When it comes to missions, the personal call is that which is as often cited by the missionary candidate during fund raising as is the need of the people to which they intend to go. Yet is this personal call needed to serve overseas? Is this personal call taught to us in Scripture as a normative experience for all who desire to go?
“Calling” is a very biblical word and we are called to several things: We have been called of God (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:24-29; Jude 1:1), we have been called to suffer like Christ (1 Peter 2:21), we have been called into fellowship with Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:9), we have been called to peace (1 Corinthians 7:15), freedom (Galatians 5:13), and into the light (1 Peter 2:9).
Yet, it is Paul’s Macedonian Call as an apostle of Jesus (Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1) which was a very specific calling that seems to have been made the norm. Paul uses this special, supernatural calling as evidence of his apostleship, and we neither see him apply it to others nor do we see it taught as normative elsewhere in Scripture.
In our experience, when most people are asked to explain their call, there is rarely anything which would differentiate it from a deep desire. Even when explaining the personal missionary call as an inner compulsion or stemming from a sense of “ought,” the missionaries consulted did not base their decisions to go on a specific, supernatural encounter with God who directly told them to go. Several did, however, share of their feeling pulled to missions and then asking God for clarification, with one missionary even putting a fleece before the Lord to confirm His will.
“Paul uses this special, supernatural calling as evidence of his apostleship, and we neither see him apply it to others nor do we see it taught as normative elsewhere in Scripture.”
Let’s be clear that, though there is no biblical mandate that requires a specific, supernatural calling of God to enter missions, we are not saying that God does not and cannot work in this way. However, we believe that by making this experience a necessary prerequisite to mission is unhealthy for several reasons.
Confusing the Command
First, by elevating this personal call, we confuse the biblical narrative of the command to go issued to the church. It is our argument that, regardless of whether one has experienced a personal, supernatural call to enter missions, we have all been called to play a part in it as either senders or goers. It is not some extra biblical call that we respond to, but the biblical command that we have received. It is our argument that, regardless of whether one has experienced a personal, supernatural call to enter missions, we have all been called to play a part in it as either senders or goers.
Limiting the Numbers
Second, by making this special supernatural calling to missions normative, it limits the numbers of those who would otherwise participate in missions. I (Chris) have heard several people express an interest in missions who have yet hesitated or not responded because of this lack of a special calling.
“Regardless of whether one has experienced a personal, supernatural call to enter missions, we have all been called to play a part in it as either senders or goers.”
Sending the Unready
Third, it can lead to people who are emotionally driven to go, when they are not emotionally or spiritually prepared to do so. Why is this important? When we send those who are not ready, we become the unwise builders who build upon sand as described in Matthew 7. Unqualified or unprepared missionaries can damage themselves, the work, and those they leave in their wake. This can create a negative and tainted view of missions from those who have been financial supporters for the families who come home prematurely or never make it onto the field. When they are asked to support future mission work, they become skeptical and extremely cautious due to the support they have been given not being effectively used.
Financially, the cost of launching a missionary is high. As we commented earlier, it is estimated that it costs an investment on average of $500,000 of resources to recruit, select, train, send out a missionary and keep them in their field for their first four years.[1] This is a huge investment to make if they are not qualified or prepared.
Setting up Disappointment
Fourth, by sending out workers who are honestly and bravely responding to a misinformed understanding of the call, they often return deeply wounded. Consider the words of Luke (14:28-29): “Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him.”
Mission work is hard. What happens when a family responds to an inaccurate calling, raises support by testifying to their calling from God for overseas work, uproots and moves overseas in faithful obedience, and then confronts the harsh realities that they are not prepared for the work? Besides the relational toll that it takes on their family, they now must explain why they are returning home.
Before leaving for the field, I (Chris) remember talking to someone who had been a missionary. They told me that they felt called to missions, and before going had committed to serving for nine years. They completed their mission and came home. In my eyes they had obediently served as they had committed to do, but as he was sharing, his shoulders hung low, and his demeanor was that of a man who had failed in his calling.
“By sending out workers who are honestly and bravely responding to a misinformed understanding of the call, they often return deeply wounded.”
In over thirty years, I have seen and read the testimonies of many missionaries who have spoken of their calling to missions upon leaving for the field. Yet for those who leave the field for preventable reasons, the majority of which tend to happen within their first five years on the field, their “call” from the past is never addressed, nor their reasons publicly addressed. Instead, they oftentimes speak of another, new calling in their lives. How can they share? How can they say that the work was harder than they could bear or that they were simply not prepared to undergo the hardships that they faced? Doing so would not only implicate themselves in their inability of fulfilling their calling but would damage the testimony previously given and dishonor the prayers and monies spent. So a carefully (even if subconscious) new narrative is given. Unqualified or unprepared missionaries can damage themselves, the work, and those they leave in their wake.
Silencing Others’ Honest Questions
Finally, by playing this spiritual trump card, those who are in a position to question the qualifications or readiness of the person for mission work often feel hesitant in questioning such a personal calling. By elevating this personal call, we confuse the biblical narrative of the command to go issued to the church. It is our argument, that regardless of whether one has experienced a personal, supernatural call to enter missions, we have all been called to play a part in it as either senders or goers.
[1] Ken Harder and Carla Foote, Help Your Missionaries Thrive: Leadership Practices that Make a Difference. Colorado Springs: CO, GMI, 2016), 4.
Excerpted from Andrew J and Chris Irwin, Missions in Focus: 10 Essential Conversations for Effective Sending (Joplin: College Press, 2020). Used by permission.
