easy, but it is always good, praise God.

Also, if you wondered, turns out the ordination service felt pretty great.