I was recently reading a pastor’s testimony about his “call to full-time ministry.” He painted an all-too-familiar scene of being at a summer camp and responding to a call for those there to commit their life to “full-time ministry.” The pastor whose story I was reading had his own trials by which some of his expectations were dealt with. While my own sense of call to ministry came in much more personal moments, the Lord had to deal with my own false expectations of ministry.
In my 47 years of Christian life, all but about 9 were spent in preaching ministry of some kind. In that time, I’ve seen many people seeking to enter ministry. And while I never know what is fully going on in someone’s journey, I’ve met many ministers who enter the ministry with misguided expectations and some, no doubt, with worldly motivations. I certainly did 44 years ago. Thank God for having mercy on me.
We should not be scandalized by this since we read of some in the New Testament who fit this description. John the apostle explains that
Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
3 John 9-10
The position and possible status of ministry is attractive to people who love to be first. And, surprisingly, congregants sometimes want that kind of leader as they find their own success-identity in such a leader. In a culture that values fame above all things, and a world with technology that makes it achievable, the role of “ministry” will become even more attractive to the modern Diotrephes.
Paul had at least one co-worker (Col. 4:14; Phile. 23) who fit the bill.
Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.
2 Timothy 4:9-10
We don’t know exactly what Demas, who loved the world, did in Thessalonica, but it certainly could have included ministry. It would not be difficult in “Christian culture” to “love the world” and be in ministry.
It would not be difficult in “Christian culture” to “love the world” and be in ministry.
Jeremiah’s call to ministry provides a great reality check for those considering life in ministry. Jesus told the disciples they needed to count the cost; that step should not be missed today.
Jeremiah as a Gift to the People
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:4-5 NIV
It’s a necessary, yet unfortunate, outcome of translation that “things are missed in translation.” If languages used all the same words for things, we’d only have one language. The Hebrew verb translated “appointed” in verse 5 (above) is found 4 times in Jeremiah 1 and in three of those occurrences the subject is God. In one, the enemy kings. That Hebrew word is translated into four different English words in both the NIV and ESV and there is nothing wrong with any of those translations, but it means we miss the connection.
The most basic meaning of the Hebrew verb (natan) is to give. The Lord told Jeremiah when calling him that he was giving him as a prophet to the nations. Too often we think of ministry gifts as gifts the minister possesses. But the gift, at least in Jeremiah’s case, was Jeremiah himself and the recipients are the people of the nations! It doesn’t take a degree to read Jeremiah’s book and discover he was truly the one being given as the gift poured out for the people.
I’m convinced this is in Paul’s mind as he writes Ephesians 4:11-12 when, expanding on Psalm 68:18, he says that Christ gave some to be apostles… prophets… evangelists… and pastor-teachers.[1] In Ephesians, the ministers are the gifts being given and poured out! If they are poured out, the very sacrifice they live will equip the saints for their work of ministry, for all ministry is a sacrificial giving of ourselves to others.
In Ephesians, the ministers are the gifts being given and poured out! If they are poured out, the very sacrifice they live will equip the saints for their work of ministry, for all ministry is a sacrificial giving of ourselves to others.
Jeremiah’s Gift of Words
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth.”
Jeremiah 1:9 NIV
God “put” (natan) or gave his words into Jeremiah’s mouth. Jeremiah wasn’t sent to share his own opinions or what would draw a crowd. He was given God’s words. This is why Paul tells Timothy and all would-be ministers, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15 NIV)
Those given in ministry to others must be diligent to do the hard, lonely work of study. To do otherwise is to neglect the calling and defraud the people. In Jeremiah’s case, he was given those words, hard words, to speak. In our case, we have to take the words of Scripture and spend time with God and those words until they are alive in us and able to be spoken to God’s people.
To become alive in us, those words must first work on us. They must shape us. We must be shaped by them. There is a way of handling God’s word that should produce shame and a way that should not. Faithfulness is the essence of this calling.
Those given in ministry to others must be diligent to do the hard, lonely work of study. To do otherwise is to neglect the calling and defraud the people.
Jeremiah’s Gift of Endurance
Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.
jeremiah 1:18-19
When the Lord tells Jeremiah, “Today I have made you a fortified city…,” it is (again), “Today I have given (natan) you as a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land.”
Since God empowers where he calls, this giving of Jeremiah as a fortified city includes giving him the fortitude to endure great difficulty. To be clear, this is not Jeremiah being called to be an obstinate jerk in a society where there is free speech. This is Jeremiah called to speak truth in the face of power, in a society that you could be made to suffer for doing so.
On this side of Jesus this is also a call to the fortitude of loving our enemies in the face of the evil they do to us. Praying for those who persecute us. Doing good to those who can’t repay us. That too will take fortitude for, unlike a Hallmark movie, everything doesn’t always turn out wonderfully (e.g. Jesus got crucified and died praying for his persecutors). But then there is resurrection!
It is doubtful that Jeremiah was enchanted with his call to ministry. Diotrephes would not be tempted to enter this kind of ministry.
To be clear, this is not Jeremiah being called to be an obstinate jerk in a society where there is free speech. This is Jeremiah called to speak truth in the face of power, in a society that you could be made to suffer for doing so.
Conclusion
I’ve heard some offer the advice to those seeking “full-time ministry” that if they can do anything else and be satisfied, they should do it. I’m not sure I agree with that advice. I sometimes worry that the only ones left going into ministry are those who can’t figure out how to make a living any other way. Might it be better to ask people to give up something they find satisfying to go into the ministry?
Regardless, we should sit the candidate down and explain that ministry means being given as a sacrifice by God for the people (see Phil. 2:17 and 2 Tim. 4:6). That ministry will require long hours of diligence in study while others are entertaining themselves. That they will need to have the fortitude of a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall if they are to endure the onslaught of difficulty that will accompany it.
I’ve spent most of my years serving in ministry without any thought of throwing in the towel. The variety of things encountered during and since 2020 have changed that. I’m glad I haven’t thrown in the towel and pray that I do not. But I do relate to needing the Lord to strengthen me with the endurance that a fortified city, an iron pillar, or a bronze wall might have.
At a time when pastors are leaving the ministry in unprecedented quantities, maybe this is the wrong thing to post. But sometimes less is more. Maybe here. Or maybe if we prepare people better up front there will be less fallout, and possibly different candidates will enter the fray.
Photo by Daniel Newman on Unsplash
[1] Afterall, Paul used part of Jeremiah’s call to describe his own in Galatians 1:15 (“Who set me apart from my mother’s womb”).
