Direction

The Meaning of Calling

The assumption that a call, as traditionally defined, exists and is absolutely essential for ministry plunges one into a whirlpool of conflicting opinions.

The concept of being called is not unique to Christians. Ask people in North America about their calling, and they will tell you about their vocations and how they chose them, and they will describe their interesting characteristics. Even a man known in his African community as a fetish priest, a role close to what we know as a witch doctor, articulated his call. In a translated conversation, he told me how he came into that position. One day when he had gone down to the river, he drowned and had stayed drowned for three days. Then he came to life again. The village leaders, upon hearing his experience, invited him to be their fetish priest. With significant differences, this sounds, of course, like the death and resurrection of Christ. Some months after my return from Africa, it struck me that he had described what in our religious vocabulary would be designated a call. I had been interviewing people for several years about their calls to Christian ministry. Now, without expecting it, I had heard what, in effect, was the alleged call of a man in a totally different religious context to a position of supreme religious influence in his community. According to his story, his acceptance into a present position of immense authority depended on an alleged supernatural experience.

Ask Christian missionaries, pastors, or youth workers about their callings, and the responses will be on how God brought them into their present ministries. This book is about them, and much more.

In the New Testament, the word called does not identify any special class of believers. What it does do is focus, from time to time, on believers who have specially earned that designation or who, by their lives or actions, have demonstrated its benefits. Perhaps its value can be seen by comparing it to the experience of being loved but not married. The latter accurately identifies one who legally is so designated; one either is or is not married. But one can be loved (called) whether married or not. All Christians are called (loved) though their enjoyment of being called by God can vary greatly. I hope that the beneficial effect of calling will increase mightily through the reading of this book.

Decision Making

Decisions, decisions! Religious choices, friends, major purchases, living standards and locations, education, life partner—these and thousands of other big and small options face us over a lifetime. For the earnest Christian, decisions involve prayerful dependence on God and for most of us, some more visible sign of God’s will and direction would be welcome! The sermons, articles, and books on the subject of discerning the will of God are endless, yet their very existence demonstrates the need. The literature reflects two polar opposite views: First, God has a specific will at every turn, and we must daily seek to be in the center of God’s will. And second, there is really no such center, but there may be several alternatives. Using our God-given wisdom, we prayerfully and carefully choose (perhaps daily) the alternative we believe will most honor God. In-between these are mediating views that combine, in some measure, common sense with specific guidance from God.

The one decision I have been asked for counsel about most in my successive ministries as an InterVarsity staff member, seminary professor, and pastor has to do with what is best described as calling. This relates to our life vocation (or vocations) and sets the stage for all other decisions. Determining our calling is a comprehensive and life-changing decision. It involves both discovery and response. That process can be a gradual unfolding or an instant event. It can be unremarkable, or it can be dramatic. In contrast to choosing a vocation, most decisions have only a limited effect on our lives. Of course, a decision to drive while drunk can cause an accident that is life changing and perhaps life ending. Some decisions that are made with little forethought can have far-reaching effects. Other decisions can often be modified, changed, or reversed. By its very nature (and to explore that nature is one purpose of this book), calling is not something one can reverse because it is from God. I might as well tell you up front that this opening section is hard to write because it has to presume, dodge, or explain certain aspects and views of calling before having the opportunity to explore them. I do not want to lead you, my reader, into some simple one-two-three method of discerning God’s call. We need to build on a foundation of Scripture and theology. Nor do I want us to get lost in a maze of doctrinal corridors that leave us confused when we ask the practical questions. Certainly, it seems that it would be a lot easier for us if we all had some extraordinary experience—a vision or a voice, a burning bush perhaps—to make it unmistakably clear. But don’t we walk by faith in the matter of calling as well as in other aspects of life? You have noticed that the word calling in my chapter title is in quotation marks. That in itself reflects one of the issues we will address in future chapters. Is there a distinctive call that separates all Christians into one of two groups: those called to ministry or missions and those who may live deeply spiritual yet ordinary lives? This raises other questions. Is the outward distinguishing feature between these two groups ordination? If I believe God wants me to serve with a para-church group rather than with a church or denomination, should I still be ordained? I will address this and other questions in the following chapters.

What Issues Do I Face?

“So you are going to study geology!” The speaker was one of my high school teachers. I had met him when I returned a year or so after my graduation. He asked what my future goals were, and I had rather clumsily said, “Theology.” By the time he had gone on to congratulate me on entering such an interesting field as geology (and a lucrative one if I were to get a job with an oil company), I did not have the inclination to trigger another long discourse by telling him that he had misunderstood.

But could I have entered the field of geology instead of theology and still considered it a calling from God?