The work of a minister in Christ’s church is wide-ranging and burdensome. As an office with weighty responsibility, those who become ministers will inevitably fail in the work unless they have had a real calling. But what does the call to the ministry consist of? What is the person called to, and how can a genuine call be recognised? In the following updated extract John Brown of Wamphray explains the connection between the work, the office, and the church as well as distinguishing between different kinds of call.

There is such a thing as the visible church

A visible church exists and is continued in the world. A call to the ministry has an undoubted relation to the visible church. It is in the visible church that this ministry is placed by God (1 Cor. 12:28). It is over the visible church that overseers are set by the Holy Ghost (Acts 20:28). It is the visible church that ministers must feed, by dispensing the ordinances of God. It is towards the visible church that ministers must act the part of watchers, messengers, ambassadors, administrators or stewards, co-workers with God, fathers, rulers, overseers, nurses, teachers, stars, angels, friends of the bridegroom, labourers, pastors, builders, and so on.

All their ministrations are for such a company. Their work is to convert strangers, to confirm and build up believers, to instruct the ignorant, to strengthen the weak, to bring home those who wander out of the way, etc, as also to keep up, and lead others in, the public worship of God. There cannot be a call to the ministry without a visible church.

The visible church has an ongoing ministry

There is a standing, ongoing ministry in the visible church. A call to an office, presupposes the office, otherwise the call would be to a nonentity. It would be ridiculous to debate about a call to an office, if the office itself is in question.

This standing ministry in the house of God is necessary, and must not be laid aside, or annulled. It is an ordinance and institution of Jesus Christ, and must be recognised as such, and preserved and kept pure as such. If it was not ordained by Christ, it would be no great matter if it was completely laid aside, and all debate about a call to it would be utterly needless.

Ministers need a call to the ministry

No one ought to take upon himself the office of being a minister in the house of God, without a lawful call. If everyone who pleased, could take on him this office, why would there need to be a call to it? If we agree that a man needs a call, this means we agree that some particular persons, and they alone, must be authorised to take up this office, and that in an orderly way.

Just as none may take this office upon themselves without a lawful call, so no one may do the work which is proper to this office, if they are not called to the office. The call to the office is only appointed in order to lay a bar in the way of others from taking upon themselves to do the work belonging to the office.

Neither the office, nor the work proper to the office, is common to all the members of the church. If the work was common to all, what use would there be of a special office for this work, and why would there need to be a call, authorising some but not others to do the work of that office?

Church officers and church members, as such, are different and to be distinguished. Not all church members are church officers.

There are ways to recognise a real call

A call is different from gifts and qualifications. A call to an office presupposes for one thing that the person called is fitted and qualified for the office; and at the same time it presupposes that having these qualifications is not a sufficient ground for him to take upon him the office, or to perform the proper work of the office. For if his qualification was sufficient to warrant him for the office and the work, the call would be useless and wholly superfluous. A call must mean a proper, real and formal call, not a false, imaginary, and supposed or virtual one.

There are real and sure rules, grounds and evidences of a lawful call laid down in the Word, by which a true call may be distinguished from a false and spurious call. The solution of the question, “What is a right call, and what is a wrong call?” does not depend on our imaginations and fancies, but must be had in the Word. Therefore, if someone wants to describe to us what is a right call to the office of a minister in the church, he must not think it enough to tell us his dreams and suppositions, but he must give us grounds from the Word on which we must rest.

A call is not the same as invitation or ordination

Theologians speak of several sorts of “calling” to the ministry. In common parlance, what is referred to as a “call” is performed by the people inviting, making choice of, and submitting to the ministry of some specific person. This is more properly called “election,” and is itself distinct from “ordination.” We are speaking, however, of a call in the sense of “mission” or “commission,” that is, that which formally empowers the person called to perform the work belonging to that office, and legally authorizes him to it.

Different sorts of calls must be distinguished

Paul saying in Galatians 1:1 that he was “an apostle, not of man, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,” shows that we are to distinguish calls and calls. (Not to mention that the first expression, “of men,” is commonly taken for an unlawful call, one that is merely of man, of themselves, or others, such as false prophets and false apostles had.)

We must distinguish between the immediate call from God and Christ, without the intervening of man, and the mediate call, which, though it is also of God, yet it comes by the intervention of some deed of man, and so is said to be “by man.” The apostles and some others were sent out immediately by Christ (e.g., in Acts 1, Matthias, the person on whom the lot fell, was sent immediately from God). Mediate calls were given to other church officers, appointed to their office by them, and so forth in succeeding generations, according to the way and method set down in the Word. What we are now discussing is the mediate call, seeing that the immediate call ceased with the extraordinary persons who were called by it, and who were also endued with extraordinary gifts (Matt. 10:1; 2 Cor. 12:12), or had some other extraordinary thing in their mission, which abundantly evidenced it to be immediately from God.

We may note further that there is a mediate call which may be described as singular and rare, or not very ordinary. For example, when a church is being set up, and not yet constituted, and all things are out of order, through necessity, some of the things requisite in an orderly call must be passed by and dispensed with. There is also a mediate call which is ordinary, and is usually to be followed, according to the rules set down in the Word.

Again, we are to distinguish between an outward call and an inward call. The outward call is what is done by men, according to the appointment of Christ, after examining the person, when he is separated and set apart, with solemn prayer and laying on of hands, for the ministry. That is “committing the work unto faithful men,” and appointing them to the work of the ministry. The inward call is the Lord signifying His mind and will inwardly to the man himself, that He is calling and appointing him to the ministry, not only equipping him with the necessary gifts and qualifications, but also powerfully and sweetly inclining his mind, and settling his will, to willingly take up this employment, for holy and pure ends; and by other events in His providence, manifestly signifying it to be His mind that this man shall serve Him in the work of the ministry.

FURTHER READING

AUTHOR MENU