The Call to Ministry

By Edward L. Hayes

[Edward L. Hayes, President Emeritus of Denver Seminary, Denver, Colorado, resides in Santa Barbara, California.]

The current revival of interest in ecclesiology has opened up both old and new fields of investigation for evangelicals. While certainly not new, the concepts of “calling” and “vocation” have particular relevance to the contemporary church. Ministers and missionaries often speak of their call to ministry in much the same manner as did the prophets and apostles, although this language is disappearing. Evangelicals have tended to individualize the concept of a “call to ministry,” ignoring the relationship with the call to salvation and minimizing the importance of church sanction of spiritual gifts.

The concept of a special call has influenced the idea of a professional ministry. In Roman Catholicism the Latin word vocatio describes this calling. Western affluence has enabled evangelical churches to support pastors and others in so-called “full-time ministry.” However, the use of the term “full-time” has often created a gulf between “ministers” and others in church congregations. In much of the world pastors receive little or no pay for service rendered, which lessens the distinction between clergy and laity. Many of these servants of God would object to being called “part-time ministers.” Yet the popular notion exists that a separate call sets these individuals apart from other believers.

Halfway through the twentieth century Forrester wrote of the “call to the ministry in a cosmos of callings.”[1] In his 1950 Cunningham Lectures at New College, Edinburgh, he declared that the ministry is no mere job. Recognizing that the idea of a “calling” has been trivialized and degraded, he wrote, “We must not throw it away, but we must regain its original meaning.”[2]

Recent studies of the vocational Christian ministry have reflected little interest in a theology of ministry. Works of serious research on the Christian ministry have studied the religious attitudes of the clergy,[3] aptitude for ministry,[4] mystical experiences by theological students and the clergy,[5] and identification of ministerial roles.[6] These studies reflect primarily sociological and psychological interests. Also studies in church growth have tended to focus on social sciences to the neglect of a theology of the church in which one might find discussions on the subject of calling.[7]

Developments within evangelicalism today point to the need for taking a fresh look at the subject of a call. One is the emergence of “megachurches” with their large professional staffs. Another is the current confusion and uncertainty in theological education as to how to “do” ministry, how to select candidates for the ministry, and how to define an adequate curriculum for ministerial preparation. Deemphasizing “call” to ministry in a context that promotes a utilitarian concept of ministerial service may ultimately be detrimental to evangelicalism.

Despite the prevailing shift from a theological base to a utilitarian and therapeutic focus in ministry, studies of ministerial call have not been totally neglected. Forrester and Nelson[8] referred to a special call, though their discussion was minimal and without definition. Lutheran and Baptist views of ordination expressed by two authors give useful although brief attention to the subject.[9] Douglas and Nicole give a more broadly based treatment of the Protestant concept of vocation or work.[10] Other authors treat the Protestant work ethic as a calling quite apart from a special call to ministry.[11] Kendall’s article on a call to holiness says nothing about a call to ministry.[12] A popular work by Michael Griffiths is representative of missiological literature in which one may still find the notion of a separate call to service mentioned but not described.[13]

Theological dictionary entries treat the subject of call with broad strokes, only minimally describing a special call and then only in historical reference to prophets and apostles. One of the more recent scholarly dictionaries devotes some attention to the topic beyond Old Testament references.[14] The Roman Catholic meaning of “vocation” is best described by Rahner and Küng.[15] The differences between these two authors are worthy of extensive treatment beyond this article. Most Protestant literature on a theology of ministry gives only scant attention to the subject of a call. Perhaps the matter of call is assumed.

In 1868 Lightfoot addressed the subject of call, but he gave no credence to a separation between laity and clergy. “The Minister,” he wrote, “is a priest in the same sense only in which each individual member of the congregation is a priest.” Yet he also wrote that the minister should be “called by God, for no man ‘taketh this honour to himself.’ ”[16] Lightfoot denounced sacerdotalism—the belief that persons in church offices have special mediatorial powers—while sanctioning the three offices of bishops, priests, and deacons.

More recently Bromiley expounded the biblical teaching on Christian ministry. He subsumed a special call to service under a general call to salvation.[17] A number of authors have written on lay renewal, but none of these addresses the subject of “call.”[18] Much of the literature on lay ministry assumes the biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers.

A theology of call may help protect the church from several extremes. One of these extremes is the view that a call is a private matter with little or no relationship or accountability to the church. Another view of calling separates the “professional” clergy from the laity. An adequate theology is also needed to help place proper focus on the servant quality of leadership consistent with Christ’s call to discipleship. A biblical call is quite divorced from cultural ideas of power. The case of Simon Magus who attempted to gain ecclesiastical preferment (Acts 8:5–24) stands out as a serious error to avoid. The English word “simony,” the buying or selling of church office or preferment, comes from this incident in Acts.

A theology of call must also account for what appears to be a calling to suffer. Whenever the church has been called on to suffer persecution, Christians have tended to resist its devastating effects by appealing to a high sense of calling (e.g., 1 Pet. 2:21). A call to suffer for doing right, in this case, is linked directly to being a follower of Christ and conveys a certain sense of the equality of believers. All Christians are together in this calling. While a calling to suffer is not directly related to a call to minister, any attempt to elevate martyrdom to a higher level of spirituality over other believers would be an error.

Call, Calling, and Vocation

A call of God is a sovereign act with immediate or temporal significance. It also may carry with it eternal intention. The words “call,” “calling,” or “vocation” essentially refer to the same thing. According to Bromiley the Greek word καλέω and its cognates are common in the New Testament and in the Septuagint. Καλέω is used of a summons or invitation, a petition to God, a naming of someone or something, a divine call to selected individuals for service, God’s calling of Israel, and particularly God’s summons to salvation, holiness, faith, the kingdom and glory, fellowship, heavenly inheritance, and service.[19]

In the Old Testament the word קָרָא is sometimes associated with a “call to service” (Isa. 48:15; 49:1). It is used in God’s calling of Moses (Exod. 3:4) and Samuel (1 Sam. 3:4–6, 8). While קָרָא is not used in God’s call of the prophets Isaiah and Amos, their call to special service is described (Isa. 6:1–13; Amos 7:14–15). In Jeremiah’s call to the prophetic role the Scriptures simply use the word נָתַן, “appointed,” a common word meaning “give” or in some instances “make” (Jer. 1:4–5).

The New Testament places emphasis on God’s call to salvation, holiness, faith, and service. God expresses His love by calling believers to share the glory of Jesus Christ through the gospel (2 Thess. 2:13–14), to share His kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:12), to receive the promise of eternal inheritance (Heb. 9:15), to fellowship with His Son (1 Cor. 1:9), and to lead a holy life (2 Tim. 1:9). This calling of God is by the grace of Christ (Gal. 1:6), was witnessed to by the apostles (1:15), and is mediated by the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5).

Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:13), and the chosen are “called” (8:30). These same persons are called to bear the name “saints” (1 Cor. 1:2), are called to peace (Col. 3:15), and to one hope (Eph. 4:4), and are said to be called out of darkness into light (1 Pet. 2:9).

The significance of the term “call” is heightened by the fact that believers bear the title, “called ones,” κλῆτοι, cognate of ἐκκλησία, which basically means “a gathering or a called-out group” (hence it came to mean “church”). Their calling is heavenward and upward (Phil. 3:14) and must be matched by a worthy life (Eph. 4:1). Christians are to confirm their calling and election (2 Pet. 1:10). The “called and chosen and faithful” followers will be with Christ, “the Lamb,” when He returns (Rev. 17:14). First Corinthians 7:17, while subject to various interpretations, refers to our calling to salvation and not to a separate variety of Christian service.[20]

God’s call to salvation is through His grace (Gal. 1:15) and not as a result of human works (Rom. 9:11). Rather, it is by God’s election. This calling is by a faithful God (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Thess. 5:24; 1 Pet. 5:10), linked to God’s own glory (2 Pet. 1:3), destined to sonship (Rom. 9:26; 1 John 3:1), peace (1 Cor. 7:15), freedom (Gal. 5:13), and eternal glory (1 Tim. 6:12; Heb. 9:15).

A special call of God to ministry may be understood as divine intervention in the life and work of an individual, pointing in some specific direction consistent with His will. This special call is marked by an overpowering sense of God’s leading and authority. Those called in this way testify to their reluctance to accept the call, and they often speak of their feelings of unworthiness. Yet those who attest to a special call often display boldness and confidence in God’s power in their lives.

The use of καλέω in Mark 1:20 indicates Jesus’ special calling to the disciples. Also the apostle Paul apparently received a special call to ministry. His conversion is perhaps the New Testament counterpart to special calls to Old Testament prophets. Ananias received instructions from the Lord to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and to ask for Saul of Tarsus. Concerning Saul God said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15, NIV). Only twice did Paul use κλητός of his own commission from God (Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:1). But aside from this, the overwhelming evidence points to a general calling of all Christians, which includes a call to service. Paul’s example, along with those of the prophets and the disciples, does not seem to be normative. Those who are “called” to eternal life are to give a good confession in the presence of many witnesses (1 Tim. 6:12–13), which implies a call to service within a call to salvation.

Yet this raises the question of whether the Scriptures speak of only one call or of separate callings, particularly a special call to ministry. Bromiley rejects the idea of two separate calls, one to salvation and the other to sanctification and service. “Perhaps the underlying problem in the historical outworking has been to separate what God has joined together. It seems to have been assumed too easily that there are two callings, a first to salvation and then another (or two others) to service and sanctification. Exegetical and dogmatic theology, however, have combined to bring the biblical nature of this distinction under suspicion.”[21] Clearly all Christians are called to serve God. What shape this takes for individuals and churches may vary, but our common discipleship under the lordship of Christ expresses itself in one call. Without doubt God’s sovereignty rules in every case; and appointment, commission, and divine direction may be expressed as a “call” without insisting on a clear distinction as to its nature.

A distinction does need to be made between a general call to salvation to all who hear the gospel and the Holy Spirit’s effectual calling. Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:14, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” have nothing to do with a separate and special calling to serve God. They refer instead to God’s invitation to salvation.

Apart from the special callings received by the disciples, Paul, and perhaps a few others, the New Testament makes no specific mention of a separate call to ministry. The call to salvation includes a call to servanthood, to follow the Lord, who “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45). Servanthood in this general calling extends to all who follow Christ. Paul exhorted believers to remember what they were when God called them (1 Cor. 1:26), and as Christian servants they were not to boast. The weak were called to confound the wise and the strong. Having the treasure of the gospel in “clay jars” demonstrates the all-surpassing power that comes from God (2 Cor. 4:7). And dedicated service is to be in response to the mercy of God (Rom. 12:1).

Interpretations of a Call to Special Ministry in Church History

A priesthood of believers within the early church was assumed under the leadership of the apostles and others who by gift and designation are commonly called “officers” in the church. The case cannot be made for separation of clergy and laity either in the New Testament or from earliest church records. In 1 Peter 2:4–10 the Greek words ἐκλεκτός (“called”) and λαός (“people”) refer to the same people. Lightfoot pointed out, however, that the early Christian ideal of each believer being viewed as a priest of God was eclipsed by the necessity of appointing special ministers.[22] Lightfoot’s description of the ideal New Testament ministry viewed every member of the human family as a potential member of the church, and, as such, a priest to God.

Ministry of the many by gift and office eventually became a ministry by the few. As early as Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians and Ephesians some gradations appeared in ministry, which eventually gave rise to orders of ministry by the mid-third century.[23] In the second century Clement of Alexandria saw the need for order in the church. Order in ministry, he said, depends more on succession of duty, spiritual gift, and sanction by the Holy Spirit and the church, and not on a special call. Clement hinted at apostolic succession, something that was developed later in the church to help establish authority and order.[24]

Ignatius viewed the church as consisting of single congregations ruled by a single bishop (elder). He emphasized obedience to church authority and he said there is no special call from God. Tertullian was presumably the first to coin the term “order” of ministry from the Latin ordinare or ordinato, which means “to classify as a group.” Eventually this led to the sacrament of ministry and the cleavage between clergy and laity. Pope Cornelius, one of forty-eight popes whom the Roman Catholic Church lists before Leo I (440–461), listed elders, deacons, bishops, presbyters, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers, and doorkeepers. A sacrament of orders could be conferred only by clerics of apostolic succession. The Catholic formula for ordination, established in 1622, states that the laying on of hands confirms vocation: “Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands.”[25] Only those who entered holy orders were said to have a divine vocation (calling).

Much earlier, Augustine had called all Christians priests because, he said, they are members of one Priest, Jesus Christ. He also felt, along with Jerome, that the title of bishop is a name of labor and not honor. Even earlier than Augustine, Ambrose wrote of the episcopacy and cautioned against casual attitudes toward a call from God: “No one should put himself forward, no one should take it upon himself. It must be a call from above.”[26] Nevertheless religious orders eventually replaced the call to a church office, and to this the Reformers strongly objected. Luther rejected the concept of religious vows, because to him they amounted to salvation by works. True faith, he maintained, needed to be worked out in the circumstances of ordinary life.

The Roman Catholic sacrament of ordination led to excesses. Appointments to religious offices were often given as reward for wealth and influence and not in recognition of a divine calling. These developments also marked a change from an inward faith to an outward sacramentalism. A century before Luther, John Hus had strongly protested against simony in the church (De Ecclesia, 1415). John Wycliffe wrote of his own disaffection with a corrupt clergy. His work (De Simonia, 1377) incurred the wrath of Pope Gregory XI, in part because his views included objections to “advowson,” the bestowal of priestly rights based on power and influence. Reformers were convinced that priestly preferments focused more on revenue than the salvation of parishioners “so that they might live luxuriously according to the flesh.”[27] Luther objected to special grace dispensed by the clergy on the theological grounds that justification was by faith alone, while Calvin raised similar objections in view of the doctrines of election and predestination. For Protestants “vocation” took on a vastly different meaning than it had for Roman Catholics. Reformers understood “calling” to be on a continuum between calling to be a Christian and calling to serve the church and society.[28]

A single focus captivated Reformed ideas of calling. It is important, Calvin wrote, “to hold on single-mindedly to our divine calling and to have God always walking ahead of us.”[29] The believers’ Christian calling is bound up with their association with the Cross, he taught. Thus salvation and service seem to be integrally related. Elsewhere in his Commentaries, Calvin seemed to sanction a special calling for those who direct the church of God, basing his argument on expositions of Jeremiah 1:9–10, 17. He rejected, however, any self-proclaimed prophet whose cleverness gained him prominence. Those called to direct the church of God are not absolved from guilt, Calvin wrote, if they fail to preach sincerely and boldly whatever is commanded in the Scripture.[30] It is not clear, however, whether Calvin made a definite distinction between two separate calls.

The language of a special call has been reserved almost exclusively for pastoral and missionary roles. It is admirable that those appointed to Christian leadership in the church demonstrate a sense of calling despite the evidence that calls to service are included within the call of God to salvation. All believers are to be engaged in the ministry of the church. “Everyone,” wrote Augustine, “is the servant of Christ in the same way Christ is also a servant.”[31] While the term “calling” can be used in the popular sense of the work of men and women in ministry, “it can be used in exactly the same sense of a salesman, a lawyer, a teacher or an actor.”[32] In other words ministry is neither an option for believers nor a special class of believers.

In the New Testament all believers are called of God. Yet some believers because of their spiritual gifts may be separated for a full-time exercise of ministry. However, this dedication, or even ordination, does not give special privileges to these individuals as special channels of grace nor does it elevate ministers above those who are in so-called “secular” callings.

An installation, ordination, or dedication should be carried out by a congregation only after prayer and careful examination of the “candidate.” This practice can help overcome the danger of self-proclaimed ministers who threaten the integrity of evangelicalism. Luther was convinced that a call was the same as confirmation and choice by the church. In 1525 he consecrated a deacon in the Wittenberg church, although the deacon had received no holy orders. This was the first known case of ordination in the evangelical form.

In 1549 Heinrich Bullinger produced a remarkable series of expositions on the church, in five books called the Decades. His words accentuate the importance of the ministry of teaching and preaching the Word. He wrote that the Lord Himself appointed the first leaders of the church, the apostles, “in order that all men might understand that the ecclesiastical ministry is the divine institution of God himself and not a tradition devised by men.”[33]

Summary

The following points summarize this doctrine of God’s calling.

1. The call to ministry is included in the general and efficacious call of God to salvation, faith, and discipleship. All Christians without exception are called to the ministry.[34] They all are to share in the ministry of the church.
2. History and the biblical record attest to special calls to prophets, apostles, and others; yet these should not be considered normative for believers in the church. Ministry is not the privilege of an elite corps of holy people.
3. Spiritual gifts determine ministry. The church, not individuals acting alone, may set apart spiritually gifted individuals for special ministry.
4. The words “call” or “calling” are appropriate to use in relationship to the mission and calling of the church. Ministry has its source in the example of Jesus Christ.
5. Human ordination, dedication, or consecration to ministry do not carry with them special privileges or unique powers and preferments.
6. While a “call” may refer in a general sense to Christian service, it may also refer to spiritual guidance. To say that one is called is tantamount to saying one is led by the Holy Spirit to exercise a spiritual gift, to carry out a task to go to a particular place in the world in the service of Christ.
7. The believer’s call to discipleship is a call to serve. Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world.”[35]
8. od’s calling is to be taken seriously. A high sense of call expressed in the lives of every believer will renew and energize the church.

Notes

1. W. R. Forrester, Christian Vocation (London: Lutterworth, 1951), chapter 15.
2. Ibid., 17.
3. Gary Maranell, Responses to Religion: Studies in the Social Psychology of Belief (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1974).
4. Vincent V. Herr, Screening Candidates for the Priesthood and Religious Life (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1964); and Thomas Plante and Marcus Boccanccini, “A Proposed Psychological Assessment Protocol for Applicants to Religious Life in the Roman Catholic Church,” Pastoral Psychology 46 (May 1998): 363-72.
5. Bernard Spilka, “The Structure of Religious Mystical Experience in Relationship to Pre and Post Experience Lifestyle,” International Journal of the Psychology of Religion 2 (1992): 241-57.
6. Samuel Blizzard, The Protestant Minister: A Behavioral Science Interpretation (Storrs, CT: Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1985); and Dean Hoge, John Dyble, and David Polk, “Influence of Role Preference and Role Clarity on Vocational Commitment of Protestant Ministers, Sociological Analysis 42 (spring 1981): 1-16.
7. A notable exception is George W. Peters, A Theology of Church Growth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981).
8. Forrester, Christian Vocation; and John Oliver Nelson, ed., Work and Vocation (New York: Harper, 1954). Both Forrester and Nelson revived interest in the Reformed idea of work as vocation.
9. Richard Junkuntz, “Theses toward a Lutheran Theology of the Call,” Currents in Theology and Mission 8 (June 1981): 141-45; and Glenn Hinson, “Ordination in Christian History,” Review and Expositor 78 (fall 1981): 485-96.
10. Ruth Douglas, The Protestant Doctrine of Vocation in the Presbyterian Thought of Nineteenth-Century America (New York: New York University, 1952); and Ian Nicol, “Vocation and the People of God,” Scottish Journal of Theology 33 (1980): 361-73.
11. Elton Trueblood, The Common Ventures of Life (New York: Harper, 1949); Dorothy Sayers, Why Work? (London: Methuen, 1942); James A. Robertson, Divine Vocation in Human Life (London: J. Clarke, 1925); and Emil Brunner, The Divine Imperative (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1947).
12. David W. Kendall, “The Christian’s Vocation: The Call to Holiness according to the First Epistle of Peter,” Asbury Seminarian 40 (spring 1985): 3-12.
13. Michael Griffiths, Give Up Your Small Ambitions (Chicago: Moody, 1970).
14. “Calling, Vocation,” in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, ed. Leland Ryken, James Wilhoit, and Tremper Longmann III (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998), 133–34. Call is said to extend to common people. Beyond specific calls to the disciples and the apostle Paul the New Testament places emphasis on God equipping people with requisite gifts (endowments and aptitudes). “What is retained, though, is the tremendous dignity that attaches to a religious calling and the sense of obligation that believers feel to respond to any call that comes from God” (p. 134).
15. Karl Rahner, The Religious Today (New York: Seabury, 1974); and Hans Küng, The Church (Garden City, NY: Image, 1976). Küng refers to “the whole people” as the priesthood (p. 473).
16. J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (1868; reprint, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1953), 262.
17. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Christian Ministry (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959).
18. See, for example, Hendrik Kraemer, A Theology of the Laity (London: Lutterworth, 1958); and Francis O. Ayers, The Ministry of the Laity (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967).
19. G. W. Bromiley, “Call, Calling,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 1:580–81.
20. For an extensive discussion of this verse see K. L. Schmidt, “κλῆσις,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 3:491–92.
21. Bromiley, “Call, Calling,” 581.
22. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, 184.
23. See Karl Rahner, “Religious Orders,” in Sacramentum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Theology, ed. Karl Rahner (New York: Herder and Herder, 1968), 5:298–315. Rahner presumed a divine call to holy orders to be a gratuitous gift from God (The Religious Today, p. 23).
24. Clement of Alexander, “The Letter of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth,” in Cyril C. Richardson, ed., Early Church Fathers (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1993), 1:62.
25. F. L. Cross, ed., Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 1191. See also “Vocation, Religious and Clerical,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia (San Francisco: McGraw-Hill, 1979), 14:735–36.
26. John Baile, ed., Early Latin Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1956), 269–70.
27. Matthew Spinka, ed., Advocates of Reform (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953), 18:237.
28. See Gustaf Wingran, The Christian’s Calling (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1958); idem, Credo: The Christian’s View of Faith and Life (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1981); and idem, Luther on Vocation (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1957).
29. John Calvin, Commentaries, trans. and ed. Joseph Haroutunian (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1958), 283.
30. Ibid., 379.
31. Augustine, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, trans. John Gibb and James Innes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 286.
32. Ayers, The Ministry of the Laity, 37. See also Alister McGrath, “Calvin and the Christian Calling,” First Things (June-July 1999): 31-35. McGrath appealed to the contrast Luther and Calvin made between God’s call from the world to a monastic life and God’s call for all Christians to be priests to the world. Calvin and other Reformers did not distinguish between so-called “secular life” and Christian service. Both fall under the rubric of a calling.
33. Heinrich Bullinger, “Of the Holy Catholic Church,” in Zwingli and Bullinger, trans. G. W. Bromiley (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953), 321.
34. Ed Hayes, The Church, Swindoll Leadership Library (Nashville: Word, 1999), 146.
35. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 99.