The Call: what is it?

The confusion over whether I am called into the ministry or the mission field has been a major source of discouragement for some to pursue a world impact ministry.  Dozens of students have told me that they don’t feel called into missions so have never considered that they may have a role to play in God’s plan.  There are three views on this issue: a mystical call, a volunteerism candidate approach and an invitation to a ministry.

First of all, the mystical call is the most common belief.  It presupposes that Christ began to call His disciples to follow Him in the Gospels, and has continued to call His servants throughout the ages.  As He called His disciples in Matt 4:18-22 to follow Him and they immediately left their fishing and became His disciples, so many expect such a “call” today.  Perhaps some are fearful of getting close to the Lord, for fear of sensing such a call, which they might not want to face.

Reportedly it may take a number of different forms such as listening to someone preach on world missions and the Holy Spirit brings a deep conviction to a person’s heart that he must go to the foreign field, to a variety of ways that providentially God indicates he should go overseas. This can include a feeling of “heart peace” about going to a foreign country, a voice calling a person or an inner urging to go to an unreached area.  It could be seeing a sign in a circumstantial event like seeing a Cambodian in a National Geographic magazine and sensing God’s call to Cambodia.  Anyone who doesn’t have one of these special subjective calls feels that he is “off the hook” with no responsibility to the world.  There is little or no biblical precedence for this kind of a call, in spite of its popularity.

Secondly, a call is interpreted in one’s willingness to volunteer to take on the task of reaching a part of the unevangelized world.  Paul referred to the first requirement for going into the ministry as one who “desires, aspires, strives for” or wants to be an overseerer or pastor (1 Tim 3:1), without any indication of a subjective call.   Peter made it clear that the chief motivation of an elder or pastor was to serve willingly (Gk. “of one’s own accord, deliberately, intentionally,” 1 Pet 5:2).  That is, some one perceives a need that the Lord said He wanted to be met (a church needing leadership, or a people group that needs to hear the gospel) and volunteers to commit himself to meet that need for Christ’s glory. 

When Paul referred to being responsible for the gospel becoming known throughout the Roman Empire, he stated that “if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward…” (Gk. “unforced, of one’s own free will,” 1 Cor 9:17).  This perspective is similar to Isaiah’s response to hearing God say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf? Then I said “Here am I! Send me” (Isa 6:8).  Most of the decisions that Paul made for strategic steps in evangelizing his world have no indication of any subjective voice or feeling, just a recognition of his responsibility that was followed by a commitment to do something voluntarily.

This decision should be wisely made following an analysis of your SHAPE (spiritual gifts, heart desire, abilities, personality and experience) to know your strengths and capabilities.  Likewise it should follow an analysis of the world situation to determine where the evangelistic needs are that you could meet, if you were willing.  Then an analysis of the circumstances to determine which of the existing opportunities would be the most strategic to attempt through the grace and power of God on your life.  If there is nothing impeding you from reaching an unevangelized people for Christ, why not volunteer?  Make every effort to go to that people and if you have yielded God full responsible for your life, then He will open doors, close doors and guide you just where He wants you. 

Thirdly, the chief way a person should move into a ministry position is by invitation.  This view sees the calling of the disciples by Jesus as a model for leaders to follow.  This means that Jesus is not continuing an on-going process of calling individuals through mystical means, but rather present leaders should follow Jesus’ model by looking for “faithful people who will be competent to teach others” (2 Tim 2:2) then disciple, teach and mentor them into key ministries, especially global ministries. 

In the NT outside of the twelve (Matt 10:1), the seventy (Lk 10:1) and Paul (Acts 9), who else was called directly by Jesus into the ministry?  Is there any indication that anyone else had a subjective feeling that motivated them into the ministry?  Quite the contrary, everyone else was either invited by their local church or another ministry leader to join them in a broader ministry. 

In Acts 6 the church invited seven men to a ministry of serving in the church.  In Acts 11 Barnabas was sent by his church to Antioch (11:22) with no hint of any prerequisite of a subjective call by Barnabas.  In Acts 11:25 Barnabas goes to Tarsus to seek out Saul [Paul] to invite him to join him in the ministry. In Acts 13 the church sent Paul and Barnabas out to evangelize the Gentiles.  In Acts 16 the brethren “spoke well” (Gk. “confirm, or approve”) to Paul about Timothy’s local ministry so Paul invited him to join him in the spreading of the gospel throughout the known world, etc., etc. 

Everyone is commanded to be a part of the ministry of evangelism, discipleship and their church edification.  Those who are faithful locally should be encouraged by everyone to pursue further training and/or be given broader opportunities to expand their ministries. 

This presupposes that existing leaders have a clear vision of world evangelism and personally sense the responsibility of choosing people, seeing to their training and then recruiting the most talented, mature and gifted people to the task which best fits them with the priority of fulfilling the Great Commission.  This is the model Jesus left to evangelize the world.

The subjective call leaves God responsible for evangelizing the world, the volunteer call makes individuals responsible for fulfilling the Great Commission and the invitation call makes the existing church/ministry leadership responsible for recruiting people to build His Church among every tongue, tribe and nation.  Jesus told his disciples to “Go into all the world and make disciples …” (Matt 28:19).

Don’t hide behind an excuse waiting for a feeling.  Get involved now in learning God’s heart for the lost, experience the joy of leading someone to Christ, and seek to make a difference in a local church.  Then ask God to guide you to someone in order to repeat this experience somewhere else in the world. Start the chain and it will encircle the globe.

 

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Posted by Don Fanning at 8:47 PM | Comments (0)