The Lord Calls Pastors for His Church

Fourth Sunday of Easter

April 17, 2016

1 Corinthians 12:28

The Lord Calls Pastors for His Church

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

I got the phone call on a Wednesday night. It was Norm and he was calling to tell me that this congregation, Gethsemane Lutheran Church, was calling me to be her next pastor. Several weeks later on a Sunday morning I announced to my congregation in Michigan and I believe Norm announced to you that I had decided to accept the Call to serve as Gethsemane's pastor.

What happened in those weeks between that Wednesday night and that Sunday morning? How does a pastor decide whether to stay at his current congregation or leave to shepherd another flock?

First of all, the Lord is the One who gives pastors to His congregations. Secondly, the pastor has the responsibility to decide what to do. And finally, the Lord will bless whatever decision is made. That is His promise.

So first of all, Jesus is the One who gives us pastors. Paul lays out why Jesus sends out preachers clearly in Romans 10:

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:13-15a NIV)

God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers. (1 Corinthians 12:28a NIV)

Jesus places into His church apostles, prophets, and teachers. The apostles and prophets speak to us still in the New and Old Testaments, which collectively is Holy Scripture. Teachers in this context are the pastors sent into the churches to explain that these Scriptures are all about death and resurrection, above all, Christ's death and His rising from death.

In these days the Lord still creates life and little baby boys are born. He gives them a family to take care of them and somewhere along the way that boy grows up, after considering being a submariner, a journalist, an electrician, settles on pursuing the office of holy ministry. He wants to be a pastor.

In our circles that young man goes to college, learns about people through the study of history and philosophy, reading and discussing literature. He studies foreign languages, bonds with his future pastors, and through it all, receives the Lord's true body and blood for the forgiveness of his many sins.

He is graduated from college and moves on to the seminary, the school for pastors. (Our seminary is in a town just north of Milwaukee.) He learns more about the order Jesus gives to His pastors: to preach His cross as the cause of salvation and the crosses of their future parishioners as the results of salvation. He learns how to teach, which is very different from preaching, but these two skills are two sides of the same “hearing the message” that Jesus gives through His pastors. Paul wrote:

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17 NIV)

The young man is graduated from the seminary and sent out by our national church body to serve as a pastor of a congregation.

The seen part of this sending is the calling body of our national church body, the Wisconsin Synod. A group of 12 pastors who serve the 12 different regions of the United States gather every spring to pick places to send these new pastors. And this year, on May 19, 2,000 people will gather in the seminary auditorium (with many more live streaming) and hear where these men will be sent.

The unseen part of this process is the work of God the Holy Spirit. Our dear Lord, who is in control of all things for the benefit of His baptized children, guides this calling process and the Church trusts that the decisions made will be blessed by Him.

After being sent out by the Holy Spirit through His Church, that summer these new pastors and their families will move into their new homes and new congregations. These men will be ordained as pastors in a special church service, usually in July. Then they will begin preaching and teaching.

For a few pastors this new home is where they will spend 40 years taking care of the souls of his people. Then he will retire and move away. Then what?

The church has to ask for a new pastor. The pastor who serves their region of the country drives over and a special meeting is held. The pastor has a list of four or five pastors in other parts of the country, who are currently serving other churches. At the end of the meeting, the men vote to call one of these pastors to be their new pastor. Then someone from the congregation calls him and tells him about their decision.

So then the pastor has the responsibility to decide what to do. He has to decide to stay or go. He will pray for guidance from the Lord, but in the end, the decision is the pastor's.

Take note: Just because something happens doesn't mean we can say that it was “the Lord's will”. The Lord's will is revealed in Scripture and the Scripture says nothing about the specifics of Pastor Kookabura deciding to take a Call to Kokomo. The pastor should not try to climb into God's brain to find out what God wants him to do; rather the pastor will simply try to make the best decision possible.

How does he decide? What factors should he consider?

He will look at his current Call to his current congregation and compare that with the new Call to his potentially new congregation. Does he have unfinished business in the current church, for example, a building project that they are in the middle of? Will he be a pastor working with another pastor at the new church? How often do the different churches offer Services and Communion and Bible Study? How do they bring new souls into the spiritual care of the congregation? Is prayer in the home a priority or does more teaching need to take place? Do they understand a broad understand of “evangelism” or a narrow one? Is the church mindset interested in fitting in with the culture or to the Lutheran Confessions? Do they even know what that means?

But along with these doctrinal and practical questions, there are other questions that are just as important. Where would his kids go to school? Where would his family live? How far away is the hospital, dentist, grocery store, library, and post office? What does his wife think he should do? His kids? His current members?

There are hundreds of other questions to consider, but you can see that deciding whether to take a Call to a new church is in many ways similar to most other job offers. There are many practical questions that need to be answered, many of the same questions that you'd ask when weighing job opportunities.

One difference is that with most jobs, you have to put your CV or resume out to employers and then go and interview before they'll make you an offer. And secondly, once the Call is sent to you, it's yours if you want it. So in a way, you do the interview with the congregation, the pastor, the president, the elders, and others after you have the job. When you have a Call, you really have two jobs simultaneously.

But there is one question that makes this process, not more special, but certainly unique: “Where can I do the most good for the Church, by staying where I am or by accepting the Call that I have received?” (Irwin Habeck, The Divine Call, 1974)

And so after a period of conversation with those at the current congregation and the new congregation (as a rule of thumb, usually three to five weeks), the pastor makes his decision. As he announces his decision, he is wise, as noted above, to leave out any talk of his decision being the Lord's will. God did not whisper into his ear and tell him what to do.

God did, however, give him trust in the promises of Scripture and a sound mind to make wise decisions. It can be tempting for a pastor who has decided to move to the new congregation to place the emphasis that he thinks this is what God wants him to do; it is wiser to simply make a decision and take responsibility for it.

And finally, the Lord will bless whatever decision is made. That is His promise to His congregations and pastors.

This unique process is something I am working through now. I have accepted the Call to serve as your shepherd here at Gethsemane. I also have the Call to serve as a pastor of Morrison Zion Lutheran Church in Morrison, Wisconsin, a little south of Green Bay.

Trust that our dear Lord will bless whatever decision I make, whether I stay or go. I invite your questions and comments about this matter and invite you to pray to the Lord to bless both Gethsemane and Zion congregations, their people, and their pastors.

One last thing: at times congregations can think when a pastor says no to the offered Call that they have done something wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth! The pastor simply judged that his decision was the best thing for him, his family, and his congregations.

No matter what decision I make, I trust the Gospel will continue to preached among you and the Lord's Supper offered for your comfort, especially if I decide to stay.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Alleluia! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21