New Students, Fall 2003

Stories about being ‘called’:
Sarah Lang

Some of Sarah Lang’s favorite stories in the Bible involved the idea of call – the call of Moses, the call of Jonah and the call of the disciples. "The realness of their response to God’s call struck me, and I can remember with incredible vividness the day when a pastor from Camp Lutheridge near my home in North Carolina related Moses’ call to a group I was working with. I knew with clarity at that moment that I would go to seminary yet that I, like Moses and Jonah, would spend many years running from my call." Sarah says that during five summers in the North Carolina mountains on an outdoor ministries staff, she felt her faith became most alive and her gifts became most cultivated. The pastor of her sponsoring congregation explained to her that if outdoor ministry and her work with children, youth and adults excite her, "then I should consider seminary and a vocation in the church. I decided to answer God’s call to a life of leadership within the church. Sarah says that having grown up in southwest Virginia and having attended college in the south at Furman University, "I knew I needed to step outside that region to develop and discern my call more fully." She says LTSP’s warm community "impressed me from the moment that I stepped on campus. I knew that the formation I could receive at a Lutheran seminary would be vital to my own development as a person and pastor. I hope that my call can help others learn that the church is the place where one discovers the joy in living a more faithful life – one that touches more deeply Jesus’ own teachings and that helps bring peace and justice to all people."