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Call to Ministry

As the only child of a United Methodist pastor and a teacher in the Philadelphia public school system, Palmer’s faith identity was formed early in life.

“I am a child of the church,” he said, recalling the profound impact of his parents. “I had parents that felt the need and importance of not only getting me to church but taking me to church. I am so grateful for that, as they offered me to the church in holy baptism. It was the whole nine yards – Sunday School, youth group and worship.”

Palmer noted that his parents’ approach was not “a rote kind of shaping. There was a discipline in our participation in the life of the church and there was an expectation that I would be part of the church with room to find my niche, that would draw out the best of me. Thanks be to God, it took!”

Although he sensed a call at age 14, it would be another five years before Palmer made his decision public. “My parents always told me to serve God and Jesus Christ and make a contribution for the betterment of humanity,” Palmer said. “At that intersection, you will find the call on your life. And for me, I found it in the continual service of ordained ministry in the midst of God’s faithful.”

When he made his intentions clear, Palmer experienced a serendipitous moment. “Even though I felt it difficult to articulate my call to my friends at age 14, the miracle and mystery of it is that my peers and friends already knew – whether they were part of a faith community or not. None were surprised.”

Palmer says one of the greatest tasks for the local church is to continue to place God’s call before its people.

“We have to create in our local congregations a culture in which everybody is listening for and sensing the direction of God in their lives,” he said. “We do this by asking: ‘What is the next specific place of service for me? How will I live out my discipleship in vibrant, vigorous and faithful ways in the place of work? Have I been called to the set apart ministry, the ordained ministry? If we don’t do it in the local church, we will continue to keep shrinking, with fewer and fewer persons responding to the call. It goes back to baptism where I have been claimed for a specific ministry. The rest of my pilgrimage is sorting out what the ministry is to what venue of service is God asking me to give myself away.”