New Students, Fall 2004

Equipping the Called:
William Kroeze

Growing up in Modesto, CA, and raised in a rather traditional church-going family, William Kroeze would attend Sunday school like most other children raised in the church. “My parents were fairly involved in church life, both serving on church council and participating in other church activities.” During his confirmation years, his family left his home congregation, Emanuel Lutheran, due to personal pastoral issues and moved from congregation to congregation for over a year. He continued to attend confirmation classes at Emanuel Lutheran and was confirmed in a church he no longer attended. “This period without a real spiritual home, while I probably did not realize it at the time, prompted me to think about how one’s upbringing and ecclesiastical home influences one’s theology and understanding of one’s place in the sphere of ecumenical Christianity. It’s something I struggle with to this day.” During his high school career, his family returned to Emanuel Lutheran, but “that was a time of significant self-exploration and theological contemplation, and eventually I came to re-understand God and the role of spirituality and faith in my life. My involvement in church grew, and I played a significant role in re-establishing the youth group at my church, which became my major social group in high school. I also began to be increasingly interested in worship and liturgy. First serving as a lector, my involvement in leading the people of God in worship grew.” But, William originally thought the ministry was “reserved for people who were somehow special, which could not possibly include me” and struggled between what he thought he wanted to do and what he felt he was supposed to do. A discernment event at California Lutheran University, geared toward high school and college students, helped William realize that he was the only person holding himself back from accepting God’s call with conviction. After hearing the keynote speaker repeat “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called,” it finally clicked for William that, “if I followed God’s call in my life, God would give me all that I needed to fulfill that call.”