Featured Should a Pastor be Called of God?

Xactly.....

 

Pastor is a gift..., bishop is an office.
Neither is a calling.

Church leadership is not a call.

God appointed the Apostles.
The Churches appoint Bishops and Deacons.

There would be no need of Timothy or Titus' qualifications list, if 'Bishop' was a calling, because Rom. 11:29 would make him a permanent fixture.

 

Anyone who has experienced God's call has no doubt about it. I have distinct calls to be a preacher in general, then a missionary in particular. Part of being a missionary is to plant churches, therefore be a pastor, so to me the call to be a pastor was part and parcel of my missionary call.

I can't imagine pastoring without deep inner certainty that it is God's will, whether one calls that a call or not. The other day I was sharing with another missionary some of my bad experiences as a pastor, and he said, "We all have similar stories." True, the joys are great, but the sorrows are there too, and anyone who pastors without a call, in those bad times does not have the fact of a call to reassure him that he's in the right place and God is with him.

 

Simply because one "desires the work" of a pastor doesn't mean there is no call. Isaiah clearly wanted to be a prophet and volunteered to be one (Is. 6:8, of course). But who would dare to say that great prophet who wrote so much about Christ wasn't called to be a prophet? Simply because one has the desire in his heart to be a pastor doesn't mean that God is not calling him. Such a desire is no doubt given by God as part of the call.

 

.... some may say that accent is a little racist???

rd2, I'm not a racist. Just consider Mario... He's an Italian plumber, made by Japanese people, who speaks English, looks like a Mexican, jumps like a black man, and grabs coins like a Jew!

 

That's why he is "Super Mario"