I follow a twitterer (and blog writer) by the name of David Sitton. I love what he does in life and suppose I feel a sense of camaraderie that is bred from some sort of similarity in the way our lives have been orchestrated. He recently had an interesting article entitled The Missionary Call: How Do I Get One? that I found particularly interesting.

He brings up a salient point about what could be designated as a discussion of ministerial “officialism” – the issue of being “called” into ministry. As he states:

I chuckle when I hear missionaries and pastors talk about “surrendering to the call” of ministry.  I always want to ask, “After you surrendered, were you water-boarded, or just hauled off in handcuffs and leg irons.”  Was it really necessary for you to be abducted by a heavenly vision before you would go into the work of the gospel?

I don’t negate the concept of leadership in the church, though I am convinced that if Jesus were to appear on the twenty-first century church scene he would be scratching his head trying to figure out how we got into the morass we are in: “Fellows, THAT is not what I had in mind…”

The whole concept of “going,” or better, “being,” is for every single person who calls himself a believer. Yet, we’ve turned it into a profession where only the well-trained, highly-educated, super-spiritual elite are capable of successfully pulling it off.

Arrogance on the part of the “ordained” and ignorance on the part of those who aren’t is no excuse for failing to bring the power of heaven into this worldly existence.

The point?  Don’t complicate the missionary call!  Get radical with the going and God will get radical in the specific guiding.