Solparvus
Puritan Board Senior
I've found that in concerns to a call to the ministry, there are divergent opinions on how to approach the sense of a calling.
I find myself more "Spurgeon-ish" (hoping not to debate) in regards to intense desire and internal burden. It's a serious, great, and dangerous work, and a powerful work of the Spirit is needed to make a man both count the cost and be resolved in full dependence on God to go and labor. And although the apostles were in an unique office, as were the prophets, I am persuaded that if a man believes he is called to give his whole life to the work of prophecy in preaching, to stand in a pulpit and speak with the full authority of Christ the Mediator backing him, then he must have some real and well-grounded persuasion that he is a prophet.
Spurgeon puzzles me on one paragraph:
It seems right too, because the work of the ministry--through glorious--is dangerous, demands self-denial, and comfort in one's present position (Dabney) holds back many that truly ought to go. It follows, that it's right that the Spirit would shake up the man in his soul so that he will not stay in his current place longer than demanded by providence.
But if one is called, yet providentially hindered, what would be the impact of a sense of weariness in his present position? The demand is to do our work unto the Lord, and not unto men. Wouldn't that sense of weariness tend rather to be a hindrance? If a man goes from the shop to the pulpit, he wants to leave with a good name, and obvious boredom of his place couldn't help. This seems to be the criticism of a recent TGC article I had found. See here.
I'm rather thinking that, if anything, the desire would burn in the way Spurgeon describes it, and it's an opportunity for the minister-to-be to practice submission to the Lord's providence, and self-denial. That would seem to qualify a man wonderfully. Who wouldn't want such a man to be their minister?
Thoughts?
I find myself more "Spurgeon-ish" (hoping not to debate) in regards to intense desire and internal burden. It's a serious, great, and dangerous work, and a powerful work of the Spirit is needed to make a man both count the cost and be resolved in full dependence on God to go and labor. And although the apostles were in an unique office, as were the prophets, I am persuaded that if a man believes he is called to give his whole life to the work of prophecy in preaching, to stand in a pulpit and speak with the full authority of Christ the Mediator backing him, then he must have some real and well-grounded persuasion that he is a prophet.
Spurgeon puzzles me on one paragraph:
"The first sign of the heavenly call is an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work. In order to a true call to the ministry there must be an irresistible, overwhelming craving and raging thirst for telling to others what God has done to our own souls; what if I call it a kind of storge (Greek word), such as birds have for rearing their young when the season is come; when the mother-bird would sooner die than leave her nest. It was said of Alleine by one who knew him intimately, that "he was infinitely and insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls." When he might have had a fellowship at his university, he preferred a chaplaincy, because he was "inspired with an impatience to be occupied in direct ministerial work." "Do not enter the ministry if you can help it," was the deeply sage advice of a divine to one who sought his judgment. If any student in this room could be content to be a newspaper editor, or a grocer, or a farmer, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a senator, or a king, in the name of heaven and earth let him go his way; he is not the man in whom dwells the Spirit of God in its fulness, for a man so filled with God would utterly weary of any pursuit but that for which his inmost soul pants. If on the other hand, you can say that for all the wealth of both the Indies you could not and dare not espouse any other calling so as to be put aside from preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, then, depend upon it, if other things be equally satisfactory, you have the signs of this apostleship."
In relation to the boldened part, it seems plausible, as God has gifted each man for a particular calling, it's their duty to get to that calling by any lawful means possible. A man called will never shake the desire and conviction that he must go, and will long to go. The barista studying astrophysics longs for the day in which he jumps in the shuttle and takes off for space. Why not? Having desire and opportunity, it's only natural!
It seems right too, because the work of the ministry--through glorious--is dangerous, demands self-denial, and comfort in one's present position (Dabney) holds back many that truly ought to go. It follows, that it's right that the Spirit would shake up the man in his soul so that he will not stay in his current place longer than demanded by providence.
But if one is called, yet providentially hindered, what would be the impact of a sense of weariness in his present position? The demand is to do our work unto the Lord, and not unto men. Wouldn't that sense of weariness tend rather to be a hindrance? If a man goes from the shop to the pulpit, he wants to leave with a good name, and obvious boredom of his place couldn't help. This seems to be the criticism of a recent TGC article I had found. See here.
I'm rather thinking that, if anything, the desire would burn in the way Spurgeon describes it, and it's an opportunity for the minister-to-be to practice submission to the Lord's providence, and self-denial. That would seem to qualify a man wonderfully. Who wouldn't want such a man to be their minister?
Thoughts?
