Calling?

Is God calling you?   When was the last time you asked somebody that question?   Perhaps you've never asked that question.   But as churches and church leaders in the CRCA this is a conversation we need to be having with more and more people.   We need to be talking with people about God's call on their lives.   And we need to be having serious conversations with young and older men about the possibility that God might be calling into full-time gospel work in the local church.   Seriously!

Right now in the CRCA we have 22% of our churches actively looking for a minister to fill a vacant position in their church.    Yes, right now we need 13 more ministers to fill the pulpits in our churches.   And this does not even taken into account other churches who have no minister nor churches that soon will see their pastor retire from full-time gospel work.   It is estimated that we need to raise up and train up to 23 men in the next 5 years, up to 29 men in the next 10 years, just to meet requirements for ordained ministers with the current number of churches.   These numbers do not take in account the expected need for ministers to serve in team ministries, new church plants, and overseas missions.  In the past 10 years we have grown from 47 to 57 churches.  Taking the CRCA commitment to church planting, it is foreseeable that in the next 10 years we will have another 10 churches.   All of this means that we need at least another 40 men to take up full-time church work in the next ten years.   

Is God calling you?  My pastor asked that question of me when I was 16 years old.  One day as he visited my family, he purposely went to the back shed where I was doing some cleaning up.   As I leaned on my broom Pastor Chuck challenged to consider God's call on my life.   That brief conversation resulted in a change in the trajectory of my life.   Not long after that chat I was in contact with Calvin Seminary asking them what steps I needed to take to consider whether or not God was calling me into full-time gospel work.   It all began with that question, "Is God calling you?"   Since then, over 40 years, by God's grace and guidance, I have served five churches, planted a church, and for the past 13 years been involved in established and new church development here in Australia.

Is God calling you?  Is there someone you need to have an initial chat with?   As church leaders we need to be constantly praying for, teaching, training, mentoring, modelling, and empowering gospel workers in our churches.  We should be making a range of internship and apprenticeship options available in the local church to encourage young people to develop ministry and leadership skills post-high school.   This is what Pastor Chuck did.   I still remember the year.   It was 1973 and there was a huge emphasis on world evangelism (Key 73), and he invited to come alongside him and others to start a youth group, reach out to unchurched boys, and stimulate mission work.  This is something that every pastor and church leader should be doing - targeting and encouraging young people to consider gospel ministry as a career and lifestyle choice.   Every church should be aware of their young people pursuing university training, and challenge them, as well as other young people, to consider gospel ministry. We need to be telling our young men about the urgent need for full-time ministers in CRCA churches.   We need to casting a vision in our churches of God's global gospel plan, talk about the opportunities in ministry, and the reasons why it is worth sacrificing for.   

See ministry in the church is not just a job; it is a calling.    No one should enter ministry on a whim, a wish to do good, or for worldly fame or gain.   I learned early in life that you don’t choose Christian ministry;  it is the ministry that chooses you.   Jesus is the head of the Church (Colossians 1:18) and it is He Himself who gives some the gifting and passion to enter gospel ministry (Ephesians 4:10-11).    Ministry in the church can be one of the most satisfying yet also one of the most demanding of all professions.   If you don't have a clear sense of being called into ministry and gifted by God for this work then ministry in the church can easily leave you frustrated and  very unsatisfied.

Is God calling you?   Right now the RTC in Melbourne has a whole range of flexible mode study units.   In these units people can gain some formal training and all the while test the waters whether or not God is calling them into ministry.   As church leaders we should be teaching our young people how to communicate God's Word and then give them opportunities in the local church for speaking.   All three pastors in our home church (Bray Park - QLD) in Australia began their journey into full-time ministry by church leaders teaching them and giving them opportunity to share God's Word publically.   Imagine if this was happening in all of our 57 churches.   Then our goal to raise up 40 men to take up full-time church work in the next ten years is really not unrealistic.   

Perhaps as you read this blog you are sensing a tug in your own heart!  It is time to heed the call to ministry.  Or that tug in your heart is encouraging you to forward this blog to someone God might be calling into ministry.   It begins with this question:  "Is God calling you?"