The Mysterious Call of God
Part 1 of 4 – Discussing the Call of God
God has been calling men into ministry for over 2000 years. Why does God seem to favor inexperienced men for this call? Is their spirituality more in tune with hearing God’s will? Studies have shown that 75% of these “called” men leave the ministry just after a few years of service! Was God wrong about calling these 75%ers? Did God change His mind? A lot has been written about God’s “call,” but it still remains a mystery. How can one truly know if God is calling him as a pastor?
Depending on one’s denomination or schooling background, different ideas of God’s call have been created. The term call or calling has been developed from the biblical concept of God summoning men by His heavenly voice to play a role in His redemptive plan. There are several different calls to respond to. For the purpose of this article, I will define the top three that I think most denominations would agree with, and then explore the obscure call to ministry.
The first call is the General Call. This is God’s general invitation to humanity to come to God as a sinner. Romans 1:18-20 reads, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse.” (cf. Matt. 22:14)
Man is without excuse for not believing in God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. All the works of creation reveal the glory and power of God that declares a message so clear-cut, a person can’t ignore it.
The second call is the Effective Call. This is the call that the elect (the Christian) responds to through faith, which results in salvation. “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30; 1 Cor. 1:2).
Another one is the Call to Sanctification. Apostle Paul writes, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Romans 6:15-16)?
This indicates that after salvation, something specific occurs in the life of a Christian, and the Bible calls this sanctification. This is proof that an individual became a Christian, having a changed life. Sanctification means “to be set apart” and “to be made holy.” The nature of sanctification is twofold in that Christians have to grow into and strive for holiness by cooperating with the indwelling Holy Spirit until they enjoy complete conformity to Christ.” (Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, published by InterVarsity Press.)
The call that I will be addressing is known as the Call to the Ministry of the Word, the Special Call to Ministry, the Individual Call, or the Sacred Call. While the General Call is to all humankind and the Effective/Sanctification calls are to Believers, the Special Call is selective, personal, and specific (men only).
Here are a few authors who believe in this Sacred Call:
1. Kent and Barbara Hughes (Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome) – “Those who would deny or minimize the fact that God calls individual Christians to special service must not only discount the facts of human experience but the evidence of Scripture, which records the calls of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, and the commissioning of the apostles.”
2. Howard F. Sugden and Warren W. Wiersbe (Answers to Pastors’ FAQs) – “The work of the ministry is too demanding and difficult for anyone to enter without a sense of divine calling. Too often, people enter and then leave the ministry because they lack the sense of divine urgency that comes with a call. Nothing less than a definite call from God can ever give you success when the going gets tough in the ministry”.
3. Brian Croft (Test, Train, Affirm and Send into Ministry) – “Though all Christians are called to serve the cause of Christ, God calls certain persons to serve the church as pastors and other ministers… First, there is an inward call. Through his Spirit, God speaks to those he has called to serve as pastors… Second, there is the external Call. Baptists believe that God uses the congregation to call out the called. The congregation must evaluate and affirm the calling and gifts of the believer who feels so-called”.
I have great respect for the above men and their theological contributions throughout the years; however, I disagree with these men in asserting that there is a special call to the ministry. Notice the subjective evaluation they give for a man’s confirmation to the call: They say that the call of God to individual Christians for special service comes through human experience, a sense of divine calling and urgency, an inward call, and God speaking to men to be pastors.
Oswald Chambers gives the best description of their idea of God’s ambiguous call. He called it “The Bewildering Call of God.” He writes, “This bewildering call of God comes into our lives as well. The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner-nature. The call of God is like the call of the sea— no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him.”
I profoundly disagree with the above statement. It is merely Christian mysticism. According to this teaching, the call to ministry is based on a feeling, making the Word of God less important than inner experience and introspection. If the call of God is only heard and perceived internally, one has to accept Chambers’ description as valid.
If Christian pastors and elders believe that they have a divine sense or feeling that God has personally set them apart, or spoken to them by an inward call, is this not an extra-biblical religious experience? A religious experience is subjective and then interpreted by a spiritual idea. By God giving a few select men “an inner-directed call” raises them to the level of the apostles and prophets. Doesn’t it make their calling just as inspired as Scripture?
Called to a Better Opportunity
Many pastors think that they are in “God’s will” when advancing in ministry. Their special calling doesn’t seem to be for just a one-time ministry assignment. No, God seems to call these same men over and over, mystically calling them into better ministry opportunities, especially when it appears that there will be an advancement in pay or to shepherd a larger church. It seems that it will always be “God’s will” to leave a small farm church to go to a more prominent and affluent one, even if it downgrades their former pastoral position to assistant pastor. After all, these men “felt” that the Lord was moving them into a better ministry.
Why doesn’t God ever call a man with an $80,000 school debt due to B.A., master’s, and Ph.D. degrees to shepherd a little farm church who cannot fully support him? Why doesn’t God tell some of His guys to give up their $150,000 annual salary and leave their megachurch to pastor a church in a rural community or the crime-ridden inner city, moving to a small church that can only pay $1000.00 a month?! That is where the Called Ones would probably question God’s mystical call!
To God’s dishonor, pastors have become like Free Agents in sports. In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign freely with any club or franchise. In our society, pastors come and go and rarely stay at one church for life. They shift like the wind when salaries, locations, and status bring better opportunities. Gone are the days when it was commonplace for a pastor to faithfully shepherd his flock until the day of his death.
Many Bible teachers equate today’s calling of individual Christians to the unique calling of men like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, and the commissioning of the apostles. If we count the 16 men above, with today’s ministry drop-out rate of 75%, only 4 of them would have lasted, and the other twelve would have quit! Not one man in the Bible, who was called by God into ministry, ever quit. God always had plenty of work for them to do.
How did God speak to men and women in Bible history?
The first time the Bible records God speaking was when He was creating the Universe, recorded in Genesis 1-2. Then God said, “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,” “Let Us make man in Our likeness,” and so on. God spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden. He spoke to Cain in Genesis 4:6. God spoke to many people in the Old Testament. Scripture does not say that these men felt God speaking to them but records the actual conversations that God had with them. When the Lord spoke to them, it was clear and somehow audible.
When God sent His angels to speak to men (Genesis 18:2-15 and Genesis 19:1-22), it was a face to face conversation. When the Angel of the Lord (Christ in His pre-incarnate state) spoke, He used an audible voice (Genesis 16:7-12; 21:17-18 & 22:11-18). Even Balaam’s donkey talked to him in a loud voice, saying, “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?”
On the Damascus road, God spoke to Paul in an audible voice so that even the men who journeyed with him heard and stood speechless (Acts 9:3-7). When Jesus came out of the baptism waters, God said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” God also spoke through prophets, visions, and dreams. And, there was the Apostle John to whom God showed the marvelous glories of Heaven.
God spoke to people clearly and, at times, used an interpreter who the Lord provided. There was no guessing or perceived internal feelings that needed interpretation. When God spoke, it was clear and inerrant (incapable of being wrong). In fact, the Bible discourages us from relying on our emotions, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The Still Small Voice of God
Some pastors may base their hearing of God’s call on the still voice of God mentioned in 1 Kings 19:12. In this chapter, the prophet Elijah followed God’s command to stand on a mountain in His presence so God could pass by him. This verse reads: “After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
Some suggest that Christians should enter into a time of quiet meditation where we do nothing but listen for the “still small voice of God” who speaks to us. The question is, how are you so sure that any silent voice you hear is God’s? How do you know it is not your mind playing tricks on you? You still have to rely on your feelings to interpret the still small voice of God.
If one tries to use 1 Kings 19:12 to confirm their calling to ministry, they need to be ready for a natural cataclysm. Because, before Elijah heard God’s still quiet voice, the Lord demonstrated His power with the forces of nature. “Behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD,” “After the wind, an earthquake,” “After the earthquake came a fire” (1 Kings 19:11-12).
The literal translation of a “still quiet voice” is “a sound of gentle stillness.” After God showed Elijah His visible manifestation in power and vengeance, the Lord showed him that Israel could have a peaceful and tranquil life if they would obey His Law. The Lord could bring destruction or peace at His will.
By Rob & Laura Robbins, June 2020, churchfm316.com
Editing and Proofreading by Laura Robbins
COMING SOON!
Part 2 – The Misconception of the Call