Answering the "call" is a much overused term in Adventism. Who receives the "call" and from whom? It is nearly always referred to a young person who has been "called" to the ministry; has received a "call" for another pastorate or denominational position; or has answered the "call."

Why do only prophets or ministers receive "calls"? Why do only males receive a "call"? The hierarchy of clergy appears to be the dominating position who hears that "call" from above? Who is initiating it? Do SDA hospital administrators also receive a "call" and concomittant huge salaries? Do television ministers also receive the "call"? Will someone
prioritize or classiify the positions that are subject to the "call."

Yes Elaine

Wouldn't the terms--invitation, job offer, or position available be more accurate. I like the story of the hill billy that entered a mountain bible college. He was all but illiterate. The dean asked the boy why he was trying the impossible. The boy said that he saw golden letters in the sky G. P. C. (Go Preach Christ) The dean said, yes son, I am sure you saw the golden letters but you misread them, they really said: (Go Plow Corn!).

There is a lot of corn plowing from the pulpit these days.

Tom

Tom, that's a humorous and truthful tale! How many times have we heard from the pulpit of a pastor feeling God called him to another church, or position. This, when perhaps he may have gotten several calls (which one was from God?), or that he was so unfit for the church that the conference decided, unliaterally to move him to another (unfortunate) church.

Elaine

The worst case in my memory, happened years ago. A young pastor was caught behind the drapes that hid the baptistry with an under aged girl by the father of the girl when she didn't come out to the car after the evening meeting. The pastor was "called" to an adjacent conference. The father found out which church the young man was assigned. He traveled about 200 miles to that church and contacted the head elder and warned him about the situation. When he returned home, the new pastor of his church called the father in and told him that if he did not leave the issue be, the conference would disfellowship the father! The father said, if that guy does it again, I will offer to testify in court against him and the church! Please inform the conference president of my intentions. (The locations best be kept out of the story-it happened in 1953 in a mid-western city in which I was doing graduate study. I knew the pastor but not the father but the story came directly out of the conference office.) Tom

Tom, that is too often the usual church response.
Do you know the final disposition of that case?

The Catholic's priestly sexual cases could match those of other Protestant denominations. The difference? The Protestants are so many that few have had the spotlight shone on them as the monolithic Catholics have. "Protect the institution" is always the first order.

Elaine

I moved out of the conference and lost track. Also my contact in the conference office moved to another conference.

The Paster involved had come to EMC at the start of WWII with great fanfare and a 4-D classification. He was the Department of Religion Show piece. Obviously he is retired by now--he may have had to sell AIG securities to filll out his years but I don't know. I was I-A-O pre-dental I missed dental school under the ASTP program by 4 semesber hours. The EMC faculty were very helpful to me also. The list is long and great. Tom

Talk about plowing corn? You two are sowing seeds of dissent and gossip when our attention here should be the lesson learned from Isaiah! I'm sure that when Isaiah responded he didn't take the time to dish up some juicy news from the past before he went forth and shared the mission he was given.

By the way look at the note at the bottom of the page regarding posting it may help us to stay on topic.

I enjoyed the term "response-ability". I think too many are unwilling to heed the call, whatever it may be, because they don't have the faith or have not grown to know, love and trust their savior. Many women and men have been given simple directions, from the "whisper-in-the-wind", to talk to a neighbor, give a co-worker a ride home, share your lunch with a less fortunate, smile at parking lot attendant, say hello to the janitor, praise the Lord for the blessings you received, recognize the Father in His leading in your life and share it with others!

Don't hold back anymore! Don't wait until you have the agenda in your lap! It's His agenda - His plan. Let Him lead you! This is just like the moment Peter stepped out of the boat. Although the waves may be crashing around you, although you know you shouldn't be able to stand above the splashing water. Walk toward your loving savior with confidence, arms stretched out wide with a smile on your face and know that he is right there to catch you if (when) you falter!

The Lord be praised!

And when was the last time you walked on water?

Brandon Glenn

You are either very young or quite naive or both.

Please give a estimate on the number of young men registered at SDA colleges in 1945 when the atom bombs were dropped on Japan who immediate changed their major from theology to communications? Or estimate the number of young men registered at SDA colleges in 1945 who were engaged to young women that the religion department suggested would make excellent pastors wives who broke off the engagement when the news of the Japan surrendered came threw?

Funny how calls come and go!

The closest one to my circle was the young man who graduated from EMC with a major in theology two months after I return from the South Pacific, broke off his engagement the same day and took a job as a disk jocky at a Minn. radio station. If the number at EMC was similar to the other schools the total was in the scores.

Yes the Lord called Ahraham, Moses, the major and minor prophets of the Old Testment, the twelve, and Paul
amd a host of contemporaries. But so has Satan called his shills.

The call is not the test. The message is!!!!

Test the message and you will have a good fix on the messager. Tom

Perhaps we should not use the term "call" (a job offer that might come to an employee of the Adventist church) interchangeably with a "call" that a Christian senses comes from God. They may or may not be the same thing. It is not clear to me that God has vested administrative leaders of the church with the wisdom or authority required for the organization's call to be the same thing as God's call. Perhaps at times it is. How would one know?

I have a young friend who was invited to take a job with a church organization. In the initial interview, the leader of the entity asked if he "felt called." I thought that was actually a pretty good use of the term. The inquiry was whether my young friend felt a sense that the situation was perhaps a unique opportunity to serve God. It did not imply the church already knew that to be the case.

My belief increasingly is that "a call" is something between God and a human. Another human may be an agent of God's to create awareness, but not to represent that "this is God's call." I guess the whole thing gets to one's view of spiritual authority - not a subject in vogue at the moment.

And some of us received the 'call' but it was not for us. We were just by the phone when it rang.

Ah, Tom! You're reminding me of the same situation occurring at Union College 1943-46! The rush of young men into theological studies was amusing--some who's personality was never fit for such a vocation. Also, the rush of senior theology students, looking for the wife, or fiancee who could be interviewed by the prospective conference! Her qualifications: play the piano and smile and be friendly and approve of his future success (IOW, a sideline cheerleader).

I also recall the many pre-med and pre-dent students who, on being called up by the draft, were eager to marry their chosen girl. Of course, on marrying, the poor girl was expelled, even, and in many cases, when she was half-way through nursing school! What a strange situation! It's as if marriage would pollute the remainder of the student body!

Elaine

To expand on your comments on marraige and being expelled, I thought I would tell the story of my "call". I graduated from dental school several years before LLU established their dental school. My first job was teaching Children's Dentistry at Marquette University. I took a leave from Marquette for two years to take a residency in Orthodontics at Northwestern.
Dr. Prince traveled through the mid-west recruiting faculty.
My sister was an orthodontic student at Northwestern with me.
He recruited her but told me he had no need for me in orthodontics, if I changed back to children's dentistry he could use me. I declined his offer and returned to Marquette where I had the dual responsibility of Orthodontics and Children's dentistry. The two faculty Dr. Prince had recruited either left or went part-time. He made an urgent call to me to come out to Loma Linda and help him. Betty and I thought it was a call from God. So, I left a $25,000. job at Marquette and took a $7,500. job at Loma Linda.

I didn't realize that I reallly had been "called" until the first full faculty meeting. It seems that the wife of a dental student gave birth to a 7 lb healthy baby boy in early November. Several of the dental wives did some calculations.
The wedding had taken place in mid-June immediately following
the end of the school year, yet the baby was full term! The only conclusion they could accept was that conception occurred prior to marriage. The issue on the table was to dismiss the dental student for fornication. I listened to the discussion--dismissal permanently or dismissal with the opportunity to reapply if during the interval the young man demonstrated remorse, and a sanctified life style.

Now I knew, the Lord had called me to Loma Linda. I asked for the floor. I said do you have any idea what you are labeling that poor little girl and what you are calling that healthy bright baby boy? The Lord blessed that family with a wonderful beginning--why place a cloud over their heads. We are not the judge nor the jury. Let us have a baby shower and sing the Doxology and go home. But no, the man was dismissed from dental school and readmitted the following year. Later one faculty member had a sailing boat and he took several couples of dental students and their girl friends on a cruse out to Catalina Is. On the way back one couple went below deck alone for several minutes. Someone told the dean. A special dental faculty meeting was called to decide if the dental student should be dismissed and the faculty member terminated. It turned out that the faculty member was the best clinical dentist on the faculty. He was too valuable to dismiss so all he got was a letter from the dean strongly advising the faculty member against such behavior in the future. The list is eight years long. Finally they got wise and stopped counting. Tom

While I almost never read Elaine's comments her question about walking on water speaks volumes about why I don't take time to read them. Courtesy is never out of place and always welcome while sarcasm is unwelcome to say the least.

Your Friend

I agree that civility should reign. However, did you read the post two which Elaine was responding--? A far greater breach of civility to which you overlooked or agreed with.

The Issue being addressed was "the call". While I and I am sure Elaine agrees--God does call humans to explicit tasks.
Yet "The Call" was been misused and abused beyond measure.

Elaine and I in different idioms attempted to point out some of that abuse. To which Brandon used snide language to put down. Elaine replied in kind. If you were a Friend you would have call Brandon to task as well as Elaine. Tom

P.S. We must admit that blogging is a way of getting thoughts and worries off our chest. It has very little to do with either micro or macro change, certainly not in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The few times blogging results in true sharing are rare but a very welcome respite in my life. So I accept the slings and the arrows and keep "sharing". Elaine is a treasure to Spectrum on line--treat her kindly. She sure beats Nic and Tom on a regular basis. Tom

Having expressed a dubious view of the "call" I thought I would share with you a career ending touching account of the retirement of the Associate Pastor At Reid Memorial Church, Augusta, Ga. Sept. 28, 2008. Rev. Boyd Lien gave his final seromon entitled "The Rhythm Section" (he was always upbeat!)

What fallowed was the formal Declaration of Retirement

Which reads as follows:

Elder: My sisters and brothers in Christ, members and friends of Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church, today we give thanks for the ministry and friendship of Boyd Lien. Ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sarcament on this day in 1970, Boyd was called to ministry with us on March 1, 2002. During this time he has been God's faithful servant as our associate pastor and a fellow disciple of Jesus Christ. Motivating us through teaching and example to share in Jesus' ministry of making God's kingdom known. So now let us express gratitude to God for Boyd's leadership: seek God's guidance as Boyd's service as associate pastor comes to an end: and rejoice in the in the Spirit of God as Boyd pursues other opportunities to serve as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Response:

Frends in Christ: six and a half years ago, God called me to serve as your associate pastor. It has been an exhilarating and fulfilling journey in partnership with you and Jesus Christ. I believe that God now calls me to retire from my role as associate pastor here and move in a new direction of ministry. I thank God that you have trusted me as your pastor, and shared yours lives, your laughter and tears, with me as we have sought together to cooperate with all that God is doing. I am also grateful for the love and support you have given to Pam and our family. I trust that you will continue to support Leslie and Matt, embracing them as your pastors. Now I look forward to the unfolding of my nest step in descipleship and look forward to the occasions when I will be joining you in the pew to worship God alongside of you. On this day my calling to Reid Memorial;s pastor is fulfilled." Sept 28, 2008.

To add: Rev. Boyd Lein served during a time of major redesign and construction of the present church building. He served during the time in which the leading psstor was forced to resign for cause, a time in which the acting pastor was asked to resign for cause, and a time in which the second acting pastor was forced to resign because of health reasons. We now have a new head pastor who is a great personal friend and a well known leader among the brethren in the General Conference of SDA. He serves as a trouble shooter in the world field of SDA pastors assisting them in extended moments of distress and confusion. If you are every in Augusta Georgia please be Betty and My guest and attend Dr. Leslie Holmes sermons. It will be meat in due season.

Back to Rev. Boyd. He is a scholar and a well traveled member of the clergy. To me he seems like such a young man to be retiring. Yes I do believe in the "call" but as I noted before, even the "call" has been abused. But not in this case.

Tom