October 7, 2002
PASTOR'S PASSION:
George Mason
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___DALLAS--Parents often encourage their children to consider society's most respected and profitable professions--law, medicine, business, finance. But should parents give equal emphasis to ministry as a vocational choice for their children?
___Absolutely, insists George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.
___"If the kingdom of God is the most important thing in time and eternity, when you're talking to your children about vocation, why not talk to them about ministry?" asked Mason, who in recent years has become an advocate for helping youth and young adults consider the call to ministry.
___"Don't neglect to help a child with the question, 'What does God want you to do?'" he suggested. Vocational choice, he insisted, should be a matter of spiritual discernment more than a choice driven by economics or perceived prestige.
___"I'm convinced many times our kids are gifted for ministry, but they haven't been schooled to think about that."
___Mason suggests pastors, Sunday School teachers, youth workers and others who have contact with youth and young adults should be encouragers toward vocational ministry.
___"As you're watching kids grow up around you, ask them, 'Have you ever thought about ministry as a vocation?'" he recently urged the church's deacons.
___That's exactly how Mason opened the door to ministry as a consideration. While a sophomore and quarterback at the University of Miami, his pastor called him in for a visit and asked him if he ever had considered that God might be calling him to vocational ministry.
At Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Pastor George Mason (right) has taken his passion for calling out men and women for vocational ministry so far as to launch a pastoral residency program in which Jay Hogewood is the first two-year participant.
___"I had no thoughts of the ministry," he said. "I planned to become an NFL player."
___But his pastor's probing and a series of other events opened Mason's eyes to a new life play, one that has brought him fulfillment and joy beyond what he might have imagined that fateful day of meeting with his pastor.
___The impact of that one question has lasted a lifetime. "I remember that day as clearly as if it were yesterday," Mason recalled.
___Now well established in his career, Mason has turned his attention to helping others the same way he was helped. Both from the pulpit and through private conversation, he makes efforts to raise the profile of ministry as a high and holy yet pleasant calling.
___On Feb. 4, 2001, Mason preached a sermon from Isaiah 6 in which he urged members of the congregation to consider that God might be calling them to service. He also admonished those who felt unfit for service to find in God's grace the forgiveness and help needed to be a minister.
___"If God is calling you, God will make you fit to serve," Mason said that day. "The issue is your willingness."
___David Ivie remembers that sermon clearly. As he sat behind Mason in the choir, he clearly heard the voice of God give direction for his life.
___"George ended the sermon by reminding us that we are all called to the ministry, some to full-time vocational ministry," explained Ivie, now a student at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth. "When he said that, I felt like I was the only one in the sanctuary. It was a very special service that left me convinced God was speaking to me."
___Upon reflection, Ivie said, he realized "God was working with me all along, even though I was not aware of it." The sermon that February day simply brought God's call to the surface.
___In short order, Ivie and his wife wrapped up their work in Dallas and moved nearer to Texas Christian University. Ivie, 34, resigned his management job with Brinker International and became a full-time student.
___Today, he is invigorated by his studies and exhilarated by the thought of becoming a pastor. He's also thankful Mason made the call to ministry plain and bold.
___"It is important for the leadership in the church to spell it out just like George did in the sermon that day-- 'Did you know you can go into ministry yourself?' or 'You seem to me someone who has a heart for the church; have you ever considered becoming a minister?'" Ivie suggested.
___In his quest to call out the called, Mason also had to set an example at home. His oldest daughter entered Furman University as a freshman this fall, and he's felt a burden to help her examine ministry as a career choice as well.
___Asked by a church member if there might be a danger of him "calling" his child into ministry rather than God calling, he responded that youth and young adults hear plenty of calls from parents to other professional roles. Besides, he reasoned, if a child is not being called by God to ministry, a parent's suggestion is likely to roll off easily.
___"It's not that they have to please us," he said. "But a lot of times God calls through human voices."
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