My story is interesting. I actually did not become a Christian until the age of 22 and at that time I would have said, “Are you kidding me, ministry? No way; not ever.” I would not have imagined it. As a matter of fact, when I felt a pretty clear call that the Lord was leading me into doing student ministry, that was a start, I remember reading my Bible and I was thinking, I had gotten into law school and I thought that is what I want to do, which would have been great because you can do so much ministry there. However, I felt kind of a vocational call towards ministry and I remember throwing my Bible. So, that’s what I did. Yes, I threw my Bible. Later, I asked my pastor, “Hey, what do you think about me doing an internship with the church? I really love evangelism. I want to share the gospel with as many people as possible on a college campus.” He said that’s a no-brainer. So, it started for me by just praying about what my future might look like.
As I was looking at all of the different options, I continued to receive this pull towards vocational ministry. I’m using that word specifically for a purpose and I’ll explain more later, but as I was being pulled towards vocational ministry, I asked someone and they affirmed it. So, that was a helpful guide for me. I did this campus ministry and it was wonderful, then I got married and I knew that kind of campus ministry lifestyle wasn’t going to be ideal for our marriage. Some marriages thrive in that, but ours wouldn’t have. I stepped out of vocational ministry, however, when God calls us as disciples, he calls us into the Ministry of the Church. There are so many opportunities for us to do ministry because we have gifts and the church needs our gifts. That is when I started doing children’s ministry. I would still evangelize because I have this call in my heart to make disciples of all nations and then to disciple those disciples; so I would still share the gospel.
Although, I remember I started working at a fitness center, and at one point I became a manager. I had a manager role and the Lord would provide opportunities to be one on one with different women to share the gospel, minister, and encourage them. Therefore, the ministry doesn’t require a label. It’s about our lives. Our lives should be ministry. Even though I had that label of a fitness center manager, the Lord gave me such a desire to share about him that I naturally continued to do so. I believe that’s everyone’s call. We’re all called to ministry one way or another. It just might look different. Later, I became a writer and I was a journalist for a local paper. I would write and feature stories, which was a lot of fun, but I started to again feel that call. It was some kind of pull. I loved what I was doing, writing featured stories and the opportunity to do journalism in my city, but I wanted to write from my Christian perspective.
Thus I thought, alright, I’ll create a blog and from there it snowballed. It was a blog to a little webzine where I had my own ministry of sorts like an online magazine, then it ventured to write books. Again, the Lord called me back into vocational ministry. However, it did not take away from my everyday ministry in my home, in my local church, and in my community. None of that ended. I just had that label again. Now I write and speak, where it continues to be affirmed by publishers, by friends, or people who keep me accountable, such as my husband and my pastors. So, I’m submitted to many people to aid in guiding me to see, if this is still the ministry that I’m supposed to do, and the Lord continues to affirm that.
Now, I’m in the publishing ministry and I get to help other authors become potential authors. I think that is sometimes how it works. And I want to encourage you that you are to do ministry. So, however, the Lord calls you, whether it’s vocational, where you get a label or it’s just life, we’re all called to do the work of ministry. The laborers are few. I hope this encourages and inspires you to go and do.
My name is Trillia Newbell and this is my called story.