By Scott Dooley on Apr 14, 2011 Recently, a friend wrote to ask me what it means to have a call. Here was my reply:
Our first call is always to Christ and who He makes us to be as believers (i.e. He produces the fruits of the Spirit in our lives to make us more like Him). That is the real call to all Christians -- to be changed by Christ and to be involved in making disciples, which is helping others become more like Christ. All believers are to be involved in discipleship; it is not a job delegated to pastors or a special few in the church. Scripture is full of that sense of call that we all have: Go make disciples; we are a nation of priests; bearing fruit; taking up our cross daily; letting our light shine, etc.
Of course, when people talk about "being called," they often mean a more specific call to a certain place or a certain ministry. But I think those specific calls come from our primary call.
I believe God guides us through the desires and talents he gives us. Here is the catch: I feel many Christians never seriously ask.
My life changed my first year of college when I took a missions class (when I didn't consider myself to have a specific "call"). The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) was discussed -- the idea of call was presented as "seeing a need, having the resources to meet the need, and being moved with compassion to do so."
That phrase stuck in my mind. It seemed to me to be a model of the ministry of Christ himself, who saw lost crowds and had compassion on them, and stopped for hurting individuals along the way. This idea of call as seeing a need and letting God move your heart to help made sense to me. So I began to pray, "God, I am yours. Make me into a resource you will use to meet real needs in a hurting world."
Looking back, it was that prayer that changed my life. It led me to getting involved in inner city ministry in Kansas City whenever I could, then a camp counselor for mostly inner city kids. It opened the door to thinking about helping people in a practical way, and ultimately led me into a "specific call" to medical missions.
I wanted to practically help people; I loved science, and was fascinated by medicine. Therefore becoming a doctor made sense to me. I think it is the same with other areas of a "call." If you love working with young kids, you don't need God to write it on the wall to volunteer to teach a Sunday school class or reach out to kids in your neighborhood. If you are an accountant, your ministry might be helping with church finance or starting a ministry helping poor people do taxes, or tutoring kids in math. If you were an accountant who also feels a tremendous burden for missions and the developing world, then maybe God is calling you to do those types of things in other countries.
I think when any Christian sincerely asks God to use him or her to meet real needs in a hurting world, God will lead them by their talents and desires to find needs around them and meet them. It will lead them to seek more opportunities to build God's kingdom. That is the call of all Christians. Let your primary call to serve God lead you to secondary or specific calls to what types of ministries you do and where you do them.
-- Scott and Gail Dooley are medical missionaries at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital in Papua New Guinea. They have three daughters, Emma, Olivia and Allison. Reprinted with permission from their ministry blog. Learn more at www.kudjipnazarenehospital.org.
