 Is God calling your heart? Hello, I'm Mike McKee, the resident bishop of the North Texas Conference and the Ida Methodist Church. We live in vibrant communities across this part of Texas and I believe that God is calling us to reach people for the transformation of these communities in the world. Whether you're a person who believes that you're being called into particular lay ministry or into ordained ministry, I hope that you'll know that the people of the North Texas Conference will support you and encourage you. It's perhaps the way in which you're hearing that call is from friends or family or people with whom you go to church saying to you, have you ever considered doing ministry? Or maybe it's just that tug that is deep within your soul and your heart that is helping you to understand that God has something in store for you. Those are ways in which God could be calling you. And again, I want to ask you this important question. Is God calling your heart? Responding to God's call in my life, I had gone up in the United Methodist Church all of my life attending worship services, participating in community activities, and also going to the United Methodist Youth Fellowship. It was a powerful time in my life. Now this calling that I had felt, I had no idea what that really meant. So I sought out my senior pastor at my home church and I had a conversation with him about it. And he said, Chris, if you're going to be involved in ordained ministry, there's going to come a time whenever you are going to be able to see yourself preaching, when you're going to be able to see yourself leading. Now I didn't know what that meant. And I didn't know how that was going to play itself out. But lo and behold, that following Christmas, as I was sitting in the back pew of our sanctuary watching my senior pastor preach for the very first time in my life, I could see myself doing what he was doing. And all the apprehension, all of the anxiety, all of the fear that had built up during this journey began to melt away. And I began to trust that God was going to take me where I needed to go and that God was going to provide for me what I needed. And I am here today after over 15 years of ministry thanking God for leading me to this point. My name is Kelly Carpenter and I am not a pastor. This is my call story. I will always remember the moment that God called me. I was a junior in high school. It was Christmas time and we were preparing for the annual Christmas pageant. And in that moment, as I was sitting in the back of the sanctuary on a pew trying to finish my homework before it was my turn to be on stage again, I realized we have great stories to tell as people of faith. The Bible is just full of wonderful stories and language and imagery, but we do a really bad job of putting these stories into life and stage and telling them through theater and creative experiences. So I decided in that moment that that is what I wanted to do. I am truly blessed and that's my call story. Is God calling your heart? I'm Reverend Jan Davis and I am the chairperson of the board of ordained ministry for the North Texas conference. You know God uses all of our unique gifts and graces for ministry and perhaps for you it's professional ministry. Whatever it is the board of ordained ministry is committed to walk alongside you and highlight the possibilities for you in ministry in North Texas. As you begin responding to God's call, I hope you will look at the host of resources that are available on the board of ordained ministry website. Are you ready to respond to God calling your heart?