How this term came to have such power in the realm of missions is hard to say, but there is no doubt about its effect on many people’s minds.

In my own case, I’m grateful for a youth pastor who didn’t use that terminology. He talked about a ‘command,’ and thus many, many of ‘his kids’ spent decades overseas.  Learning languages, doing evangelism, discipling young believers, planting churches, doing translations…and all without a call, but with a deep conviction that God wanted to be known and honored among every tongue, tribe, and nation. Who needs a call when a clear command has been issued by the One took my sin upon himself?

I wish I could claim the nobility of heart that Isaiah demonstrated when he responded to the Lord’s question in Isaiah 6:8, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” by actually VOLUNTEERING, but I can’t.  In the home I was raised in, commands were clearly understood and responded to. When I met Christ at 17, how could I not move forward with what He desired to see accomplished?

Interestingly, the ‘call’ the Apostle Paul received came well into his 2^nd missionary journey (Acts 16:9).  He was already functioning as a gospel worker and had planted many churches in Galatia (Acts 14:21-23) before he got that call to go work in Macedonia, which he immediately did. That call gave clearer direction to a man that was already moving.

I’m certainly not against folks having a ‘call.’ In fact, I actually prayed for a call in my early years among the Iteri people. I wanted to know with absolute certainty that I should be doing this as it was exceedingly difficult living there and trying to learn their language. God answered my sincere prayer with a “no.”

I’ve met people who have gone back to an experience in their life that became their ‘call’, and I’ve nothing against that. But to say it’s biblically mandated that pioneer missionaries have an extraordinary experience to look back on as their launching point for missions is just going beyond the scriptures.

The gloriously affirming Acts 13:1-3 experience of Saul and Barnabas is a one-off we don’t ever see again. How a description of an elders’ prayer meeting became the prescription for future gospel workers being sent is hard to say. Today’s ‘calls’ are generally a personal, unilateral, and very subjective experience. Generally, that is not a good basis for making a big decision.  It’s noteworthy that after Saul, by then known as Paul, and Barnabas split up in Acts 15:39, Paul chose Silas without any apparent supernatural call in the equation.

In my years overseas, I saw many leave the field prematurely. Some reasons were better than others. But after totaling up the losses I observed I’d rather a ‘committed’ (due to reading God’s Word) person than a ‘called’ person.  ‘Calls’ get pretty fuzzy when the going gets really hard.

Again, let me say that there’s nothing wrong with someone having a divine tug on their hearts as the starting point for a future in missions.  That tug can come from reading a tract, an article, hearing a message, attending a conference, or maybe an experience on a short-term missions’ trip.  The two concerns I do have are these:

1. Any motivation to pursue a future in pioneer missions that is not rooted and grounded in scripture will be short-lived.
2. An equally large concern is for the Christ follower who sees with clarity our God’s heart to be worshiped in every language, yet because he doesn’t have a supernatural call he doesn’t step forward and is unilaterally taking himself out from under Christ’s last command.

Let me suggest a new paradigm for the Church today.  How about every serious Christ follower who is young enough, healthy enough, serious enough, and growing in maturity (this effectively relegates the number of such volunteers to a small minority within any given local church) to ‘report for duty’ to the elders of his/her local church based off their own reading of Jesus’ words. Thus, allowing the local church to guide the obedient-to-God’s-Word younger believer in this decision, sparing that person from a lifetime of looking over their shoulder wondering why they didn’t act in obedience to what they read in God’s Word. 

We all know foreign missions isn’t for every believer, no church is meant to shut its doors due to everyone going overseas. Local churches have a huge task to do in their areas.  But to allow godly leaders to weigh in on this decision seems obvious. This way local churches could be in a position to pick out those they see with the greatest potential to endure the rigors of missionary life.

By taking the idea and terminology of ‘the call’ out of the equation, many seriously confused Christians could be mobilized to complete the Great Commission.  I’m under no illusions here, I’m well aware that many use that term as a diversionary balloon, but there actually are many serious Christ followers that a lack of ‘the call’ in and of itself has stopped them in their tracks.

It’s time to de-mystify the call. Let’s focus our efforts and the best of our young people on completing the Great Commission.