By Brother Matt Henson

As the son of a pastor; the grandson of a pastor; and the brother of a pastor, my calling to ministry was limiting in the beginning because I only knew of ministry in one way: local church Pastor. When I knelt at an altar in response to God’s call on my life, I entered the wrestling ring with God because I was uncomfortable with this calling. I had plans for my life and I knew where I was heading. God’s call was not in alignment with my will…here lies the problem. As I wrestled with this call into ministry, God made it apparent of His Will for my life, yet it was unclear to me how this calling would be lived out in my life.

As I attended seminary and God gave me opportunities to be in ministry beyond local-church ministry with Youth for Christ International, I quickly discovered there was more to ministry than local church Pastor—God had other modes of ministry, and He was inviting me to see the trajectory He had for my life.

Even after I entered local church ministry for a season, I was restless, yet I was in a learning posture and God was teaching me. I could not see the fullness of how God would use me, but I knew as I daily surrendered my life, I would become what God wanted me to be. I had to be open to the Holy Spirit’s leadership in my life, knowing I would not be all God wanted me to be in a moment’s notice—it would take time to become what God’s desire was for me.

Paul teaches us in Ephesians 4:21-24, “For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Paul is inviting us to consider how God works in us as we become what God wants us to be. It is in God’s timing and in God’s power that we are becoming more like Jesus in our actions, our thoughts, and our lives.

When Brother E. Stanley Jones started the Christian Ashram, he recognized the importance of the Ashram community helping him become the evangelist the Lord wanted him to be. He wrote of the Christian Ashram,

Without [the Ashram], I would have lacked a disciplined fellowship. I would have been a lone wolf howling at the pack about what they should do; an outsider. Now I am an insider, forced to live out my life in a close-knit fellowship of the spirit. They are responsible to me and I am responsible to them, at a very deep level, the level of experimental living. If I have given them anything, they have given me much more. Moreover, their transformations have been an invitation and a spur to further transformations in me. They have helped make me. But the Ashram group has not only helped make me as a person, they have also helped my message” (Song of Ascents, 233).

The Christian Ashram seeks to be a place where we help one another become what God has called us to be. When a person comes to the Christian Ashram, they are invited to experience the Kingdom of God, and the transformation brought through a personal experience of Jesus. It is wonderful when year to year, we see the spiritual growth in brothers and sisters who return. We witness the power of God at work in their lives, and as we hear the testimonies of transformation and growth, we celebrate with each other what we are becoming in Christ.

How are you becoming what God has called you to be? How are you helping others become who Christ has called them to be? We are called to help one another; to pray for one another; and to encourage one another as we become who God created us to be.

Prayer: Lord, I know I am in the process of becoming what you have called me to be. Help me encourage others in their walk with Christ and bless our Christian Ashrams as we participate in your powerful work in people’s lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.