God-Calling

“A Line of Truth” A God-Calling

Recently I attended of the Concord/Union Baptist Association (the Association that we are a member of) sponsored an event to help encourage pastors. This meeting was just for pastors. Of course, the meeting began with a meal. We had grilled steak, twice baked potatoes, green beans and salad.

The format was to have a question-and-answer session with an experienced minister/ pastor. The invited guest was Joe McKeever, retired pastor, Director of Missions, author and cartoonist. The questions were to be submitted to our associational office a minimum of two weeks prior and these questions were then submitted to Joe so that he might gather some thoughts on these.

The questions ran the whole gambit of subjects. There were questions about burnout in the ministry. What would you do different? What was your one biggest mistake in the ministry? If you only had one sermon on one scripture, what would that be? So, for an hour and a half Joe just talked to us preachers.

Out of 66 churches there were 16-18 pastors there. I made sure that I looked around to see who was there and there were several things that I noticed. First, I looked to see if I was the oldest. I was not. Then on the other hand it is a safe assumption that I was not the youngest either.

Second, about half of the pastors I did not know. Now I have been in this association this time for 15 years. You would think that I would know more than that. This is probably attributed to a couple of factors. The rapid and numerous turnovers in the smaller rural churches, and I am probably not as active in our association as I should be. Also, the sad fact that pastors just don’t befriend each other as we should.

Third, I looked around and I saw some beat up and discouraged faces. The pastoral ministry can be one of the most demanding and abusive professions there is. Joe McKeever made serval good points pertaining to this.

Fourth, we all knew everything that Joe McKeever said. As a matter of fact, we all probably had preached on it as some point in time. We preachers are notoriously guilty of “do as I say. Not as I do.”

As I looked around and saw so many faces that I did not know, I purposely sat between two men that I did not know. One I knew who he was but the second I had no idea who he was. These two men were very different.

One was bi-vocational, lived over an hour away and pastored a very small rural church. The other was young, full-time, and pastored one of the larger churches there in Ruston. One talkative the other quiet. Both were much younger than me.

After year fifty and five different churches I have taken some lumps and abuse. Lisa and I were talking recently about some of the difficult times and people through the years. I jokingly tell people that everywhere I have pastored; everyone has loved me. Some have loved me when I came, some have loved me while I was there, and some loved me when I left.

Several years ago, an acquaintance asked me why I chose to be a pastor. My reply, I did not choose it. It chose me. It is a calling. A call from a Holy and Sovereign God. It is like the call that Jesus gave the disciples – FOLLOW ME.