Ordinand stories - Gill Songer

I became a member at Upminster Methodist Church at the age of 18, became a Guider and helped at Sunday School before I moved with mum and dad to Maldon, on the east coast of Essex where I met my husband David at the Methodist Church there. 

One Sunday, with our young family of five, a call went out for people to discern if God was calling them to preach. I encouraged David into it because I didn’t want to do it! But in 2003 I did answer that call and was given a note to preach. 

I was now employed by the Chelmsford Circuit as a Lay Worker in the Maldon Section and as the Circuit Safeguarding Officer. I also took on more preaching dates and found myself in the unusual position of having to preach three weeks in a row, two of those weeks being at my home church

After the second service there a lady came to the front of the church whilst I was clearing up and said “Gill, can I have a word?” Oh how those words fill me with dread! “Of course,” I said.  As she spoke she began to cry and I wondered what was coming “Gill, have you ever considered becoming a minister?”  I laughed out loud and replied “No, don’t be so ridiculous!” 

It had taken me 30 years to realise that this was the Holy Spirit reaching out to me, my spirit recognising the holiness of hers as my physical being did not. So I asked God, if God was really serious about this, to send someone else to ask me and promptly forgot about the conversation.

A retired head teacher and fellow Local Preacher who said after my service, “Gill can I have a word with you please?” This was even more terrifying than before – had I made a terrible theological blunder in my sermon? “Of course,” I said. “Gill, have you ever considered candidating for ministry?” I literally stood there with my mouth wide open! “Well, think about it,” he said.

I spoke to my sister Alison and asked “If two different people from two different churches ask you to do the same thing without knowing what the other had said, would you do it or run away like Jonah?” She answered “Well, the thing is, it’s awfully smelly in that fish!” I rang my Superintendent and told him I wanted to candidate for ministry.

As I progressed through Circuit to District to Connexional interviews, then to Queens, to working with my link church at Loughton, to stationing, to Folkestone, to the Worship Development Group, to Circuit, to District Probationers Committee, to reports and more reports, I have had my eyes opened to the true meaning of connexion.  

This, then, is how my journey to ordained ministry began, but not the beginning, the beginning began when I was born a day late and I realised I was special, and that God had a purpose for me, as God does for us all. I still feel the presence of God calling me on to things that are way out of my comfort zone, but I no longer laugh when I’m asked to do things.  Instead I consider them carefully and prayerfully knowing that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Gill Songer