It’s an invitation into kingdom service that stirs your soul into answering. Often, we don’t recognize God’s invitation to us at first, much like Samuel when he was a boy; but it keeps revisiting to you until you acknowledge it and respond to it.  Often, it feels like we’re too unfit for the invitation – we must have misunderstood, much like Gideon or David. Often, we need someone to make the invitation out loud for our souls to shake within us so that we do respond to God’s call on our life, much like Elijah or Moses.

And often… The call remains dormant within someone because they’re not sure what it is or what to do about it.  So always, we need the body of believers around us to ask, confirm, affirm, and equip us for the call, much like Peter and Paul.

Recognizing a Call

This invitation to kingdom service is upon every believer – not just those called to be pastors or missionaries.  Gideon became an unlikely military leader, David was a shepherd turned political figure, and Paul was a tent maker and a writer.  Each one of them had an invitation from God that they answered. God has a divine design for each believer to join Him that needs discovered and developed.

How do you recognize someone who is ready to wrestle with and answer this invitation? Think back on your own call to participate in God’s good plan for your life.  What did it look or feel like?  How can you recognize someone else going through something similar?  Look for someone who is:

1. Digging into Scripture to deepen their faith
2. Willing to use their gifts and experiences to serve the church
3. Taking opportunities to pray with people in person
4. Growing in their spiritual disciplines
5. Hanging around to ask more and more questions about what is being taught
6. Helping ministry leaders facilitate groups
7. Taking on leadership roles in the church
8. Finding ministries and people to which they are drawn

Ask them, “Do you feel like God might be inviting you to something?”  Prayerfully wait for their answer.  Even if they immediately answer, “No,” wait a week or a month (or even a year) and ask them again.  They may not immediately recognize the call in their life until you initiate this inner investigation.

This bears repeating: Ask them.  Allow me to expand: Ask everyone.  There are so many stories that the one God appointed for ministry was not immediately the most obvious choice per human perspective, nor the most traditional.  Therefore, make the corporate ask occasionally and see what stirs.

What do you do with a call to ministry?

When someone does answer affirmatively, you have a part in developing them for ministry (even if their ministry is not to be a pastor)!

Help them over the next few years (yes, years) in the following ways:

1. Cultivate their spiritual life in biblical knowledge, spiritual disciplines, and people awareness.
2. Discover and hone their gifts.
3. Find ways for them to get out of their comfort zone to discover more gifts and competencies.
4. Connect them with the district for well-resourced development pathways.

Connect with the District

The district is here to partner with you in developing emerging leaders, because some are called specifically to leadership in churches and cross-cultural contexts.  One of our favorite aspects of our jobs is to sit down with someone to explore the call they are identifying in their life.  Beyond that conversation, we have prayerfully resourced development pathways for calls to:

• Ministry
• Missions (clergy & vocational)
• Church Planting
• Elder Development
• Church Identity and Mission
• Peacemaking

God is calling those around us into ministry.  Souls are being stirred. Look and see. Ask and discover.  Come alongside and help.