A Couple Thoughts on Call...

...as I await my yearly interview with the DCOM.

In United Methodism, we place a heavy emphasis on a person's call to ministry--which as I spend more time with pastors in traditions that are different from my own, I grow to appreciate more and more.  However, I sometimes fear that the language we use around call has the ability to muddy the waters, especially with regards to ordination.  A little while back, Dr. David Watson blogged about the ordination process being too arbitrary because in his experience (and the experience of most who posted in the comment section) the members of our District Committees and Conference Boards enter the interview process with a set of assumptions that shaped their understanding of their own call to ministry, and all too often place those assumptions on candidates for ministry.

An example that is intentionally somewhat absurd to better explain what he means would be if Pastor Jack McJackerson experienced the call to ministry as the clouds parting and the audible voice of God calling out, "Jack McJackerson, I call you to itinerant ministry as an elder in the Indiana Annual Conference" and then Jack would expect every candidate to have this same sort of experience with supernatural cloud parting, and a booming voice from heaven, and every candidate that couldn't produce this narrative would be penalized in their seeking of ordination.

Now, I don't think that anyone I have seen on a district committee has "audible voice of God" as their standard for whether or not a person is truly called to ordained ministry, but both my experience and the experience of others confirm this notion that the evaluation of whether or not one is called is deeply influenced by the individual biases of the committee members.  Lucky for me, up to this point, the narrative of my call to ministry has not been one that offended the sensibilities of the individuals on my interview teams; however, the lack of clarity about call as a general idea undoubtedly leads to anxiety for many candidates (myself included).

My favorite definition of call comes from Tony Campolo who argues that call is the intersection of a need and the way one is wired.  For example, the world is in need of individuals willing to educate children.  My mother is patient, creative, and is filled with joy when she can help someone understand a new concept.  Her call is to be an educator and for almost 30 years she has experienced God's pleasure as she lives out the call to teach.  She never heard a voice from heaven, but her deepest passions, her skills, and the world's needs all intersected in education.

I am convinced that their is value in being able to articulate the narrative of call, and our District Committees should be attentive to whether or not we, who are called to ordained ministry, can tell the story of hope and healing that has come from a restored relationship with the Father through the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.  But I do wish that there was greater clarity on what points of intersection, we as a tradition, consider appropriate for elders, deacons, lay extension ministry, etc.  Such clarity would help both the candidate and the committee better understand how we as individual church leaders fit into the larger body of Christ.