How Can I Confirm My Call to be a Leader? (Calling, Part 5)
Series: Calling (Part 5)
Author: Dr. Steven L. Childers
Title: Process of a Leader’s Call
We’ll conclude this series with some of the normal, practical ways that a call to church leadership is confirmed. There's really nothing magical here, no secret formula for determining God's will. However, godly wisdom and experience have proven a few very practical ways that have been helpful for people to confirm their calling.
For instance, we cannot, we must not ignore the biblical material that models and commands prayer and fasting. In Luke 6, before Jesus chose the twelve, we read of him heading out to pray for an entire night. This is just indicative of a larger emphasis in the Gospel of Luke and its companion book of Acts, and it demonstrates the centrality and the priority of prayer in the ministry and the life of Jesus and the early church. At every significant ministry transition as you study Luke and Acts, you see the prayer was an essential component.
And things are no different for us, prayer should be in a sense, placing us in more intimate communication with God's were seeking to discern his call for our lives, asking him for clear direction of where he is sending you. And fasting is usually neglected, and shouldn't be; it's the conscious effort to set aside the legitimate appetites of the body in order to focus more effectively on seeking God, seeking God's direction and clarity for your calling. And so when seeking to confirm your call, always be sure to set aside time for prayer and for fasting.
Another key dynamic and confirm your call is ministry experience. Continued involvement in ministry is probably one of the most effective ways to confirm your call. That’s because that's the only way that you can confirm that you have the gifts that are necessary to fulfill the call. And Dr. Ed Clowney did us a great service by greatly demystifying the process of being called to the ministry by saying “the call of the word of God to the gospel ministry comes to all those who have the gifts for such a ministry.” And so the only way for you to know whether you have the call is whether you have the gifts, and the only way to know if you have the gifts is by exercising those gifts in active ministry.
Clowney’s just reflecting the same emphasis we see in Scripture. Paul writes to his son in the faith, Timothy, “for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God.” And often people miss the connection in Scripture, the critical link between Romans 12:1-2 and Romans 12:3-8. Most are familiar in Romans 12:1 & 2 where Paul makes the appeal by the mercies of God for his readers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable, spiritual worship, do not be conformed to the world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind that they would test, and that they may discern, (here's the key concept) what is the will of God.
What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? That's the question here, what is the will of God? How can I manifest my life of service? In particular, Paul actually goes on to answer the question in the next verses of 3-8 where he begins to talk about gifts. And verse 6, he says, “having gifts, then for according to the grace given to us, let us use them; if prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service then are serving, the one who teaches, in his teaching, the one who exhorts, in his exhortation,” on and on.
Peter makes the same point in 1st Peter 4:10-12, each one of you should use what ever gift he has received to serve others faithfully administering God's grace and all of its form. It’s not complicated, it's the process of active, ongoing involvement in ministry is the most effective way to confirm your call.
Ed Clowney also said, “to learn how you may serve Christ tomorrow, you must serve him today. Stir up your gifts, and Christ's call will be made clear.”
The third way to confirm your call is by seeking wise counsel. Proverbs 13:10 says, “Wisdom is found in those who take advice.” Seeking the wisdom of those who know you best, those who have done life with you, your immediate family, those who have lived with you, those who have worked with you, those who watched you live your life, are in a unique place to give you valuable feedback. And so you should be seeking out the counsel of those, especially those who are not threatened by you. Those that you know are free to speak boldly into your life, not just those who will tell you what you want to hear.
Never forget that this is a life decision, this is not just a compartmentalized vocational decision. Too often church leaders have become worldly, not considering seriously the negative impact and timing of a move into ministry at a critical time for their marriage, or for their children. If your vision and your faith is big enough to lead a church, then it should be big enough to see God work to change the heart of your spouse and family so that it's done in the right time, and it honors God and shows love to people. In other words, God does not call you into church planting or pastoring or being a missionary without also calling your wife. None of the process of confirming your call should be done in isolation.
A fourth way of confirming your call is through the spiritual authority, (spiritual leadership) in your life. This is in many ways one of the most important, and often the most neglected to the peril of many church leaders. In Hebrews 13:17 we’re told “obey your leaders and submit to their authority.” The apostle Paul admonished his son in the faith, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 5, “do not be hasty in the laying on of hands,” meaning in the ordination of the setting apart of people to be in these positions. The decision of church authority should normally play a very central role in helping you determine and confirm your call to be a church leader.
On a personal level, when the fire of personal and ministry trials hit hard, the church leader will often wonder, am I really called to do this? At those times that the church leader must not simply fall back on a subjective personal evaluation of his own ability, affinity, and opportunity. It is those times that you must be able to fall back on something much more external than your own personal evaluations. That’s why we often refer to God's call is being confirmed not only internally or subjectively, but also externally by others, and those others are not just the wise counsel of friends and colleagues, but especially the leaders in spiritual authority.
Often Satan the accuser will say “Ah, yes, you thought there was an inward call, that's because you wanted it so badly.” And at such times you desperately need to fall back on something much greater than your personal, subjective opinion, you need to fall back on the authority of the body of Christ, on the church of Christ. You need to be reminded that your God-ordained spiritual authority evaluated, assessed you, and made this determination to lay hands on you objectively, and they laid hands on you and they set you apart for the calling that they acknowledge God had placed on your life.
