What SHAPE are you in?

Today I received an email from someone who asked me this question: "How does a person know if he is called by God to serve as a pastor or a chaplain?" That's a great question. And it is a question that all of us ask at various times in our faith journey. God places opportunities to serve him before us, and we wonder if God is actually calling us to serve in that particular capacity.

Here is what I in essence said in my response. God takes all of us who have chosen to follow Jesus and shapes us to do good works - works that he has chosen in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10 makes this clear). He does this through his Holy Spirit, who gives us each certain spiritual gifts (see Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4). He also does this through His works of creation (for example, each of us are wired by God with a certain personality temperament) and providence (in which God orchestrates the details and situations of our lives so that we gain valuable experience to later use in our service for him).

Given all of this, whenever we are considering an opportunity to serve, we need to examine how God has shaped us. What are our spiritual gifts? What am I truly passionate about (in regards to becoming a pastor/elder, I believe one must have the strong desire to become one - a desire I believe is place on one's heart by God - see 1 Timothy 3:1)? What experiences have I had that could help me in this particular ministry? Does the strengths of my personality temperament lend itself serve in this capacity? Am I spiritually at a maturity level demanded by the ministry opportunity (in the case of pastors/elders - the qualifications are quite high!).

So it all comes down to ... "What shape are you in?"

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj