Different Callings

A calling is when God asks you to play a certain role in his mission to reconcile the world to himself. There are functions that God calls all believers to do. We are all called to share the gospel with others, for example. We are all called to love our neighbors and enemies. We are all called to worship God and do everything for his glory.

1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 talk about various spiritual gifts that God gives to individuals. God calls us all to use our spiritual gifts for the edification of the church. We are all called to exercise our gifts for the benefit of the kingdom. We should not bury our “talents” in the ground as the one individual did, but we are called to use them for God’s glory (Matthew 25:14-30).

Some callings are lifelong callings. At other times, God might call us to play a certain role for a particular season of our life. The Twelve seem to have spent all their time ministering, having left their previous “occupations” behind (cf. 1 Cor. 9:6). Others like Paul continued to work “on the side” to support their ministry. Many in the early church probably ministered “on the side” in addition to work that was their focus most of the week.

Ephesians 4:11 mentions several roles to which individuals were called in the first century church – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The names for these functions may change as history goes by, but the functions continue. God continues to call individuals to perform these tasks, whatever they may be called at a particular time and place. We shouldn’t put God in a box in relation to what those roles are called or how they are organized. 

God also calls individuals to particular contexts. For some, it may require you to go far away, perhaps to a foreign country. There are also “foreign countries” not far away from you. Some individuals are called to urban ministry in cities, for example. Others, as Pastor Steve McVey indicates, are called to rural church ministry.

The apostle Paul might be called a church planter or you might call him a missionary. He ministered within the Roman Empire from its eastern border and perhaps even as far as Spain (Rom. 15:19, 24). In Romans, he makes it clear that God did not call him to minister in established churches but to plant them (Rom. 15:20). Further, although he ministered to Jews as well, he specifically felt called to preach the good news to non-Jews (Rom. 15:15-16). 1 Corinthians 9 expresses well his calling both as an apostle and an evangelist (e.g., 9:16, 20-22). God’s calling on us may be very individualized and contextualized like it was for Paul.

However, if you look at his letters and the book of Acts, it’s clear that he mostly felt called to large urban areas. What do Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus have in common? They are some of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. He used the large cities as hubs from which the gospel might spread out into the countryside. The Wesleyan Church followed a strategy of this sort in the 1980s called “Metro-Move.”

Pastor McVey draws our attention to another kind of calling, one that is often undervalued in the church. The overwhelming majority of American pastors are not called to large churches but to small churches. And when you take the whole world into account, most pastors spend a lifetime of ministry in smaller rural churches. Why shouldn’t a calling to a rural church be considered just as noble and honored as a calling to an urban church or a large church?

Somehow, we have to believe that God thinks it is! This Micro Course explores what it might look like to be called to a rural church setting, which if you are not originally from the country, Pastor McVey calls being a rural missionary.