I cannot remember the last time I heard anyone talk about Christians being called into ministry. Shouldn’t we intentionally urge young people to consider ministry as a vocation?
Your question reflects a growing realization of a subtle, yet significant, shift in modern church dynamics. Not so long ago, there was a major emphasis on responding to God’s call to “special service”—usually interpreted to mean a calling into vocational ministry. The invitation to respond to such a calling was provided in most worship services as regularly as the call to conversion or church membership.
Although not completely abandoned, the call to surrender one’s life to special service has become much less emphasized in today’s church services. As a result, there has been a drastic downturn in the number of Baptists, particularly young people, enrolling in ministerial programs. Even within these programs, the number of people pursuing a vocational ministry track is diminishing. Recent surveys show, at the present rate of decline, within a generation there will not be enough vocational ministers to staff existing churches, much less be available to staff church starts.
Several reasons account for this decline in emphasis. In recent years, vocational ministry has become less respected by society in general and the church in particular. A newspaper article from the 1960s detailed the sudden death of a local pastor. Of particular interest to me was the note that the local businesses “on the square” would be closing during the time of the funeral in honor of the pastor. Such honor is not normally accorded to ministers today.
As church members have become more educated in theology and biblical studies, and as information has grown easier and faster to attain, even the church has lost some of its respect for the minister. In many cases, ministers are seen as little more than low-level employees of the church. The result of this diminishing respect has been twofold: Many people have no desire to enter such a profession, and many who already are in that position have no desire to encourage others to join them. Thus, the emphasis on ministry professions declines.
Combine that with the proliferation of high-profile ministers who have had various moral and ethical failures, and add to it the negative atmosphere of arguing and fighting that has defined denominational and congregational life, and the result is professional ministry simply is not popular. Then, with the relatively low pay scale, the disintegration nears completion.
Churches and vocational ministers need to regain the sense of importance in calling out people to the ministry. A reclamation of the divine call as the motivation for ministry is needed. The focus must move from the negatives to the immense positives of following God’s call. Only then will we shift from the decline as it exists now.
Van Christian, pastor
First Baptist Church, Comanche
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