How were you called?

I was saved when I was 12. Shortly after that I told my friends that I was going to be a preacher. They all laughed at me because they knew what a rotten kid I had been. I attended church and Sunday School throughout high school. I got fed up with the hypocrisy that I witnessed. I convinced myself that I did not have to go to church to worship. I could worship God any where at any time, right? Well soon no church attendance turned into no worship...

I returned to my faith and church attendance when I got married in my mid-20's. I always remembered that I knew I was to be involved in ministry. However, I was afraid of the responsibility and I ran as far and as hard as I could to avoid it. Then in 1997 I lost three full-time jobs. During that time I had attended a three-day men's retreat. While there I confessed to the men in my group that the Lord was leading me into full-time ministry. However, I never told anyone else. When I lost my third job in 1997 I finally went to my wife and said, "I think all of this has been happening because I have been running from God. I think He wants me in full-time ministry." My wife responded, "I know. I was just waiting for you to admit it." I told a good friend of mine (who is a pastor in Virginia) and he encouraged me and said that he had noticed God's hand at work in my life shaping me for ministry. He and a large group of Baptist men laid hands on me and prayed over me during a bus ride back from Promise Keepers in late 1997.

When I got back to Georgia I went to my pastor and he prayed with me and suggested that I begin to prepare for the ministry by getting myself educated and he suggested SEBTS. We visited the campus in July 1998 and I started classes here in August that same year. I had to complete my undergraduate degree and now I am almost finished with my master's degree. God has given me a passion for missions and a love for missionaries. In this He has equipped and gifted me for a ministry focused on preparing and mobilizing the local church for involvement in missions work. My pastor friend in Virginia just called me the other night to discuss our linking our ministries together with me serving as a staff minister with him. Could this be why God threw us together and instantly bonded our hearts in friendship (and the same for our wives) in late 1995?

I have this wonderful story. However, I'll not base God's calling solely on my subjective personal experience. My calling rests securely in the fact that my life lines up with and fits the objective requirements and qualifications for elders/pators given in the Bible and in the observable way that God has prepared, equipped, and gifted me for His service. Please pray for me as I am nearing the completion of my time at seminary and how I may best serve the Lord in the future.

 

As a high school student I set my course for engineering school after graduation? Why? I was reasonably capable in science and math, it was the Sputnik era when all the talk was about how the USA needed engineers, and, most of all, my high school friends all seemed to be headed in that direction.

At the same time, however, I was exercising a good deal of interest in things Biblical and theological, reading a few books about the origins of the Bible, etc. That would become a key element in my ultimate sense of calling.

So off I went to Speed Scientific School, the engineering college of the University of Louisville. The first two years weren't bad, as we were focused on pure science and math. But in that third year I found myself yawning through courses in metallurgy, "strength of materials", etc., totally disinterested and not doing well. At the end of a quarter I was at home trying to stay alert and cram for final exams. It was not going well, so I took a break, went downstairs and sat in a big chair to relax and think (and eventually to pray). In that moment I admitted to myself that I was not interested in this stuff, and would have to change to something else. But what?

It dawned on me that any time I had time to do leisure reading, I was reading Bible and theology and Christian history; that my spare time was spend in our church and in Baptist Student Union; and that the person I admired most was my pastor. I surrendered to the call in that moment, without any further struggle.

I got up, told my parents (I was 19 years old), made an appointment with my pastor the next day, and set my course. However, I did have to finish those exams (got B's and C's) and had made a commitment to a three-month period of what the school called Co-op Work -- that is, working in some industry to get engineering experience. I decided I needed to fulfill that commitment and use the time for further reflection. My pastor loaned me a dozen books on pastoral ministry, and I went off to Kinston, NC, to work for Dupont.

In Kinston, not only did I read those books, but also I got involved at the First Baptist Church. On Good Friday evening, 1958, walking to services there, I passed another church -- Disciples, as I recall -- and in the yard there was a cross with the words from Lamentations, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? I stood there and acknowledged that it was not a mere nothing to me that Christ had died, and confirmed my calling.

When I finished my three months at Dupont (where, incidentally, I did very little engineering work but spent a lot of time observing the social injustices of the South of the 1950's), I returned home to Louisville, switched my major to history, and went full speed toward seminary and ministry. Nearly 50 years later I can say that I have never felt any doubt about my response to what the Lord was doing and saying in my life.

 

Thanks John,

I'm glad that you understood what I meant. God has indeed given me a passion for missions. My burden is to see local Baptist churches fully engaged in missions (not just giving money). When believers get active in doing the work of a missionary (short-term or otherwise) I believe that God will raise up a generation that will literally carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Amen!