Imagine that you are facing the interview panel of a denomination seeking their support to be a pastor-teacher. What questions might they ask? Hopefully, they would want to know about your conversion; they should have consulted with your church about your character; they should also seek to know what your reputation is like with non-believing people; and, they should ensure that your gifting matches those required to teach the Word and so lead in a local church.
There is one other question they are likely to ask you, 'tell us about your sense of call?' Problem is, I am not sure that this is a biblical question. In 1 Timothy 3 it speaks about the character and reputation of the person who desires to be an overseer; it also gives the criteria that they should be able to teach; but, there is no mention of a "sense of call".
I wonder if we put to much emphasis on some vague, ill-defined subjective impression. We read the account of Samuel being woken by the voice of God, suggest that this was somehow a normative experience, replace the miraculous voice with a 'feeling' and call this 'the call to ministry'.
One other thing. Folk wisdom that I have heard goes like this: 'if you "feel" called to the ministry try to do anything else, and only give in to the "call", if it simply won't go away.' However, in I Timothy 3 it talks of those who 'desire' to be overseers. Should this ministry be something that we move towards, rather than run from?
3 comments:
Yo!
Loving this.
Did you chat about this to that guy on our master's course? He was studying this exact thing.
My thoughts were informed by reading a book entitled, 'Decision making and the will of God'. I did think of that guy's presentation. Do you think that a 'subjective' sense of call is something we put an undue emphasis on in Methodism?
Paul
Very definitely.
Maybe not chat about this in the public sphere at the moment, though!
Post a Comment