Man of God, Called to Preach

Many of us begin our careers with the goal of achieving success. If we haven't entered our work as a result of God's calling, we will eventually face a chasm of deep frustration and emptiness. Success flatters but does not provide a lasting sense of purpose and fulfillment. So often we enter careers with wrong motives-money,prestige, and even pressure from parents or peers. Failing to match our work with our giftedness and calling is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. If that happens over an extended period, a person crashes. At this time, many make another mistake. Workplace believers think that beginning a new career in "full-time Christian work" will fill the emptiness they feel. However, this only exacerbates the problem because they are again trying to put another square peg into a round hole. The problem is not whether we should be in "Christian work" or"secular work," but rather what work is inspired by gifts and calling. If there is one phrase I wish I could remove from the English language it is "full-time Christian work." If you are a Christian, you are in full-time Christian work, whether you are driving nails or preachingthe gospel. The question must be, are you achieving the God-given calling for your life? God has called people into business to fulfill His purposes just as much as He has called people to be pastors or missionaries. It is time for workplace believers to stop feeling like second-class citizens for being in business. It is time workplace believers stop working toward financial independence so that they can concentrate on their "true spiritual calling." This is the great deception for those called to business. -- Os Hillman

In nothing has the church so lost Her hold on reality as in Her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world's intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion. But is it astonishing? How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of life? The church's approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confiined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes on him is to make good tables." --Dorothy Sayers

"There is truly is no division between sacred and secular except what we have created. And that is why the division of the legitimate roles and functions of human life into the sacred and secular does incalculable damage to our individual lives and the cause of Christ. Holy people must stop going into "church work" as their natural course of action and take up holy orders in farming, industry, law, education, banking, and journalism with the same zeal previously given to evangelism or to pastoral and missionary work ."
--Dallas Willard, The Spirit of Discipline, pg 214

What sort of picture develops in your mind's eye when you read the title of this post? For most, I'm sure it will conjure up an image of a guy in a suit and tie, standing behind a pulpit, preaching the Word of God. More than likely, he will be on staff, the 'main man' at a 'church'.

I believe that within the body of Christ, we are all given gifts to help us function as the body. For some reason, that of pastor/teacher has been elevated to almost a priestly role, functioning in a similar manner to the levitical priests or one of the prophets. The other gifts seem to all play a supporting role and I don't see that in scripture. I look around at churches today (and I suppose for the last few hundred years) and see that everyone looks to this 'man of God' as their head rather than the Lord. Few would acknowledge that, but everyone looks at the pastor as the one who knows the word better, has some kind of 'special' knowledge of God, is further ahead spiritually, and is their authority. This is very dangerous both for the members of the church and for the pastor. For years seminaries taught that pastors shouldn't get too close to members of the congregation. It is the only gift that we, for some reason, now substitute for the person's first name. Pastor Jones, Pastor McCarthy, or sometimes we just shorten it to calling him Pastor, as in "Pastor just called and wants to see if you can meet on Thursday during lunch--he doesn't want to use his 'own time' to spend time with you." My husband is an encourager. When we were in a typical church, he was always put in a teaching role, because he has learned to use his gift of encouragement in that way. We don't call him Encourager Jim. He's Jim. He's an encourager, so that's what he does. Others have the gift of giving, yet we don't call them Giver Charlie or Giver Terry. Why do we do that with the role of pastor? I don't get it.

Pastors(as we know them today) rarely have normal friendships in the church because of those things. Since they don't have these 'real' relationships, they have no one to really walk with them through things like grief, doubt, discouragement, depression, family problems, sexual temptation, etc. This leaves them very susceptible to all sorts of stuff. The way we put pastors up on a pedestal is also dangerous to the rest of the church. All we see is this guy a few times a week, dressed up with his family all perfect, and never see his flaws, doubts, struggles, etc. It makes others wonder what is wrong with them when their walk isn't the perfect sinless example that the pastor's seems to be.

Don't misunderstand. I don't think pastors are this group of hypocritical closet sinners. Far from it. I do believe they are just the same as any other group of men who are following the Lord, at different stages of their walk, with sins that 'so easily entangle'. They need to be in relationship with the rest of the body in order to deal with these things. I am certainly not against having pastors or preachers but I think the role we have cut out for them is much different than what it was meant to be.

I am getting off track here. My point is that all Christ-followers are men and women of God and we are all called to preach. Preaching doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a pulpit or a platform or a suit and tie, or even a service in a church building. We are to be ready "in season and out of season" to give a reason for the hope that is within us. Look at preaching in the new testament. It wasn't from a prepared outline with seven points that all begin with P. These men walked with Jesus and they told everyone about it. Pretty simple. Very effective.

Unfortunately, we teach our male children (and adults) that the only way to be truly spiritual is to be in "full-time" christian work. The only way to be truly sold out to Jesus is to be a preacher(in the traditional sense). I illustrate this with the following story....

About two years ago, there was a baptism at our 'church'. Two of the folks being baptized were older teenage twins. The pastor baptized one of them with very little fanfare other than a testimony of salvation and some of this person's schooling plans. The next one came up to be baptized and the pastor told us (with great enthusiasm) that "so and so has a calling from the Lord to be a youth pastor". The place went wild with clapping and amens. I was dying. What is that all about? The reality is that most believers aren't gifted with something that involves preaching. Yet they're just as in love with the Lord. We teach them that the only way to demonstrate that we REALLY love him is to get "The Call". I have yet to see this 'call' in scripture for one gift any more than the others.

I will tell you that with all our years in the organized church, filling every role from A to Z and then some.............most of what we did within the church setting had very little impact until we took it a step further and made it 'organic'. Growth took place in others and ourselves when it happened in relationship. Sunday school class had little impact. When we got together individually with couples from the class and we actually got involved in each others' lives, real growth happened. Cell group had little impact when we huddled around fill-in-the-blank lesson books, but it changed lives when we 'got real' and started talking about real struggles and asked each other questions that kept us up at night. Men's breakfasts can be stilted and phony until they are the result of real friendships rather than assigned groups, where guys really care about each others' marriages and families and they are accountable to each other out of relationship rather than a checklist.

I realized I've rambled here, but there is just so much I could talk about on this topic of the church/giftings/callings. I have seen a few of my friends get saved or come back to the Lord and just assume that the logical next step (if they're really committed) is to become a pastor. I've seen some people really struggle that way because it was neither their call or their gifting....or at least not in the setting we traditionally put the pastor/teacher in. Then if it doesn't happen for them.....they assume they are a spiritual failure.

So now I've revealed my radical self. Sorry, I guess. I hope this doesn't come across as terse, it wasn't intended that way. I must also say that I welcome comments, whether you agree or not. I can't be afraid of being wrong. I need to always look at what I think critically, in light of God's Word.

Ephesians 4:11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until 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.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Romans 12:4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.