Trusting the Pastoral Call

Notes From Seminary

by Jeremiah McKemy

Early in 2018, I knew the time had come. The small business that I’d been building for six years was bringing in peak profits. My wife and I were living in Asheville, North Carolina, and we loved everything about it. But we decided to give it all up and move to Pennsylvania, where I was ready to enroll as a seminarian at Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.

I have felt a pastoral call since childhood. When I was a business major in college, my spiritual mentor advised me to work hard on my career, so that when the time came to answer that call, I would have something to sacrifice to God. I followed his advice and became a home inspector. I spent a year and a half studying for three different state licenses. After my licensing was completed, I handled inspections for two local insurance companies. By the end of 2017, I was contracting with many national companies and my services were in demand. I had more work than I could handle. I finally had something to sacrifice.

Sacrifice is inherently difficult, and it’s especially foreign to us in the consumerist culture of 21st-century America. But in the Scriptures, we find that God turns sacrifice upside down—rather than resulting in loss or death, it brings life. Abraham waited until the age of 100 before God granted him his first-born son, Isaac. Shortly thereafter, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac upon an altar. As Abraham lifted the knife to slay Isaac, God stopped him, seeing that he had proven his faith. God then revealed the life-giving beauty of sacrifice, stating, “Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven… in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:16–18). Through Abraham and Isaac’s descendants came the nation of Israel, and through them eventually came the Virgin Mary and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who indeed has blessed innumerable people from “all the nations of the earth” with eternal life.

My wife, whom I met in college and married in 2007, would have been content to stay in Asheville. We had many friends and a wonderful church family there, and we loved being surrounded by the mountains. But I could no longer ignore my calling, and she strongly agreed that I am called to the ministry. So, in the spring of 2018, I closed down my business, laying it upon the altar and trusting God to take care of us. I made numerous repairs to our home so it would sell quickly, and in the meantime I was accepted into Saint Tikhon’s.

With our house under contract and our move to Saint Tikhon’s quickly approaching, I began to panic. I could find neither public nor private student loans for my studies. Knowing I would not be able to work while attending the rigorous program at STOTS, I called the seminary to ask for guidance and was assured by the administration that there were scholarships available—without which few students would be able to attend the school. All that was required of us was that we make the leap of faith and trust that God would catch us if we acted in obedience to Him.

The experience has been difficult at times for both my wife and me. We still don’t know where we’ll end up after we leave the seminary; the Diocese of the South, which we belong to, runs all the way from New Mexico to Virginia. However, how can we say that we trust God if we are unwilling to make sacrifices? I have seen the fruit of trust and obedience blossoming forth in our lives and our marriage. As we “commend ourselves, each other, and all our life unto Christ our God” (the Divine Liturgy), He has blessed us with a deepening inner life and the joy that comes with following the path that He lays before us.

With one year of seminary behind me, my trust in God is deepening and my appreciation for numerous unsung heroes is growing. I am referring to those who have answered God’s call to generosity—these faithful stewards who work hard to provide for their families, support their local churches, and make donations to our seminary. Without their sacrifices and obedience, we would have no beautiful churches and no seminarians. Their sacrifice, combined with the men and women leaving their homelands like Abraham to answer the call to seminary, ensures the future of our life-giving Orthodox Faith in this American land.

Jeremiah McKemy is a seminarian at Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.