Hey, my name is Noe Garcia, and I’m a senior pastor at North Phoenix Baptist Church and this is my call to ministry story.
Mine is a bit different. I wasn’t raised in the church, but I became a Christian at the age of 18. And I have to be honest, I was incredibly insecure about my Bible knowledge and about where I fit. I went to a Christian university filled with great Christian young men and women, but at the same time, I was still insecure that many of them had fathers who were pastors and who were raised in the church. So, I never felt like I really fit in. They didn’t do anything wrong, but the truth was I felt that my past disqualified me from ministry of any sort. So what I did was I stayed faithful and majored in sports medicine. Now, I was able to share my testimony at different youth groups, but even then, I never really thought I was going to be in ministry full-time.
However, I remember specifically the first time I felt like I was being called to ministry. I was a summer intern at a church in Houston. It was over kids ministry and I remember the pastor coming up to me and saying, “Hey, I want you to preach for me on a Sunday.” I was kind of shocked. I had never preached before, nor did I know how to prep a sermon. So, I just remember preparing this message, then getting up and preaching, but when I got off the stage he pulled me in the office and said, “Hey, I think you might have a call to ministry.” Well, I remember when I was sharing the word of God, something just clicked. I fell in love with teaching people about who God was in his truth and how it should lead to salvation and sanctification.
Eventually, I went back to school. I still had my senior year and continued to pursue sports medicine. However, I couldn’t find a job in that area. Then all of a sudden, a church calls me to be an intern. Well, long story short, at the end of the three months they hired me on to be a college and sports pastor. People would always ask me, What do you want to be in ministry? What do you want to do? And I have to be honest, it changed all the time. It went from preschool to kids to students to college, to sports, to young family, and to young adult. It’s wasn’t that I didn’t have any goals. The truth was I would just open. Basically, God whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. Throughout my life, he changed different tools that he used for me to share the gospel. Same mission, same goal, but different tools.
In fact, here’s where I am today. Now, I’m a senior pastor and I love it because I get to shepherd people from the pulpit. I get to teach them the word of God. Then I get to pour into my staff. I have these young pastors who love the Lord, and they’re still wrestling through this calling and what does it look like? So, I get to pour into my church members and my pastors. We’ve created a pastors and training group, and partnered with a Seminary to teach classes. We’ve invited church members who want to grow, who want to learn, and who are wrestling through a call of ministry. We’ve created a track for those people how we want to meet them where they are. We want to shepherd their hearts and help them figure out what God is calling them to do. So the truth is, I kind of enjoy the fact that when I started off, I really wrestled with this insecurity about my calling because now when I see it in other people, I get to speak life and truth into what God may be calling them to do. So, I hope this blesses you and encourages you. And I hope the Lord brings clarity, comfort, and conviction in your calling.