Regardless of church governance, you are not called by a church board, senior pastor, or denominational leader. You are called by God. And for the record, he’s the only one who can un-call you. You can get fired, or get burned, by a human employer, but they cannot un-call you.- [Classic] Mark Batterson. Seven Hard Earned Lessons on Calling.
Tuesday, August 08, 2017
Called
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I like MB - but, I am not sure that God does not use his people to do the metaphorical calling and firing of his folks...
ReplyDeleteOften God does use folks to call folks...
My pastoral leadership at my church called me. That is, God used them to call me.
I, as a pastor, have affirmed God's call in several people's lives and empowered them to follow it.
Most folks I know who felt called to Church plant and didn't have the confirmation of God's call by elders and men - by elder who it "seemed right to them and the holy spirit" - have crashed and burned in there false self-assessments of what God was saying.
Acts 1:23 - the disciples choose two - and then cast lots to find Matthias...
In first Samuel 9 - God uses Samuel to call Saul.
In first Samuel 13 - God uses Samuel to "remove the call," via a rebuke
Acts 6:1-6 - The disciples call folks (choose 7 men) to serve as deacons - and a powerful man arises out of it.... Stephen
Acts 13: Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen laid hands on Paul and Barnabas and empowered them to serve
Jacob sorta wrestled for his own blessing and calling with a little help from his mom - and the anointing by his dad....
Exodus 35: God calls some artists without regard to people - at least for all we can tell: Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah were called by God to be gifted in the arts.
Moses was clearly called by God without regard for God using people.
Joseph was called by God without regard for people.
Just some thoughts that came to my mind.
HA. this is good! I think maybe the arc of his article was that we place too much emphasis on what people think about us. Identity formed in the wrong place, which relates back to calling. Maybe. So not to negate the fact that people call, but placing too much value on people's opinions - both in the positive and negative - sets us up for something bad.
DeleteSuper interesting to me because The Ember Cast is not under any church governance or denomination although we certainly have a board of directors.