Regularly when I sit down with someone, they’ll use the phrase ‘called to ministry’. I don’t have a dislike of this phrase, it can be very useful—only when most people use it, it isn’t.
My first response is always to ask someone what they mean by the statement. No one has ever replied that they received a phone call from God (not that God couldn’t do that if he wanted). No, usually they mean either a conviction about the importance of Christian ministry, or a pseudo-emotional/supernatural experience where it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Of course, there is a very exclusive group who are actually called by God to ministry. He has specifically instructed this group with his own ministry of repentance and calls the world to follow him through them. They have been supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit; anointed by the word of God; gifted for the task. In fact, Jesus accompanies them while they do it. This exclusive group are known as ‘Christians’, and every one of them need to get on with ministering to other people, because the world desperately needs to have the love of Jesus shown and shared with it.
I have also experienced people I’m trying to encourage towards leadership worry that they haven’t had a supernatural experience which qualifies as a call… and then others who tell me that God has called them to a ministry when it is clear to all and sundry that he hasn’t. Keep reading
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