This is a good question. At the outset let me say that all Christians are called and some happen to work for the visible church. If your are born into Christ you may be called as a doctor, teacher, salesman or mum. All who are in Christ are called. So that is your starter for ten if you are not yet in Jesus you need to be.
I recently spent time with someone who does not believe in the atonement, the need for salvation nor in the existence of the Devil yet has been ordained in to my Church. Words fail me (which is rare). He may feel called to being a 'Priest'- which he has declared he is- but whether he is called to gospel ministry is entirely another thing. Cranmer saw them as the same thing. He may perhaps benefit from listening to this called Born of the Gospel.
The call to serve Christ is something that in my case invaded gradually. I read a series of books some of which were more helpful than other. The standard C of E text is 'A Christian Priest Today' which was published in the late 50's and which is still considered 'today'. There perhaps lies the problem! Most helpful to me was a book called Let your life speak by Parker Palmer which I discovered reading John Ortberg's If you want to get out of the boat. I also found 40 days in the Purpose driven life a fruitful time. Most important though was a month spent doing nothing but reading Paul's letter to the Romans. Everyday, for a lot of the day, for a month I read Romans. Be careful though- you have no idea what may happen next....
Justin Buzzard recommends this book called Called to the Ministry by Edmund Clowney and I found these sample quotes wonderful.
No comments:
Post a Comment