We are so excited that “Tomorrow’s Teachers & Preachers” 2024 is officially underway! Sunday, August 25, 2024, churches around the District are taking a special offering to help future church work students. So we’d like to introduce you to some amazing church workers from across Missouri. We pray that you can learn more about these callings to serve and also see how the call to ministry is sometimes… unexpected. Today, read Rev. Daniel Warner’s story:
I am a classic "Jonah" story. People had been telling me I would be a good pastor since high school, even the professors and lab secretary at Purdue! I ran from it. But a very pointed devotion at the Indiana District Convention on Luke 5 spoke straight into my soul and I couldn't deny it any longer. There's too many hurting lost souls, too great a battle raging for me to pretend I could sit it out any longer. As long as there's sheep to be comforted and led and the battle against sin and Satan rages, I'll answer the call to arms. Being a Pastor is an incredible mix of so many different disciplines. Very little of the job is routine, and the parts that are (like the liturgy during Sunday morning services) bring lots of personal comfort. I get to be a shepherd and scholar, bringing comfort and instruction. I get to be with my people in the most joyous and the darkest days, really beyond that, I bring to those moments the Word of God which casts light into the darkness and makes those joyous occasions exponentially more joyful.
The change from a secular career to life in the ministry has been great since I embarked on this path and headed to the seminary. I've loved being involved with the life ministries, including making the cross display that Concordia Theological SeminaryCTSFW puts up every year and the 2022 Life March, leading a group of seminarians to an LCMS Disaster Relief event in Florida, and the many things I did as a student leader. Now in the parish it's a different dynamic. Every baptism, every wedding, every funeral, every service is a moment to be the messenger and courier of the greatest gift given, blessings from God won by Christ on the cross. I get to see the change in people when it's received, that spring of joy and relief that comes flowing out of a changed heart.
One of my favorite moments of the last year was when one of my youth catechumens made the comment in class that he wished we had more time together. I asked the whole class what they thought about extending it an hour. They unanimously agreed. I was beside myself with amazement!
