Learning about ‘call’ during ‘Space for Grace’

“God knows who you are and calls you anyway—or in spite of it,” said the Rev. Dr. Adam Bond during his leadership of the Learning Experience “When God Calls Us in the Midst of a Crisis,” presented as part of American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ recent Space for Grace gathering in Los Angeles.

Assistant professor of Historical Studies and American Baptist liaison at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University, Bond’s session drew participants from as far away as Alaska and spoke especially to those plagued by self-doubt. He lifted up a quote from late Morehouse College president and Martin Luther King Jr. mentor Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays: “Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive, and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.”

When a participant questioned the concept, maintaining that another individual would be capable of accomplishing the same task—just as stones would cry out if people refrained from praising God (Luke 19:40)—Bond replied, “You’re more than just a function. God wants it done in the way YOU would do it.”

The Learning Experience served as a reminder that God is in charge, and—despite our human weaknesses, foibles and misgivings—God always gets it right.

Bond authored “I’ve Been Called: Now What?” (2012) and served as co-editor of “Church on Purpose: Reinventing Discipleship, Community, & Justice” (2015), both published by Judson Press.