All the World’s a Stage:
How Len Carrell Found his Calling to Ministry

Like many Seminarians, Austin Seminary senior Len Carrell's path started off in a different direction before approaching the ministry. Carrell spent twenty years in New York as a stage actor, using his gifts to deliver important messages for the entertainment of audiences. He now lives in Austin, with his wife, Tanisha, and daughter, Caitlin, and finds himself delivering a different, albeit equally powerful message, on another stage.

As Carrell continues his journey into ministry, many questions are laid out before him; one being how he blends elements of his theatrical background into church.

"I think I’m still answering this question," said Carrell. "I find myself asking, ‘How do the gifts that I have—from my background as an actor and a singer and a dancer—help me live out and worship in my life and in the life of the church? How will I embody the gospel message and the Christian witness in all that I do? When I remember the way I embodied these imaginary circumstances that I trusted and believed in fully as an actor, I wonder how will I bring that same kind of vigor into exploring the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of the faith. As an actor, one of the things I loved to do was pull apart scripts and really get underneath what was happening, really try to explore what wasn’t being said—the human condition in a situation. I’m hoping I’ll be able to do the same thing when I look at an Old Testament text or find a moment of Jesus saying, ‘Get behind me, Satan,’ and understand what that must have been like for Peter to hear.”

Carrell initially believed he needed to put acting behind him, but now looks for opportunities to integrate his acting abilities and his skills as a pastor. "I'm trying to figure out how these fit together and make them really, really feed off of one another,” he says. “I want to be creative in the work that I’m doing as a pastor and as a theologian and in giving pastoral care—creative in my attentiveness and how I listen to people. And while ministry stands as his top priority, Carrell plans to continue shaping his craft as an actor.

“I would like to be able to do more theater inside the church. I think it could allow a church to really be intergenerational. I mean, what better way to get young people, young adults, and old people together than by doing something fun, like doing a show?

“More and more I’m learning that everything about who I am is exactly what God’s calling. This journey is just about learning how to be who I am.”