A vicar shares a lesson he learned while serving at a congregation for a year.

“Now, it’s real.” I remember saying this to a classmate who also had just received a vicar assignment. It was now time to try what we had been dreaming of doing for so long.

In some ways, I felt decently prepared. I had read books, studied notes, and wrote essays. In class, we had learned how to teach and preach, plus gained all the other skills a pastor needs. I felt ready.

Well, that is, until it started. Suddenly, it became real. The man crying in his hospital room was real. The child with mental trauma from a broken home was real. The faces in the pews were real people with very real problems, and now I’m supposed to be able to help them?

And that’s just the point. I can’t help them. Nothing I could think of would ever be able to give any real comfort or encouragement. But God can.

Yes, the vicar year has provided me many opportunities to see real sin, real problems, real grief, and real pain. But, even more so, this year has taught me that where sin seems to overwhelm, God’s grace abounds all the more. This year has allowed me to see God’s grace in a real, practical way.

“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

I see God’s grace when he chooses to work through someone like me despite my failures and shortcomings. I see God’s grace when I get to experience how fun ministry can be. I see God’s grace when I consider all the amazing people I have met, taught, visited, and worked with this year.

But most of all, I see God’s grace when I witness the effects of his powerful Word in action. It’s when my shaky sermon deserved my apology, but instead a member gave me a hug and said it was just what she needed to hear. It’s when a student started bringing her family to church regularly because of her new appreciation for the gospel she learned at school. It’s when I had no words to say, but God’s words gave the relief he promised.

As I look ahead to future ministry, that may be the greatest lesson this vicar year has taught me: God’s grace isn’t hypothetical. It is real, and it is powerful. That’s a perspective a classroom could never have shown me.

Volume 113, Number 07
Issue: July 2026