Paul felt called to homeless ministry. He took me to the bridge underpass and we encouraged those without the security of food or shelter.
We invited them to a free soup and sandwich meal at a local church, where they were welcomed warmly. Volunteers served them food and drinks and love. Paul knew the community outreach director at that church.
Both Paul and the community outreach director were called to ministry, but in different ways.
Similar to athletes who might feel called to take up a certain sport, or pursue that sport to an exceptional level. I always loved water skiing and eventually I excelled in slalom skiing and barefoot skiing. That’s a big deal, and I’m glad for that season of my life!
But I was never called by the state water skiing club or the national skiing team. Never. Ever. That’s the difference between personal ministry and public ministry.
Personal ministry, like my friend Paul’s, is doing your own thing. That is most often noble, loving and impactful. It’s a good thing. Public ministry is when a group of believers call you out, set you apart, and ask you to represent the group in an area of ministry. Like the community outreach director at the church.
So, if you feel a calling to travel to Haiti and build homes, that’s great but it’s different than being called by an international mission group to travel to Haiti as part of their ministry.
One danger of a personal feeling of being called is that we can sometimes call ourselves. As in, we convince ourselves that we should take up a cause, when in fact the Lord himself hasn’t called us. It can happen.
There may be more hassle to a call into the public ministry, because groups and organizations can get complicated, but one advantage is that it’s never self-assigned. Others notice, select and appoint you.
Such was the case when the group of believers called Matthias to be the apostle who replaced Judas. The Bible says that the group “nominated two men … then they prayed, ‘Lord … show us which of these two you have chosen’” (Acts 1:23,24). Then through their group decision process they chose Matthias for the public ministry of the gospel. He could legitimately say that he’d been called.
PRAYER: God, thank you for acting through believers as your agents who call other believers into ministry. Set apart more men and women to serve you as pastors or teachers. Bless ministries everywhere, and bring to them the called workers they need. Amen.
ACTIVITY: At your Christian church and/or school, which of the staff are working there because they have been called to the public ministry?