The Divine Call Last week, we began a study of “Christian Vocation,” the teaching that God calls us as Christians to various roles in our lives. This brief study looks more closely at a particular vocation or calling, that of a pastor of a congregation. While our process could be different (there are few if any biblical mandates about the process), Grace and the other churches in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) use a procedure in calling pastors that seeks to uphold what God teaches in his Word, that he is the one who puts pastors in place on behalf of his Church (Ephesians 4:11-12and Acts 20:28). This process involves certain parameters for eligibility, and when a pastor has received a call from God through a congregation, he is asked to deliberate and determine whether to accept or decline that call. Pastor Kassulke’s Call to Prince of Peace, Salt Lake City
Congregation founded in 1972. As of the end of 2019, the congregation had 422 baptized members, including 323 communicants. Began a Lutheran Elementary School in 1997 and added preschool in 2004. The elementary school has grown in recent years. Enrollment in preschool through eighth grade is approximately 110. The school is served by a principal and six additional teachers and four part-time aides. An office manager assists with both school and church. The call is to be a second pastor of the congregation. Current Pastor Tyler Peil has been at the church for over three years, and another pastor left last summer to become a professor at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. Flexible division of duties, suggested for second pastor to oversee youth and adult discipleship. “After Much Prayerful Consideration…” The Interrelation of Sanctified Reason and God’s Will in Deliberating a Divine Call Professor Richard L. Gurgel
By God's own wise design there are two things at work as we deliberate divine calls. Yes, in the process of deliberation, God promises that his good and gracious will is at work for the sake of his Church—both for his sheep and their shepherds. Yet at the same time, God has also equipped his public ministers with the privilege of exercising sanctified reason in coming to a decision between two equally good and valid divine calls. The challenge, of course, is grasping what part in the process God's will and our use of reason play, without denying or distorting the participation of either of these. And perhaps even a greater challenge is being willing humbly to admit that, this side of heaven, we will never fully understand how those two factors work together in every divine call. Yet despite much that remains beyond us, this we can know: under the guidance of his good and gracious will, God answers our fervent prayers for wisdom and blesses the use of our sanctified reason. Therefore we can in confidence choose between good and good-knowing that God will prosper our decision for the advance of his gospel. Specifically, while God's good and gracious will has certainly not suddenly ceased to operate in his church when we are wrestling with a call, yet God has not promised that his Spirit will whisper the "right" answer into our ears if we obediently listen. He has not promised that somehow we will be able to soar into the secret counsels of God and return home with God's own decision in hand. It is still true that it is the mark of a "wicked and adulterous generation" that seeks after "a sign" (Matthew 16:4). Here too, we who live under the cross walk by faith and not by sight.
Perhaps what has often given the pastor or other called workers the longing to be able to unscrew the inscrutable is the feeling that there is only one possible "right" answer and God expects his servant to discern it. If that were so, it would almost be cruel if God did not whisper that answer in our ear so that we would not be troubled in our conscience that we may be making the wrong decision. The question that is before us as we deliberate a call is this: am I fit for this particular place, with its particular needs, with my particular gifts (and weaknesses) that God has given me to serve him? "He will base his decision on his answer to this question: Where can I with my gifts best serve the interests of God's kingdom?" (Brenner, p 10) Yes, Scripture does give us significant help. Scripture warns us about the danger of pride of position (Mark 10:41ff) and a love for dishonest gain (1 Peter 5:2), among other ministry pitfalls. Scripture also supplies us with the key question itself, telling us that "there are different kinds of gifts" and that "to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:4, 7). Such words of Paul encourage us to understand that not everyone fit for the public ministry in general is fit for every specific position of the public ministry. But reason also does not need to go it alone with the analytic power of just one brain—in fact it is foolish to do so. God has not only created our personal mind and all its abilities and reasoning faculties. God has surrounded us with brothers and sisters in Christ, at both calling bodies and beyond, whose minds and all their abilities can be called to our side. "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice" (Proverbs 12:15). If I believe that all knowledge needed to make the wisest decision resides in my own cranium, I prove myself to be—and actually become—a fool. Again, Solomon reminds us, "Make plans by seeking advice; if you wage war, obtain guidance" (Proverbs 20:18). If advice is wise for waging earthly war, what does that say about advice for those charged with the protection of souls in a warfare waged with eternal results? How invaluable another's perhaps more objective insights on our gifts and weaknesses may be. How crucial the insights of brothers and sisters on the needs of both places of ministry—needs and challenges and resources and opportunities to which we may be blind or short-sighted. In fact, not only is the use of reason wise in deliberating a call, we can state that to refuse to make use of the gift of reason is in fact a disobedient testing of God! Just as much as we are tempting God when we neglect his appointed means of grace in matters of growth and preservation of faith, so in areas in which God has given us the use of our reason for reaching decisions, we are tempting him when we neglect those means! Questions that may be used to guide our discussion today: 1. In what ways can deliberating a Divine Call be a blessing for a pastor? For a congregation? 2. What are some important factors for a pastor to consider in deliberating a Divine Call? What factors might be less important? 3. How can congregation members best assist a pastor who is deliberating a Divine Call? 4. In what ways can a period of vacancy (not having a called pastor or being “understaffed”) be a blessing for a congregation? In what ways might that be a challenge? 5. What questions do you have about the calling process in our synod?