The call: what is missing?

Some missionaries will speak of their ‘call’ in terms of a Bible verse that specially spoke to them. It is not uncommon to hear of people receiving a ‘prophetic word’ that led them into some special Christian service. There are others who enter ‘full-time’ ministry because they ‘felt led’.

Reacting against what they would describe as mystical experiences and impressions, a significant number of Bible-believing leaders have sought to remove the mystique surrounding the ‘call’. For them it is the need that constitutes the call especially if there is a godly life and gifting that matches the need.

There is general agreement on the involvement of the local church and its leaders in challenging young men and assessing them for gospel ministry. The importance of the church’s encouragement and evaluation of candidates for the ministry of the word must not be underestimated (see 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1).

However, the focus of this article is on the person’s own inner sense of being called by God to the work of preacher-pastor. This is where there is more controversy and confusion.

The gospel minister

The risen Lord, the head of the Church, has given gifts to his people. The gifts associated with ministering the gospel are seen as fundamental by Paul in Ephesians 4.11-12. Though every Christian is to minister in one way or another, the gospel preacher-pastor is foundational to the life, growth and activity of the Church. These gospel ministers are in this respect similar to the apostles and have a right to be financially supported. They gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6.2-4) and they commissioned others to carry on this vital work. It was in his function as a preacher of the gospel that Paul was fond of speaking of himself as a minister. Paul, Apollos and Timothy were ministers of the new covenant through whom the Corinthians believed (1 Corinthians 3.5-6). All other ministries in the Church are dependent on the ministry of the word. Paul’s last word to Timothy is, ‘Preach the word!’ (2 Timothy 4.2).

Provision of the Triune God

If the gospel minister is a gift from the ascended Christ, then it is Christ who must provide this foundational gift. He must commission the people who are to do the work. Preachers are ‘sent’. ‘How shall they preach unless they are sent?’ (Romans 10.14-15). They are not only sent or called by a local church but, as the passive voice suggests, they are sent by God. One of the marks of a false prophet in the Old Testament was that God had not sent them (Jeremiah 23.21). Though preachers are not Old Testament prophets or New Testament apostles, there are similarities, and, like them, they are sent by God. This is why Jesus urges us to pray that the Lord of the harvest would ‘send out labourers into his harvest’ (Matthew 9.37-38).

It follows that no one can take it upon himself to be a gospel minister; neither can church leaders decide for the person. The call must not be seen purely in terms of the need of the hour or gifting. These items, though important, will not sustain a man through the difficulties of ministerial work. He must have a call from God that comes not only through the Church but through the direct influence of the Holy Spirit upon his life. In a chapter that is not about Paul’s call to apostleship but to his and Barnabas’s new international preaching work, they were set apart by the Antioch church ‘for the work to which I [the Holy Spirit] have called them’ (Acts 13.1-4). It was also the Spirit who qualified the Ephesian elders to pastor the church (Acts 20.28).

Awesomeness of the task

Difficulties about entering the preaching-pastoral ministry are often viewed in terms of perceived uncertainties and horror stories about Free Church situations. What should pull a person up and cause him to think and pray long and hard before entering this ministry concerns the very nature of the task.

1. Ministers of the new covenant are called to be spokesmen for God, ambassadors of Christ. In Christ’s name the preacher speaks and acts. Christ’s ministers are to plead with people on behalf of Christ, ‘God making his appeal through us’ to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5.20).

2. The gospel minister stands between glory and Gehenna, urging people to repent and believe the gospel. The gospel ‘scent’ that wafts to all who hear the preacher is a sweet fragrance of life to those who receive the Saviour, but ‘among those who are perishing’ it is the odour of death. Paul cries out, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ Who is qualified to be a minister of the gospel? Later Paul adds that though he and his fellow workers are not sufficient in themselves it is God who ‘has made us competent’. Their qualifications to be stewards or ministers of the new covenant come from God (2 Corinthians 2.14-3.6).

3. Then there is the spiritual nature of the work. What is true of Christian service generally is very clearly the case with the gospel ministry. The preacher-pastor has to wrestle with supernatural forces of evil. People are dead in their sins and blinded by the devil. Christian people become spiritually dull and tools of Satan. The gospel minister must give himself to prayer as well as preaching the gospel. We are dependent on the Lord for every new birth and for the growth of that new life. There are those who plant and those who water but it is God who gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3.6).

4. The gospel minister is so aware of his own inadequacies concerning the immensity of the task that he fears he will not do justice to the message preached. Was Paul terrified of the people of Corinth? Was he embarrassed because it was such a foolish message in the eyes of the Greek intelligentsia? Not at all! When he came to the Corinthians ‘in weakness and in fear and much trembling’ (1 Corinthians 2.3), Paul was no doubt feeling physically weak, but at the same time he was overwhelmed by the task. The preachers had a ‘great’ message to proclaim and were not ashamed of it, but the ‘treasure’ was in ‘jars of clay’. They were very ordinary, frail men (2 Corinthians 4.7).

5. Paul was also aware that he would have to give an account before the judgement seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 10-11). In his solemn charge to Timothy he again draws attention to the one who will judge him (2 Timothy 4.1). James 3.1 warns those with a flair for teaching: ‘Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgement’. Yes, every Christian is to live conscious of God but it is with particular reference to preachers that Paul stresses that they are commissioned by God and speak ‘in the sight of God’ (2 Corinthians 2.17). Paul’s fear was ‘the mysterious dread felt by the great preachers of all ages and in all sections of the Church’ (T.C. Edwards).

Discerning the Spirit’s inward call

What evidences are there for the Holy Spirit’s internal call?

1. Conviction

Despite the feelings of unworthiness and weakness the Spirit puts within you a ‘desire’ for the preaching-pastoral work (1 Timothy 3.1). This is not a temporary emotional surge but a growing settled conviction that God has called you. The intensity of this desire will vary from person to person but there will be that deep-rooted conviction to be a gospel minister.

2. Compulsion

There will be a growing awareness that you can do nothing else. At times it might seem that the urge to enter this ministry is against your better judgement but you are propelled forward. You are driven by that pressing realisation that you have something very important to say and that you must say it. Like Paul, you begin to feel that ‘a necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!’ (1 Corinthians 9.16).

3. Conflicts

That people have doubts, fears and conflicts should surprise no one. Needing to be sure of the call, aware of the greatness of the task and one’s own inadequacies, fighting against Satanic attacks, and the struggle that often comes with the final submission to the work, are common experiences and can be physically and mentally exhausting.

4. Concerns

You have a growing love for Jesus Christ and the Church of God, and great compassion for the sad plight of humanity. Your prayers and activities, both within and outside the church fellowship, will indicate this.

5. Competence

As you examine yourself and your motives you sense you have some aptitude and gifting for the work. You also desire to have an on-going, ever closer relationship with the Lord, are prepared to deny yourself and even to die for the sake of the gospel.

Conclusion

Prophets like Jeremiah were given personal divine commissions and so were the apostles and did not need others to confirm their calling. If all gospel preachers received such direct revelation there would be no need for this article! Nevertheless, there are principles derived from their callings and ministries that can be applied. In summary: 1) they did not call themselves; 2) they had an inner conviction that God had called them; 3) they felt constrained to preach; 4) they shrank from and were overwhelmed by the awesome responsibility; 5) they had a zeal for God’s honour; 6) they were deeply moved to pray and weep for people.

Philip H. Eveson is Principal of the London Theological Seminary (LTS) and Director of the John Owen Centre for Theological Study (http://www.ltslondon.org).