When is the last time you heard a pastor make a passionate plea for people to respond to God’s call to be a pastor, a missionary, or to be in full-time vocational ministry? Better yet, if you are a pastor, when is the last time you emphasized following God’s call and invited people in your congregation to follow God into vocational ministry?
It’s simply not happening with the same frequency and passion that it once did. Rarely do I hear pastors and church leaders having conversations about calling out the called. The reality is that the men and women God is calling to serve Him are sitting in our churches every Sunday. Where else would they be? It is from among God’s people in the local church that he calls preachers, missionaries, church planters, etc. God uses His Shepherds and the proclamation of His Word to convince and convict people of their unique calling to ministry. When we are intentional about creating a fertile atmosphere for men and women to be called, trained, and sent out, the work of God flourishes and multiplies far beyond what we can do alone in our churches. Aren’t you thankful someone in some church taught you and encouraged you to follow God’s leadership? Who was that? I bet you remember names and faces of men and women who invested in you and mentored you. For our Christian work to prosper in Montana, it is necessary for us to call out the called. It is absolutely necessary for us to believe that God is still saving people and that He is still calling people out of our local churches in Montana.
We’ve made enough excuses about how hard ministry is in Montana, how small our churches are, how few resources are available to us, and the list goes on. God is still on His throne and His Kingdom is glorious and pervasive on the earth. The gates of hell will not prevail against His church. We are not defeated, and we must remember that God is still building His army. He’s still adding numbers to the troops from our churches in Montana.
Who has He put in your life that you are helping to discern their unique gifting and calling? Will you pray with me, and ask God to send laborers into the harvest, and for them to come from our churches. Ask God to give you someone to love, train, and mentor? The following is a related article from Baptist Press about creating an atmosphere in the local church to call out the called. https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/first-person-calling-out-the-called/
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