Question #1
Please help me with a question I have been trying very hard to understand. If a man is called into the ministry is his
wife also called? If not, how can a man and his wife care for a congregation? Thank you very much.
Response
A call to the ministry affects the entire family. In this sense it is a shared calling. To put it in its proper place, the wife is the man’s companion by covenant. So it makes good sense to say that when the Lord calls the man, surely he will help the wife to be in accord with her husband. If the calling is the truly of the Lord, He will see to it. God is not into breaking up homes.
Question #2
How do you know if you are called to the ministry?
Response
A call to the ministry is not something that can be ignored. It will rest upon the heart continually. Plus, when a person is being called by God, the call invokes a response. This means that a call to the ministry will result in a person entering the ministry. This is why there is an old saying, which goes something like this; “If a person can resist a call to the ministry, there was no call to begin with.”
*Original questions modified for clarity
Journal,
The afore questions are examples of the some of the kinds of questions that I receive on my ‘Ask the Pastor’ site. In this instance the questions have to do with a call to the ministry. For the sake of simplicity I’ll only deal with certain issues that are particular to the call to preach the gospel in the full-time ministry. These called stewardships come as a lifetime assignment from God. But a call to the ministry will always have its resting place of the heart of the person called.
In dealing with a call to the ministry, there are qualifiers that should be understood. First is this — All believers are called to a holy priesthood. It is part of our ‘born from above’ relationship with God the Father. Thus all believers are accorded the privilege of sharing the gospel wherever and with whomever the opportunity may present itself. This is the general calling.
However, there are certain callings that involve a stewardship of responsibility from the Lord. Two of the primary callings are that of a pastor and that of the evangelist. The apostle Paul gives a basic summary on the purpose of these stewardships:
“And *He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ…” (Eph 4:11-15)
“*He gave some” – Jesus had over 500 disciples. Some of these believers were assigned roles as apostles, some would serve as prophets, others as evangelists, etc. (Cf. 1Co15:3-6) Notice the purpose for these special servants: “For for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…”
*Place your cursor over a Scripture reference and it will appear.
It is important to understand that no one takes these callings to themselves. These stewardships will have rested in the background of the ‘called’ minister’s life from the time of childhood. (Even before.) The apostle said that God had separated him from His mother’s womb. The proper time came and with it came a special grace anointing to fit the minister to his calling.
Sure its a mystery. And this is why it is said that if a person can avoid a call to the ministry it is because there was no call to begin with. Cf. Gal1:15-17; Jer1:5; Acts 9:15; 13:2; Rom1:1
Scriptural mandates
For the sake of time here are a few references that bring out what a stewardship of ministry from God entails:
“Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col 1:25-27)
“For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.” (1Co 9:16-17)
“Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.” (1Co 4:1-2)
“Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.“ (1Co 9:13-14)
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.” (1Ti 1:12-14)
Personal Insights on the Call
Ever since childhood I’ve had this consciousness of a call of God on my life. There have even been times when I sought to bargain with God over my call. I remember as a teen when I was facing trouble, in a prayer to the Lord, I said, “Lord, if you will get me out of trouble I will preach your word.” Well, the trouble passed. But why would I even think to bargain with God about preaching the gospel?
I can’t tell you why except that in the deep of my heart was an imprint, ‘Called to preach’. What makes this even more odd is that I wasn’t raised in a church environment. Actually I had more than my share of troubles as a youth.
I joined the Navy at age eighteen. Spent considerable time in the Orient and aboard ship. I did all the things that sailors are noted for doing. Yet deep in my heart was this continuous ache. Nothing I did brought satisfaction. The ache became so pronounced that I even interviewed with a Catholic priest aboard my ship, hoping he could help me with this ache. He gave me a book to read. The book didn’t help. There was something deeper.
Let me skip a few months forward in time. Yes, I did surrender to a call to the ministry at age 24. But rather than continuing with this part of my story on the call, you can read my testimony at: http://buddymartin.net/blog/testimony/
My purpose thus far has been to give my readers an idea how the call to the gospel ministry cannot be ignored. What I want to do now take it a step further and share about my wife. Betty had been raised in a ministers’ home. And here we come back to the question…
Does the Wife Share the Call of Her Husband
Let me keep this on a personal testimony level. You can fill in the blanks and make your own decision about the wife’s call to serve with her husband.
Your God Shall be My God
It was April, 1965. We were living in Montrose, Colorado, and had just brought our first-born son home from the hospital. As we placed Nathan between us in the bed, our talk went to the future, and to other children that we would have. I had already accepted my call to the ministry. That scene is forever set before me. I can’t explain the joy of having a son. And this joy comes with each child born to the family.
But for some reason I felt this need to take our new born son home to Louisiana, to be around my dad. I struggled with my own thoughts; ‘How can I ask my wife to move so far away from her parents?’ I came up with a plan. I got a map and drew a line between Montrose, Colorado, and my home in Louisiana. Then I would suggest to Betty and we find a place half way between the two points. That would be fair. And that was about as close to being fair as I knew to go.
When I shared my thoughts with Betty, she simply reached for her Bible. This is what she read to me:
“Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” (Rth 1:16-17)
She stunned me. At that moment I knew that my Betty was a special person and a special gift to me. Its been that way in our forty-seven years of marriage. Betty had been joined to me and to my call. She had been fashioned by God to have her place in the gospel ministry. Yes, I believe that the wife shares equally in her husband’s call to the gospel ministry.
God uses frail human vessels
Have I ever wondered about my call to the ministry? I’ve never wonder if I have a call, but I have often wondered why the Lord would choose me. I don’t see one thing in me that I would call a qualifier for the ministry. But that was God’s plan from the beginning. The Lord isn’t looking for those who seem to have achieved in life. He chooses those who can best testify to His grace and His glory.
Paul lays this out very well:
“For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the…
“… called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and
“…God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.” (1Co 1:22-29)
The Old Time Preacher Man
Some of the best preachers in the world are not necessarily found on TV. They are often found simply tending their flocks in small country churches. With that in mind here is a song by my cousin Alwyn Willis, about the old-time preacher man. Let it speak to your heart….
Buddy
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