Discerning a Call 1

Most anyone in the church at some point or another hears about this mysterious thing we refer to as 'a call,' and especially those considering entering some sort of full-time or at least more-intentional-on-some-level ministry. In a lot of ways it seems like something in the American church we're absolutely obsessed with, really. I've lived through a lot of it, have heard a lot about it, have thought about it, discussed it, wrestled with it. I've always wanted to write, but it has always seemed too vast to tackle. I have no real plans to turn this into a 'series' and don't know where it will lead, but there's one facet I've wanted to get out recently...so we'll get this started and see where it goes from here...

More often than not, discerning a call is not rocket science. Start at the easiest, most obvious place: What do you like to do? What do you want to do? What seems like common sense to you?

I told a friend once that he had the gift of evangelism. "I do? You think so?" was his response. It was so crystal clear to me, but it came so naturally to him that he didn't see it. I told him I could see this gift in Him because he was so eager to talk to people about Christ. "Doesn't everybody do that?" was his response. "No, some people are terrified to do it," I told him. This is a guy who built a full-size cross out of wood and carried it around a city center in a foreign country with the objective to a) take Christ's words about carrying a cross very literally and b) start some conversations. I tried convincing him that this was not normal behavior despite what he may think, and that only people with the gift of evangelism would even entertain the idea.

From the very first time I visited a church plant, I was hooked. Setting up chairs in an old VFW building in Staten Island with a diverse, rag-tag community of people who didn't know the first thing about Jesus or the church...so much about this scenario excited me, so much seemed like common sense, why wouldn't everyone want to be involved in work like this? The more my experiences with church planting grew, the more it seemed like common sense: this is what the church should be doing, this is what Christians should be excited about, this is what I want to be involved with. Church planting seemed like the solution to everything: Church is too big? Plant one. Can't find a church? Plant one. And more than that, when I read scripture, I saw church planting everywhere I looked. But of course, it didn't take long for me to see that some people just really don't like going to church in VFWs or school cafeterias or community centers, and some people are scared to death of the work involved in gathering a new community. The fact that it seems so common sense to me is the first step of recognizing my call towards church planting.

One couple in our organization love the beginning stages of church planting. They have seemingly no fear of moving by themselves to a town where they know no one, where there is no existing church network, no nearby Christian support. And they have a knack for gathering people around them and turning it into a community. The problem is, after a good five years or so, they are ready to move on and start again. Right now they have been in the same town for around eight years, have a church of thirty or forty people, and they are tired, eager for the next project. If I were in their shoes, I would just be starting to get comfortable and excited, just now be breathing a sigh of relief, glad those first years are over and eager for the "real work" to start. That tells us something about the respective work to which we are called.

What about the average Joe in the average church? Not the one that is coasting, just attending for the sake of attending. The one who is committed, who serves behind the scenes, who supports the life of the church. What is he called to? To him, the most common sense way to serve God is to work hard, lead a family in love, give a percentage of his income to sustain the life of the church, and help the people around him who need help. He reads scripture and everything points him to this simple lifestyle of obedience. We start to see some clues about his calling, and it would not be right for us to make him feel guilty for not being a preacher or a church planter.

Put another way, ask this question. What is it you complain about? What do you see as missing in your church? We don't practice community...we don't serve the poor...we don't teach our children...we don't drink enough tea together...we ignore the neighbors in the town around us...we aren't serious about the Bible...we don't do our musical worship with excellence... Even our grumbling can show us what is most common sense to us, where we are gifted, in what direction we are called.

The trick is not burdening others with our own common sense gifting and calling. Sometimes it's so common sense that we think everyone should be doing it with us, and that's simply not the case. That's not to say we don't talk about it, we don't try to persuade others of the importance of certain things, and we stick to ourselves taking action in our own little individual corners. No, we talk and share and impress and persuade, but at the end of the day we act on our own calling while trying to see how others' gifts and calls fit in with ours and how mine fits in with theirs. How do the puzzle pieces go together to join as a body? How do we free one another--supporting and serving--so that each one can minister in the best possible and most effective way? The church planters need Average Joes and the Average Joes need church planters. Let's not forget this most beautiful part of the creativity and diversity of God's design.

The discussion of a call can get pretty thick and heavy and convoluted sometimes, much more complicated than it needs to be. Let's simplify by starting in the most obvious place: How did God design you?