Writing: A Ministry of Encouragement
In 2002, a year after 9/11, I sensed an urge to change what I was doing and seek a new direction. After praying about it, I transferred from one job as a university professor to another, about 90 minutes from home. The drive gave me opportunities to reflect and sort through the trajectory of my life. During the first week of my new job as an associate professor at the College of Education, the dean and department chair took me out to dinner to welcome me to the faculty. The dean asked me what my interests were. Out of nowhere, I blurted out “social justice.” Before then, I had harbored deep empathy for the plight of my brothers and sisters who were struggling against racism and the caste system. I had championed the causes of fairness and equity as a K-12 teacher and administrator in a public educational system more concerned with conformity and compliance than it was with nurturing critical consciousness in the student populations I served. Analyzing the dinner conversation, I realized I had been fighting for social justice my whole career. The trajectory of my career journey at that moment began making sense to me.
Two years later, God called me out of my life as a university professor. That’s when I entered seminary and earnestly began deconstructing everything I had learned in my formative years. As I reconstructed the pieces of my history into a discernible mosaic, I discovered that I was not called to be a preacher, an evangelist, or the voice of justice in the world. Instead, I was called to encourage people of all ages disheartened by the injustices and pain they experienced daily. Chaplaincy presented a vocational platform to help me accomplish my calling.
As I leave my post as a hospital chaplain, I discern it is time to explore new avenues for providing spiritual and emotional care to those in need. My gifts have made room for me during several ministerial appointments—serving as Director of Christian Education in a small congregation, directing the development and implementation of a program to train lay ministers, and providing spiritual care to patients and their families. These experiences have shaped my heart and mind, revealing new avenues to encourage people and provide spiritual care.
Writing is the current gift through which I am called to minister. Fiction, blogs, educational materials, and scholarly articles now serve as ministry tools. Primary topics are justice, peace, love, and hope. All are now pressed into service as I reimagine the Great Commission and fulfill the commandment to love my neighbors, whoever they may be. Rivertree Christian Chapel is a primary forum for my Ministry of Encouragement through written media.
I look forward to walking with you on the next phase of our journey together. Blessings and peace,
Lorrie C. Reed, M.Div., Ph.D., Chaplain