Calling and Conceit

With my impending move and all the small details I must manage in the next couple of weeks, my mind is very scattered.  I feel like I am driving down a beautiful, winding country road in a great car about 85 mph.  It is a rush, I am staying on the road because the car is fantastic, but I do not have energy and focus to spare on anything but driving.  

It seems that my days quickly pass into weeks, and soon my family will be moving 3300 miles away.  It is bittersweet.  Yet, it is my reality!  In the meantime, I will try to keep up with the writing.  To help me gain some focus, I will be bringing quotations and thoughts from others.  It is so much easier to comment than to be original!

Yesterday's theme was pastoral ministry.  Today's will be a return to the important topic of calling.  In particular, I wish to comment on how calling can become sinful pride.  To help get into the topic, I will quote from Os Guinness' book, The Call.  I do recommend this book!

The reverse side of calling is the temptation to conceit.  It's an illusion to think that recovering doctrines is simple and straightforward, that they need only to be reaffirmed to be rediscovered.  Far from it.  All truth in a fallen world is vulnerable to distortion.  In fact, each truth has its own foreseeable distortions that are its shadow side.  Each also has a sort of magnetic attraction to distortions prevalent in the people who believe the truth and the times in which they live.  ...

The closeness between calling and conceit is easy to see.  After all, to be called is to hear God whisper three things to you in a hundred intimate ways- "You are chosen; you are gifted; you are special."  Let those three things sink in for longer than the first precious moments and you will inevitably hear another voice, honeyed and smooth: "Yes, you really are chosen ... gifted ... special."

All too soon, if you are anything like most of us, you will find yourself saying in response to the devil's echo of God- to yourself, of course, never out loud: I'm chosen.  I'm gifted.  I really must be special.  And before you know it, the wonder of calling has grown into the horror of conceit.

Os Guinness, The Call, 118.

I believe this observation is so true!  Particularly if one is very gifted, creative, and talented.  Many will praise your ability and accomplishments.  After awhile, you begin to believe the "press clippings."  You know you can achieve and perform better than others, so you gain a sense of conceit and judgement upon those with less ability.  You also begin to take it for granted that you will always be able to perform!

I know in ministry such conceit is particularly true.  In the paid ministry ranks, virtually no one chooses such a career because they are not talented.  If you have no promise and talent, you will not get recommendations, you will not find a position, and you will not be able to do the duties of the job.  Yes, we all have different abilities and gifts, but we must use these gifts in a satisfactory manner at our particular call or we will soon find ourselves without a job!

As with every career and calling, some folks in ministry are particularly chosen, gifted, and special.  These folks can move people with words and deeds.  They see potential and they have the gifting to make that potential reality.  Such individuals will impact many lives.  They also are particularly prone to their calling becoming their conceit.

I remember clearly an internationally known pastor coming to Maine to share what he had learned about church growth and church revitalization.  I was so looking forward to hearing from him.  About half way through the talk, he shared that his research indicated that a church cannot really function like a church until it reaches 350 or 400 people in attendance.  Really?  In the city in which I live, there are only three or four churches that might claim that many in attendance.  In truth, I think there are only two!  Why would he say such a thing?

For this famous pastor, anyone slightly gifted should be able to quickly grow a church to that size.  In my humble opinion, this is not true in New England!  What was ironic was his attitude when confronted with this reality.  I think he was quite shocked.  I wonder if he believed if NE lacked talented pastors?

What happens for those in ministry is we take for granted our calling, gifting, and specialness given to us by God.  Does this not happen in every area of labor?  Of course it does.  I just know ministry the best since it is my particular calling.  As Guinness states, "All truth in a fallen world is vulnerable to distortion.  In fact, each truth has its own foreseeable distortions that are its shadow side."  

Before long, the pastor who constantly prayed for God's mercy and grace with fear and concern for the impending failure of their ministry calling, soon begins to trust their own gifting and talent to teach, preach, and lead.  God becomes the message of their success and He is no longer the method and power source for ministry.  

I fear many individuals and churches operate by trusting their own gifting and their pattern of past success instead of walking in fearful dependence upon Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit in ministry.  What happened?  Their calling, including the fact that God chose, gifted, and blessed them, has become their conceit.  Surely pride has ruined many a person, many churches, and even entire denominations!

So what can be done?  Preach the gospel to yourself!  God is the great one, not me.  I am only chosen, gifted, and special because He declared it.  May these true "press clippings" be our meditation and guide!  Walk in humble repentance and faith no matter how gifted and talented you might be!  

May the Lord have mercy upon us so our calling does not become our conceit.