Calling

“Calling” is something that all Christian individuals must receive. However, I specifically want to talk about a certain type of calling: the call to full-time ministry. These days, many Christian individuals seek to enter a position in the ministry (i.e. pastors, missionaries, staffs at various ministries, etc.). Having participated in ministry and having felt pleasurable sentiments while being involved in ministry, they assume that they have this “call” to full-time ministry. However, this assumption is quite dangerous and often leads to the individual destroying the body of Christ. Not all are called to a position in full-time ministry. As a matter of fact, when one reads Matthew 10, Jesus calls only the twelve to the full-time ministry as apostles. Full-time ministry is a noble task. It involves representing God through your words (preaching) and through your relationships (pastoring). Therefore, it is all the more important that only the called enter such ministry. (Note that I am not, in any way, disregarding the importance of laymen ministry. All believers are called to serve the body, but the task of preaching and pastoring are given to these called few.) How, then, shall we discern this calling for full-time ministry? I want to share three aspects of the call.

1. Vision

Do you have a vision for your full-time ministry? What is meant by the word “vision”? By vision, I mean that the individual clearly knows why he must enter the full-time ministry. He has a specific reason for entering the ministry and serving the body of Christ. It may differ from person to person. For some, they may see that the body of Christ clearly lacks the fundamental understanding of the Word and of God. This may lead to conviction in their heart for a desire to preach the truth to the body of Christ. For others, they may see that the body of Christ lacks love and compassionate guidance of a shepherd. This may lead to conviction in their hearts for a desire to shepherd the body of Christ. Still for others, they may see that the body of Christ lacks clear leadership and structured organization. This may lead to conviction in their hearts for a desire to lead with efficiency the body of Christ.

Those who are called to ministry may have different visions for why they enter ministry. However, called ministers have one thing in common: that they have a specific vision for them entering the ministry.

2. Competence

Are you a competent minister? Competence may include whole lot of areas for a minister. However, two things must be present in those who are called to the ministry: preaching and pastoring.

Specifically for preaching, can you teach the Word of God? A good teacher of the Word does not leave the students dependent on the teacher for further knowledge. However, a good teacher of the Word leaves the students to question themselves. Not only that, a good teacher of the Word leaves the students to take questions directly to God and directs the attention towards God. Do you see yourself with this gift? And, more importantly, do others acknowledge this gift in you? If not, perhaps, ministry is not the call for you.

As for pastoring, do you love the sheep? 1 Peter 5 gives good account of what shepherding the flock of God is. Peter is clearly the best person to go for such a guideline for he received the call to pastor directly from Jesus Christ in John 21. To be specific, a good shepherd and a good pastor must be willing overseers, not for shameful gains and not domineering, and an example. Do other believers acknowledge your effective leadership? Do other believers see you as an example to be imitated?

These are some good questions to be asked for those who consider going into full-time ministry. The area of competence can definitely be developed as one spends more time in the ministry. However, the called minister is gifted by God and is, therefore, competent minister.

3. Passion

Do you have passion for the ministry? I am not talking of mere pleasurable emotion that arises from being involved in a ministry. I am talking about the unceasing fire for God’s kingdom. Those who are called will have this unceasing fire for God and the ministry because God will justify their calling in ministry. They cannot get tired or get burnt out because the Spirit resides and works in them as they are doing what they are supposed to do according to God’s plan. Burn-outs happen when the ministry works become a human task and the minister has his personal agenda rather than God’s agenda.

A perfect example of unceasing passion for the ministry is Jeremiah. Jeremiah 20 shows us exactly this unceasing passion. Despite others ridiculing him and despite all the troubles he faces for the calling as a prophet, Jeremiah cannot stop himself from preaching the very words given to him by God. Jeremiah yearns to leave this ministry of prophecy for all the social rejection and the physical hardships he faced. However, he must remain a prophet because of “a burning fire shut up in my [Jeremiah’s] bones.” He knows that the LORD will justify his cause.

If only every preachers and pastors can be like Jeremiah, the Church would not be in such a chaos.  They would rather leave the ministry as they count the cost but the unceasing passion for God’s truth keeps them in the ministry.

 

These are three components of the call. Can you see yourself as a called minister? However, still you must discern if this call is from your own or from the Holy Spirit. To test your motives for ministry, there are some areas that you must check.

1. Is your life and your ministry producing love, the evidence of true saving faith?

2. Are you ministering to people, not just doing the works?

3. Are you bringing glory to God at the end of it all?

As incomplete saints living by the grace of God, it is quite impossible for any ministers to be perfect in their motives for ministry. It is only God who perfects any man’s ministry. Thanks be to God for He is the One who does the ministry, not the man.

 

I, too, am considering the ministry as part of my future. Ministry is definitely not easy for it is a noble task that must give glory to God. Not only that, I must give my all, not just part of me. I have come to realization that because it is such a noble task, I cannot just listen to my sentiments of wanting to go into ministry. I must carefully count the cost and carefully discern if it is God’s call for me. And, even if I do end up doing ministry, I will still need to struggle with this call to discern if it is from me or from God. When I am far in the line with ministry, I will continue to struggle with it. If it is the case that I do realize the call is from my own and not from God, I do pray that I will have the strength to step down even if I were to be far in the line with ministry.

I hope to write this article to not discourage any from entering the ministry but to uphold God’s glory involved in the ministry. For my readers who are considering ministry, please struggle with the call. Let us not taint the glory of God by our own selfish desires. Let us no longer destroy the body of Christ for, if it is not your call, all you are doing is to destroy the body. However, may the truly called enter the ministry! I am so excited for those who are truly called to the ministry and will serve God with all their life! May their lives bring the utmost glory to God! Soli Deo gloria!

Back to where it began

After the resurrection of Christ (in John 20), Jesus begins appearing to the disciples. These were the very men that Jesus had handpicked but abandoned Christ for their own safety. They were supposed to carry on the work after Jesus was to ascend to heaven. Their future as successors to this ministry of gospel seemed very futile.

The infamous leader of this pack of twelve was Peter, the very man who denied Jesus Christ at the court of the high priest. The man whom Jesus entrusted the Church was a very cowardly man who sought after security and feared persecution. After Jesus’s crucifixion, Peter returns back to his original occupation – as a fisherman.

This is where the story begins (John 21). Seven of the disciples are gathered together and are fishing their mind off of what just happened to their Messiah, their Rabbi, their Lord. They fish all night but there is no net gain, no fish. It is at this moment that a very strange man appears to this group and commands the seven men to cast out the net.

“How strange,” they must have thought.

When they followed the strange man’s command, their net became full of fish. John, a wise man, recollects from past memory of Jesus doing the very exact thing (Luke 5:1-11). When John mentions about this to Peter, what must have been going on in Peter’s mind?

The Scripture tells us that Peter, a man of action, throws himself off the boat to go to Jesus. What happens when Peter actually meets Jesus we do not know. However, we could probably assume that it would have been similar to his encounter of Jesus in Luke 5:1-11. Peter probably would have fell at the feet of Jesus and declare, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” This would not have been a surprising reply from Peter.

Jesus, however, does not depart because a man is sinful. He is there to call the sinners. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) Jesus reaffirms Peter as a disciple and as the shepherd of the believers though the method grieves him.

What can I understand from this passage? The passage speaks of Jesus’s reinstatement of a sinner-saint, a disciple who has returned to depraved life, a leader who is discouraged by seeing at his faults. How does Jesus reinstate such a man back to a relationship with him and leadership of the Church? He returns to the very beginning where Christ met the man.

This is a message of reminder. “Remember the first encounter that I have had with you! Don’t forget how I met you and your immediate response to my call!” Jesus is pleading with us.

This is a call for us to return back to the gospel, the basic. No more pointless argument about eschatology, the most right theology, the most efficient methodology to lead a church. No more dwelling our power and resources on the things of this world. No more avoiding Jesus Christ. But Jesus wants us to return to the gospel where saving and calling happens.

Peter’s life was never the same when he returned back to the gospel, to the very first encounter of meeting Christ who not only saved his life but completely changed the life that Peter was living. How about us today? Are we deep in our folly of thinking that we can never return to Christ because of the things we have done? Are we discouraged at the mistakes of leadership that we have made? Worry no more because even Peter who denied Jesus Christ was reinstated to become one of the most influential leaders of the history of First Church.

Or, perhaps, this might be a message of those thinking foolishly that they are good in themselves. Like Peter, before he betrayed Jesus, we might think we are ready to do some great things for Jesus. However, when that stride of sin or mistake hits us, we might be in a state of feeling horrible about ourselves. This is a good reminder for us whether we might think we are spiritually fine or so terribly away from Christ. The one and only thing we need and should ask for is the gospel, of how Christ first met us to save us and to call us as his disciples.