Called Out
Just got back from the Pre-MAC (Preliminary Missionary assessment Center), where a group of about 12 graduate students who are preparing for life in missions gathered with about 12 graduate missions professors to discuss life on the field.
I spent most of my time there this weekend really reflecting on what it means to be “called” by God into mission. I wanted to know, “How is one called by God?” and when we are called, how can we be sure it is of God, and not ourselves? I asked myself, “Do I feel called to be God’s child?” I have experienced the joy of God’s salvation, I have participated in receiving God’s Holy Spirit - yes, I feel as if God has called me to be his child.
If so, then I am sent; called out into a community with every child of God (the word for “church” in Greek means “the called-out ones”). Just as Jesus was sent by God, so I am sent by him, (John 17:18). It is not possible to be a part of God’s called-out church and not be called. God is a missionary God who sends, and everyone blessed to be his child is then called to go and bless others - sent on a mission from God.
It was Ananias, a human, who first revealed God’s great plans for the apostle Paul. It wasn’t on the dramatic scene on the road to Damascus that he was given his call to ministry - that was simply where Jesus claimed Paul as his own, and gave him the next steps to meet Ananias in nearby Damascus to learn more and be baptized. Seventeen years after this, he went back to the city where he felt most comfortable - the place where he was sure his old Jewish friends would be ready to receive the Gospel. But things didn’t work out! Paul receives a vision from Jesus that he is not to stay in Jerusalem, (they weren’t going to receive his message anyway,) but that he was to be sent on a mission to preach to the nations of the world! It took seventeen years from the time Paul was called-out as God’s child before he was called to mission as a missionary to the peoples of the earth!
I’ve only been a Christian for 11 years; I’m content to live in the tension, waiting on the Lord to call me out to a specific place and people group. After a weekend of purposely looking at mission strategies and taking personality tests, I feel more comfortable than ever sitting back and listening for God to take action. I will follow wherever he leads me. The specifics I trust will be revealed to me when the time comes; when I take the first steps in faith.
Last 5 posts by Mark
- God is Wholly - October 2nd, 2008
- The Great Moderation - September 30th, 2008