Wednesday, September 28, 2005

But How Did They Know It Was God's Will?

This article about why pastors change churches reveals something. I'm just not sure what. Here's the portion that perked my attention:
Ellison Research president Ron Sellers says only a small minority of pastors said they moved to another church primarily because of God's will. "Pastors are not saying that they are ignoring what God wants for them and doing whatever they want," he explains. "What we are seeing is that only 12 percent of them simply said the primary reason they moved was that God wanted them in a different place. But, at the same time, it really is a difficult balance between ministry and career." . . . On the other hand, the researcher notes, "Southern Baptists were twice as likely as average to change jobs simply because they had heard God's call and felt God's leading to move to a different church." The survey also found that Southern Baptist ministers are more likely than average to have held multiple positions over their years in the ministry.
I have to wonder exactly how some pastors "heard God's call and felt God's leading to move." I suppose they must have had peace about it. Just for fun sometime, categorize the use of the words "call," "called," and "calling" in the NT and see how many of them refer to each of: salvation, sanctification, the calling of Paul to be an apostle, the calling of a believer to a particular vocation, and the calling of a believer to vocational ministry.

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