The Pursuit of the Gospel Ministry, Part 1

Someone who had felt called to the ministry and then been derailed along the way asked: "Should I completely erase from my mindset the idea of vocational ministry either here or on the mission field?"

Dear Brother,

Before I attempt an answer to your question, I would like to look at some general truths from Scripture. But before I do that, I'd like to tell you a story -- it's a true story, but it's not the experience of just one man. I've combined what men have told me over the years about their experiences pursuing the call to preach the gospel, and I've put a bit of spin on it, too -- I hope my attempts at humor are not too biting. I don't think that it's that far off from how the modern American church often works.

Joe Christian feels a "call" on his life. Without any confirmation from the people of God, he goes off to study at some independent, former evangelist's training school. He pursues his studies while tasting the ecclesiastical smorgasbord around him. For six months he attends the Kick 'Em in the Keister Independent Church (The secretary usually answers the telephone simply with "Keister Church, how may I direct your call?") After trying all kinds of remedies unsuccessfully for his aching spiritual keister, he tries out the local Anglican Orthodox Church, but soon wearies of all the smoke at this Fundamentalist imitation of being an Episcopalian. Then somebody suggests the Word of Faith Family Worship Center, and off he goes, getting slain in the spirit, speaking in tongues and truly sanctified. While he is recovering from a brain concussion after the "catchers" miss him during the Benny Hinn visit, somebody invites him to the Keswick Chapel, where, having entered into the deeper life, he begins the long journey of dealing with all the bitterness he developed while attending Keister Church. Finally, somebody hands him a book on the Five Points of Calvinism, and it makes perfect sense.

Without coming under the care of any church body, he enrolls in seminary, taking his new bride with him. She goes to work teaching school, and he sits around seminary pontificating on how illogical infralapsarianism is. But he passes his work anyhow and graduates. Soon he receives a "call" from a group of folk about whom he knows next to nothing and who know next to nothing about him. They pressure presbytery to waive all kinds of time and internship requirements, and he is rushed into ordination quicker than King Henry II arranged for Thomas a Becket to be ordained the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is ecstatic. Visions of the Apostle Paul, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Billy Graham dance in his head. He even borrows money to buy a Geneva gown and the two Tabs of the Law, so he can look like the portly Whitefield.

It isn't long before his ecstasy is dampened. After preaching his second, thirty-five minute sermon, he receives a visit from the most influential elder in the church, Edgar Plutophile. Edgar tells him that their former pastor never preached more than twenty minutes, and he was the favorite speaker at the Rotary Club, often using the same message both places. After Joe Christian fails to meet the twenty-minute mark for the third Sunday in a row, Edgar shows up with two other elders, both of whom work for Edgar. Joe notices Edgar's big Masonic ring and wonders how his forehead might look with a big "G" and a compass and square embossed there, because Edgar is plenty worked up.

It isn't long before Joe receives a call to another church, but this time his "prayer partner" and confidant on the session turns out to be a womanizer, and Joe discovers that his wife is having an affair with this "Spiritual Giant"- he became her "prayer partner," too.

Joe goes to his presbytery broken-hearted, looking for help. One of the assistants at the Will-o'-the-Wisp Presbyterian Church tells him that they have an opening for somebody to do their telephone solicitation. Another simply says, "You no longer meet the qualifications for being a pastor."

So Joe gets a job at the Office for Health and Human Services, and begins to go to night school, balancing work and visitation with his two children, while working on his MSW. After taking a hiatus from church attendance for a couple of years, he starts going back to a Southern Baptist Church down the road from the cracker-box, apartment complex that he calls home. It is connected with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the preaching leaves a good bit to be desired, but at least they are kind, and many people actually seem to love the Lord Jesus and other people, too.

In the course of time, he meets a sweet, young divorc‚e at their Singles Fellowship, and after three years they get married. They arrange their weekends with their blended family, so that their free weekends match. Every other weekend they head out of town and really develop a close bond with the local chapter of the Good Sam Club. Their great ambition in life is to move up from their Slide-in, Pick-up camper to a Holiday Rambler.

As we think about "Joe Christian's" experience and then look at the data from the New Testament, we see great contrasts.
. . . (To Be Continued)