Your Calling Will Keep You
In October of 2014, I came face to face with the consequences of a bad decision I had made just a few months prior. For clarification before anyone’s mind begins to wander, it was not a decision that led to some serious sin or ministerial compromise, nor did it affect my family in any discernible way. But it was beating me up like a twenty-pound sledgehammer.
In August of that same year, I was selected to become the next Lead Pastor at Calvary Lighthouse Church in Omaha, Nebraska, where I had been serving as the Youth and Young Adult Pastor for the previous three years. During that time, I had worked closely with the Senior Pastor who had been in his position for over thirty years. He announced his retirement along with his support for me taking his place, and most of the congregation—eighty-six percent, to be exact—voted for me to take the position.
From the beginning, I was challenged with the reality of leading people who did not necessarily want to go anywhere. My wife and I were young leaders, and the vast majority of those in our church were over sixty-five years old. I did not know the answer right away, but I was willing to work at it, figure it out, and lead our church to where we felt the Lord was calling.
That’s the backdrop to my bad decision. I was fervently working on a way to bridge the gap between where we were and where I felt the Lord was leading us. I wanted desperately to get strategic buy-in from our elderly congregants. And I became convinced the best way to accomplish this was by putting a “Suggestion Box” at the back of the sanctuary. The intent was to gather thoughts, desires, and interests of the congregation and be able to figure out a systematic way to utilize these “suggestions” to bridge the gap and pave the way to the promised land God surely had before us.
I quickly realized I had opened a can of worms that would spend the next eight weeks feasting on my confidence as a leader. Every Monday, when I would go through these “suggestions” I felt like I had just gone through a five-round sparring match with Mike Tyson. I had opened Pandora’s box and subjected myself to every complaint within the entire church. It was daunting reading things like: the music is too loud, we want to sing more hymns, why aren’t we using the pipe organ anymore, the sermons are too long, stop changing so much, it’s too hot, it’s too cold, bring back the liturgy, you need to preach out of the Old Testament every week too, and so many more.
The reason I laugh about it today is that I realize how much time I lost in my calling because I allowed suggestions and complaints to fuel my frustrations. Unchecked frustration will create mountains out of molehills. They will create narratives and storylines that are not true. They will eventually stir a longing for peace where the current frustration will no longer be lurking in the shadows, carrying a sense of impending doom over what you originally knew was good and felt was God leading you.
Looking back, I wish I would have kept all those “suggestions” as a reminder of one of the most valuable truths I have learned in the last sixteen years of full-time ministry: Your calling will keep you when frustrations try to move you. I knew God called my wife and me to that position. And over the next three years, we witnessed God do incredible things time and time again. We experienced over 100% growth, salvations, baptisms, healings, freedom, and deliverance, which became staple happenings in that church once we settled into what God called us to.
This past week, I was reading the second chapter of Ezekiel and was reminded of this moment and how God prepared Ezekiel for his calling. I meet with leaders all over the world every month, and one of the big things I like to remind them is that God has given them what they need to do what He has called them to do. This was true for Ezekiel, and it is true for you as well. When we are confident in what God has given to us, we can move with confidence to where He is calling us.
Here are three things God gave Ezekiel, and which He also will give you to do what you are called to do.
The first thing Ezekiel had was the Word from the Lord. As a leader who spends time with the Lord, you can have confidence that you too can be led by God’s Word. This is how God leads us. He speaks to us and leads us by His Word and through His Spirit. The psalmist said, “Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” When you have God’s Word to lead you, you have reason to be bold and courageous. For what can man do to you?
The second thing I want to point out builds upon the first: Ezekiel was given God’s Word in order to proclaim God’s Word to His people. I want to remind you of this: no matter your position or title, God’s Word in your mouth is a powerful weapon. God’s Word is creative, His Word reveals truth, His Word sets crooked paths straight, God’s Word holds and reveals the secrets of life and eternity. This is the Word that has been given to you. Read His Word, listen to His voice, and speak the truth of His Word in every situation and place you are able. For again, God’s Word in your mouth is powerful and effective. His Word accomplishes everything it is set forth to do.
Lastly, you have been given a promise that you are not alone. Just like Ezekiel, God’s Spirit came into him and raised him up. The Spirit of God has taken residence in you as a promise guaranteeing that which is to come. You are not an orphan; you have the spirit of adoption and have been brought into right relationship with God by His Spirit through His Son Jesus. The Spirit of God will never leave you. He will lead you into all truth and will empower you by God’s grace to do what would be impossible in your own ability and strength.
If you are a leader in the church, I promise you will face trouble, you will question your ability, and frustration will work against God’s call on your life. But settle in, hold tight to this truth: it is God who is faithful to complete His promises. He has already given you what you need to answer His call on your life. Be bold and courageous, have faith in God and the calling He has placed on your life.