leadership call

A CALL TO LEADERSHIP
God calls some of His people to be leaders. Once a Christian has received a call from God to leadership (or to full – time Christian work), it is not something to be taken lightly. In fact, such a call is a tremendous privilege and responsibility. Any person called by God to some leadership capacity or full – time Christian work should have a special inward witness to this from the Holy Spirit. No other person can invent a true call from God. It is foundational to the person’s life from then on.
To be an effcective leader in God’s church, you must be called by God to the task. In fact, all God’s leaders must bear a ‘word’ from the Lord in their heart which affirms God’s call. They need a word of assurance of who God is; they need to know what he can do and they need to know that He has called them into the work they are doing.
There is also no escape clause due to youthfulness, when it comes to a call from God to leadership (Jeremiah 1:6-10). Young people must not fear those who are older, more experienced and better educated. These factors are not to be despised, but they are not the most important consideration.
DISCERNMENT OF CALL
The call of God on a person’s life may change with time. How then does a Christian discern whether God has callled them to be a leader in His church? A major weakness in current trends in discernment of spiritual giftings and callings is the amount of responsibility which is laid at the door of the person concerned. God does not always call the most likely or even the most humanly gifted people. There is a mystery about God’s call that can only be answered in the heart of God. In fact, God often calls the unlikely into positions of authority (1 Corinthians 1:26-27)
FOUR MAJOR FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED AS FAR AS GOD GIVEN CALL TO MINISTRY OF LEADERSHIP IS CONCERNED
1. A sense of call – many people in church today mix up the wish to be a leader, with God’s call to be one. Some Christians even to try to force the issue by going to Bible college or pushing themselves into church leadership. This is never any substitute for God’s call. Of course, the scriptures tell us to desire the best gifts, but that desire should never override the reality of the call of God to a specific and unique ministry. A real call of God is like a seed planted in a field- it does not die but grows, if given half a chance.
2. A heart for the work – God usually gives us a desire for the work after He called us to do it. This may not be evident at first, but as we move into our call in God, there will be nowhere else we would want to go and nothing else we would rather do – it will be burning in our bones (Jeremaih 20:9). Even in the most traumatic situations, we will desire to serve the Lord. We must remember though that there is a distinction between desiring and lliking or enjoying. A heart for the work does not mean that we will enjoy every experience we will have in our ministry for God. Often the burden for the work will lie so heavily upon us that it will seem as though it will break us.
3. Exercise of gift - a man’s ministry makes room for itself. A real call of God will manifest itself in exercise. God does not appoint and annoint into inertia. There is an in built dynamic in the call of God through which it will continually find expression in practice. A call from God operates a sort of spiritual ambition within the heart: not an ambition of the flesh or self – interest, but a desire that comes from God to be going on in the work and to find the means and outlets for what is inside us to be fulfilled in practice.
4. Fruitfulness – so many people lay claim to ministry in advance of fruitfulness, when, in fact, fruitfulness is the real sign of ministry. ‘‘do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.’’
FULL- TIME OR NOT
There are certain callings to leadership in God’s church that require full- time attention. Others, however, are ’10 hours’ callings, e.g. worship leading or Sunday school teaching. We need to decide whether or not the calling we have can be carried on in a full –time capacity. Can our calling fill in sufficient hours of the week and can it support our needs? God chooses the people He will call into leadership and He chooses the way in which they will be called. Every Christian leader wii receive their call from God in a different way, God is a God of huge variety and creativity.God’s people do not need any other type of call than the one they received from Him. We should never be jealous of another person’s call or the way they received it; and we certainily should not feel condemned because our call was not as spectacular as someone’s else’s.
GOD’S TIMING
Many Christians run ahead of God and step out into their call before it is His time to do so. We need to wait on the Lord and move into our calling only when the Lord so directs. The anointing from God we will need to fulfil our call will then be evident. Trying to step into a call outside of God’s timing necessitates striving, because we will have to work at a job in our own strenght. Some people may try and push you forward before your time. Do not yield to this! It is important to follow God’s leading alone, because very often His timing is contrary to man’s wisdom. As we progress in our Christian walk, one lesson we should learn quickly is that God’s timing is perfect. Take care never to rush ahead of God (Psalm 37:23-24, Proverbs 3:5-6).
The Bible abounds with people who were called by God, but who underwent a period of preparation and waiting before God brought them into their place of call, e.g. Jesus was 30 before He entered His ministry, David was a shepherd and then a leader in exile before ascending to the throne of israel. We need to learn to wait on God (Psalm 27:14).
Nobody can make up a call from God. A call to ministry is like a seed: it has the shape, essence and colour of the ministry within it. When we are called by God to a ministry, He places within us all we need to operate fruitfully and successfully within that call.
Many leaders fail because they attempt to enter into leadership without a divine call from God. If God does not back up our claim to a call, we are doomed from the start, no matter how noble our reasons for entering leadership. Without God, we will never be sufficiently equipped to fulfil any task in His kingdom and therefore, if we attempt a task without a God – given call to work, we will have to operate and function in our own strenght. This is one of the resons that church leadership todayis no ineffective.
A person in a position of leadership needs the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God in order to fulfil their role. If they do not have these things, they are in grave danger of falling flat on their faces.never be tempted to invent a word from the Lord to back up a desire to o something for God.
God will not let His name be ridiculed and He will not let His word fail to accomplish that for which it was sent (Isaiah 55:11). God will back up His name and honour His word with whatever power is necessary and that means that nothing can stop it from coming to pass (Titus 1:2).the fact of being divinely commissioned makes the difference in the spiritual productivity of a ministry, self – sent, self – made or self – empowered ministries, who are commissioned by the Lord, are sure to fail.