Conviction and Manipulation

The question of “calling” has been on my mind a lot lately.  What exactly is a call?  What if you don’t feel called?  Can you still serve in ministry?  Can you be guilted or manipulated into feeling a call?  What happens if you get “talked into” a call? 

It was particularly interesting, then, that this issue of The Other Sheep featured (on its very first page!) an article titled “Needed—Doctors!”  It, basically, was an article for recruiting.  It used language meant to entice young doctors into the mission field because “A healing ministry was such an integral part of [Jesus’] redemptive program.”  Now any good Nazarene would see that as some pretty strong language.  I am sure that this article was not written in order to guilt, but rather to “convict” (which we all know is really just a fancy Christian word for guilt) medical professionals. 

My problem is that I was so “convicted” by this article that I seriously thought “Wow! I should have become a doctor!”  While it would be super awesome to carry the skill set necessary to become a doctor-- that certainly is not in my gifting!  I think this is a problem because sometimes we ask people to fit into molds they cannot fit into and then say that they are not really needed on the field. 

Is any of this making any sense, or is it too tangential?  Maybe if I clairify my main points (with bullets!), I can save this blog post.

• Manipulation into a call isn’t a good way to do things
• Sometimes literature like this can seem manipulative
• Many people who are called don’t fit into traditional missionary molds
• We should respect everyone and love Jesus!

Okay, that last one I threw in for fun because it’s true.

This was a mess, but it’s a part of a bigger dialogue going on in my life right now, so you’re all just going to have to deal.