Welcome to the Best Practices for Adventist Ministry podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell. Tell me, is a call to ministry static, or can it change? After about four decades of ministry, I've come to believe that a call to ministry is fluid. Perhaps I can compare it to the river that flows behind my house. I can take a picture near my house, or I can move miles upstream and take another picture or move miles downstream and take more pictures and every picture will look different. And yet it’s the same river. That's kind of like what a call to ministry is. Even though it looks different in different times of our ministry, it’s the same calling. 

About six years ago for a feature for the CALLED convention, I interviewed pastors about their call to ministry; snapshots. We're going to play some of those today. But we're also going to move a half a dozen years downstream and take other pictures as we update those calls to ministry. 

Here’s the guests on this month’s show in order of appearance:

Act One: Jamie Pombo

I had the privilege of interviewing Jamie for the 2015 CALLED Pastors Convention where he shared the story of his call to ministry. When his life was at its lowest point, it was about to change.  

“My dad had a gun in his room. And the gun was empty, but I knew where the bullets were. And so, at that time I remember wanting to end my life because there was just no worth whatsoever. And I thought I was doing the world a favor if I could just cease to exist. And I remember putting the gun right to my right to my temple. And that that was the first time that I really heard a voice. It said don't do it. I love you.”

You can watch the short version of the interview here, or the full length interview here. 

It's been about a half a dozen years since I first had that interview with Jamie. A lot has happened in this world and in Jaime's life since then. I catch up with him on a zoom call while he is taking care of his four week old second born son. He shares how COVID have created some challenging times for all including himself as his father recently succumbed to the infection. Yet he remains resilient thanks to his faith in God, his family, and the help of professional therapy. 

“Its never fun to go through all of those things. But life is fun, and life is not so fun at times. Yet you still keep going forward.”

Jamie Pombo serves as an Associate Pastor at Port Charlotte Seventh-day Adventist Church. He is married to Michelle and together they are raising two sons. You can find out all about his ministry at the Port Charlotte website.

Act Two: Pranitha Fielder

Pastor Pranitha also shared the story of her call to ministry to me for the 2015 CALLED Convention. She revealed one of the biggest obstacles to her calling:

“I distinctly remember once someone called me on the phone who I hadn't seen since I was five years old, and they called me and they were angry and they said, what do you think you're doing? Who do you think you are that you think you can be a pastor? You know the next time I see you, I'm going to pull you in front of everyone and tell you about yourself. It's painful.”

You can watch the short version of her interview here, or