Proclaimer Blog
Called to the Ministry?
Last Sunday I had the privilege of speaking to over 100 students at a lunch at St Andrew the Great Church in Cambridge. I was asked to speak on the question, ‘who is called into paid Christian work?’ Perhaps rather controversially, I kicked off by showing that the NT’s answer to that question is no one! That is there seems to be no biblical indication that the NT office of pastor requires a special ‘calling’ in the same way that prophets and high priests were called in the OT. Indeed, the NT seems only to use the word ‘calling’ to describe the call to the Christian life in general (e.g. 2 Tim1:8-9).
That said, I do believe that we need many men and women to give themselves to full time Christian ministry both in this country and overseas. So here were the 6 answers I gave to the question ‘who is called into paid Christian work?’ I won’t unpack them, but will give the Bible verses I took people to and hope you can see where I was going.
1. Those whom Christ appoints – Eph 4:11
2. Those whom the church identifies
3. Those who are godly in life – 1 Tim 3:1-7
4. Those who are gifted to teach – 1 Tim 3:2
5. Those who understand the times – 2 Tim 4:1-5
6. Those who are prepared to suffer – 2 Tim 4:7-8
In his book Called to the Ministry Edmund Clowney wrote this: ‘The stairway to the ministry is not a grand staircase but a back stairwell that leads down to the servants’ quarters.’ (p.43). May the Lord of the harvest raise up and appoint many servants for His harvest field. The Cornhill Training Course is a great toe in the water to see if full time Bible teaching ministry is for you. If you can’t give us 2 years, how about coming on The Cornhill Summer School in the last week of June?