One of the odd things about my ministry is that jobs or calls, as we call them in church lingo, usually find me. Apparently, my résumé has spent most of its life collecting dust while God has preferred the “I’ll have them call you” method. Somewhere along the way, the phone rings, someone says, “Have you ever considered…?” and I laugh because, no, I had not. Then I pray, try to convince myself they’re talking to the wrong Heather, and somehow the Holy Spirit keeps nudging the conversation back onto my calendar. I’ve learned that God doesn’t always work through job postings and cover letters. Sometimes God works through unexpected phone calls, persistent people, and that unmistakable feeling in the pit of your stomach that says, “Well… I think it’s time.”

I am old enough now, age 54, and have changed positions enough to track this down. It all starts with a phone call. So check this out:

Call #1 – Normandale Lutheran Church, Edina, MN: I had just graduated from seminary with a very clear life plan—which, as it turns out, was adorable. I had always wanted to be a missionary, but I figured I should probably do a few things first: get married, have an actual paycheck, learn how to be an adult, and maybe make a few ministry mistakes closer to home before moving halfway around the world.

I wasn’t looking for a church job. In fact, I wasn’t applying for one. But apparently God had a networking strategy long before LinkedIn. My name had been passed along to the faith formation pastor, who called me completely out of the blue and asked if I would consider being the youth director. I remember thinking, “How did you even get my number?”

After a lot of prayer (and probably a little panic), I accepted the position. The pastor welcomed me with great enthusiasm and then said, “I’d love for you to stay here for five years.” I laughed and replied, “Five years? Oh, no. I’m going to be a missionary.” I stayed for two years.

Call #2 – Missionary to Madagascar: During my time at Normandale, Scott and I had just gotten married and were certain we had our future all mapped out. We wanted to be missionaries in Tanzania. We were so certain, in fact, that we attended a presentation by the ELCA’s East Africa Secretary for Global Mission expecting to hear exactly how to get there.

Instead, he gently burst our bubble. He explained that there weren’t many opportunities available in Tanzania at the time. We were disappointed, but before we left he said, “Well, give me your names and phone number anyway.” Sure, we thought. That’s what people say when they’re trying to be nice.

About a month later, the phone rang. “How would you feel about Madagascar?” he asked. Scott and I looked at each other. We knew almost nothing about Madagascar. We didn’t know where we would live, what we would do, or even how to pronounce some of the place names. We just knew this much: God had opened a door.

Our very theological, deeply discerning response was, “Sign us up!” Apparently, when God calls, the destination isn’t always the one you planned. Sometimes you aim for Tanzania and end up in Madagascar. Looking back, I’m grateful God was a much better travel agent than I was.

Call #3 – Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN: After nine years in Madagascar and two boys later, Scott and I packed up our lives and returned to Minnesota. It wasn’t part of our grand ministry strategy. Our fathers were both facing health challenges, and we knew it was time to be close to family. Once we arrived, I spotted an advertisement for an incredibly specific part-time position at Bethlehem Lutheran Church: teaching early childhood Sunday school. I laughed because it was almost as if someone had written a job description based on my résumé—and the ages of my two sons.

I interviewed in June, and the supervisor offered me the job. Then I did something that probably confused everyone: I turned it down. I explained that Scott didn’t have a job yet, and I couldn’t commit until September. They graciously said they understood and went back to searching for another candidate. Weeks passed. They cast the net wider and wider, but apparently all the fish were busy. Then, on August 1, the phone rang. “We’ve looked everywhere,” they said. “You’re the one we want.”

The funny part? Just a short time before that phone call, Scott had accepted a job offer. It was as if God was sitting in heaven saying, “There. Now that everyone has stopped trying to manage the timeline, we can finally get started.”

Call #4 – Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Minneapolis, MN: I absolutely loved working at Bethlehem. It was one of those places where I learned the nuts and bolts of children’s ministry, discovered what worked (and what definitely didn’t), and built a foundation that would shape the rest of my ministry. Then one day, completely out of the blue, a neighboring congregation called and asked if they could come talk to me. Before long, their senior pastor and church president were sitting across from me saying, “We need you—or someone like you.”

That’s a hard sentence to ignore.

I often say Bethlehem gave me the foundation, but Good Shepherd gave me wings. They hired me on a five-year grant to dream, experiment, and build a ministry from the ground up. Amazically—or maybe just by the grace of God—I stayed exactly five years. During that time, we doubled Sunday school attendance, tripled Vacation Bible School participants, and watched families become deeply connected to the life of the church.

There were also moments that reminded me God has a wonderful sense of humor. One Sunday I prayed that God would bless the congregation with babies and young families. Not long afterward, a family walked into a new member class…with twins and a toddler. I remember thinking, “Lord, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you know it’s okay to answer prayers one baby at a time!”

Call #5 – St. John’s Lutheran Church, Lakeville, MN: While I was serving at Good Shepherd, I finished my Master of Divinity and was ordained there on August 21, 2018. It was an incredible experience to be ordained in the very congregation that had nurtured my gifts and given me room to grow. There is something deeply meaningful about being surrounded by people who knew you before you wore a clergy collar—and who still remembered all your experiments that didn’t quite work.

Not long after my ordination, I received a text message from my former supervisor at Bethlehem. It simply read, “Are your ears ringing?” That’s never a normal text, by the way. It usually means someone has been talking about you…and hopefully in a good way. She told me she had given my name to a pastor friend of hers. Before I knew it, St. John’s Lutheran Church called and invited me to interview for their Associate Pastor of Children, Youth, and Family position.

By this point I was beginning to notice a pattern. I wasn’t sending out résumés. I wasn’t refreshing church job websites. Apparently, God had decided that networking through faithful friends was much more efficient. Once again, a conversation became a call, and another unexpected chapter of ministry began.

Call #6 – Bethlehem Lutheran Church – Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN: And that brings me to my current call—which, in true fashion, also began with a phone call.

While I was serving at St. John’s, my senior pastor sat down with me one morning to share a new vision. He wanted to move me from Children, Youth, and Family Ministry into leading small groups. Now, I have nothing against small groups. Small groups are wonderful. But children’s ministry was my happy place. Give me a room full of preschoolers armed with glue sticks and glitter over a strategic planning meeting any day.

I left that conversation wondering what God might be up to.

Then, that very afternoon, my phone rang.

On the other end was Bethlehem, and my former supervisor—one of the supervisors who had hired me years earlier at Bethlehem, and the same person who had passed my name along to St. John’s. She asked, “Have you ever thought about coming back to Bethlehem?”

“The same Bethlehem?” I asked.

“The very same Bethlehem,” she replied. “Only this time…as the Family Pastor.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently, God has a flair for full-circle stories. The church where I first learned the foundations of ministry was inviting me back—not as a children’s ministry director, but as a pastor. I said yes, and it has been one of the greatest joys of my ministry. I loved serving at Bethlehem then, and I love serving here now. Looking back over the years, I’ve realized that while I may not have been applying for church jobs, God never stopped recruiting.

So, if you notice a pattern in my story, it is this: I make plans, and God smiles. I thought I was going to Tanzania, and God sent me to Madagascar. I thought I was moving on from Bethlehem, and God brought me back as a pastor. Apparently, God prefers phone calls, unexpected conversations, and a little holy humor over my carefully organized five-year plans.

Looking back, I’ve learned ministry is less about having the perfect plan and more about being willing to answer when God calls. Thankfully, God has been patient enough to keep calling, and God knows I am a literal person, so it always starts with a phone call.