Narrowing down a call to the ministry

 Posted at Reformation Scotland:

The work of a minister in Christ’s church is wide-ranging and burdensome. As an office with weighty responsibility, those who become ministers will inevitably fail in the work unless they have had a real calling. But what does the call to the ministry consist of? What is the person called to, and how can a genuine call be recognised? In the following updated extract John Brown of Wamphray explains the connection between the work, the office, and the church as well as distinguishing between different kinds of call.

There is such a thing as the visible church

A visible church exists and is continued in the world. A call to the ministry has an undoubted relation to the visible church. It is in the visible church that this ministry is placed by God (1 Cor. 12:28). It is over the visible church that overseers are set by the Holy Ghost (Acts 20:28). It is the visible church that ministers must feed, by dispensing the ordinances of God. It is towards the visible church that ministers must act the part of watchers, messengers, ambassadors, administrators or stewards, co-workers with God, fathers, rulers, overseers, nurses, teachers, stars, angels, friends of the bridegroom, labourers, pastors, builders, and so on.

All their ministrations are for such a company. Their work is to convert strangers, to confirm and build up believers, to instruct the ignorant, to strengthen the weak, to bring home those who wander out of the way, etc, as also to keep up, and lead others in, the public worship of God. There cannot be a call to the ministry without a visible church.

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