Series: Calling

Author: Steve Childers

Title: Secondary Ministry Calling

Having defined the concept of a Primary Calling as the calling from God to all followers of Christ to a life and work of ministry, we turn now to examine the concept of Secondary Calling.

A Secondary calling is the unique way that followers of Christ fulfill their Primary Calling. This refers to someone’s normal work, job, or occupation. Sometimes it’s referred to as someone’s vocation.

When the Apostle Paul writes to the followers of Christ in Colossae, he writes,

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)

God’s Master Plan for the “work of ministry,” for fulfilling His purposes in the world today, is for His followers always to be living in an ongoing Sabbath Rhythm of one day of rest when they gather together for the ministry of Worship and the Word, followed by 6 days of Work, where they are scattered to be light in spiritual darkness and salt in societal decay proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom in both word and deed.

Richard Lovelace writes, “In their Prophetic Role they proclaim and uphold God’s truth in a world filled with lies. In their Priestly Role they pray and intercede for others to experience God’s mercy and blessing. And in their Kingly Role they use all their resources to help make God’s invisible kingdom more visible, not only in human hearts, but in every sphere of their lives until it reflects the order of heaven.”

It’s easy to see how, except for the Cross, nothing has had such a transforming impact on culture through the ages as this biblical understanding of the Primary Calling of God issued to ALL followers of Christ through their Secondary Calling of work—no matter how mundane.

With this understanding of the Primary and Secondary Callings of God lets go back now to an excerpt from Ephesians 4 and look very closely at verses 12-13. Here we read “…and he (Christ) gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds (pastors), and teachers, to do the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. “ Ephesians 4:12-13

Notice here that the ascended Christ gave gifts to His church in the form of people who are called by God, given what we’re calling here secondary callings; through which they fulfill the Primary Calling given to all followers of Christ.

Let’s look first at who these people are: They are “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds (pastors), and teachers.”

Now let’s look at what they are called to do in these secondary callings: They are called…” to do the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ.”

The problem is that most Christians today think this is what the Bible teaches–that God only calls a small, elite group of people to do “work of the ministry.” But this is not what the Bible teaches at all. 

I’m assuming some of you have already figured out that this biblical text from Ephesians 4 has some very important words deleted from it. Now let’s look at what the full text: It does not say they are called…”to do the work of the ministry.” It says they are called….”to equip the saints for the work of ministry..

“And he (Christ) gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds (pastors) and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12-13

Here we learn that God has given a secondary calling to a very small minority of his followers to Equip His people for their work of ministry. In other words, God calls and gifts some people, including pastors and teachers, to equip members in the body of Christ to actually do what the Bible calls the work of the ministry.

Or to use our terms in this article, “God calls some people, including pastors and teachers, to fulfill their primary calling through their unique secondary calling of equipping God’s people to fulfill their high and holy calling to do the work of ministry!

So the Biblical view of being called to the ministry is actually the opposite of the popular view. Most people think that clergy are the ones called to do the work of ministry and lay people are called to support them in that work. But the Biblical view is that lay people are the ones called to do the work of ministry and clergy are called to equip and support them in that work. So, there are people called by God to be ordained pastors and teachers, etc.

But we must first understand that that call is no more spiritual or valuable in the eyes of God than the secondary calling of any other follower of Christ.

It’s just different.

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