Called and make ready!
Similarly, the Gospel ministry is
indeed a Glorious one because the minister of the Gospel is also known as the “co-worker”
or “minister” of God as the Apostle Paul would have it as he wrote to the
Church in Thessalonica (1 Thes 3:2). A mere mortal can be a “co-worker” with
God! It is Glorious because the minister of the Gospel preaches the Good news
of Salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so that “whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13). As such, the Apostle Paul
is emphatic about sending preachers of this Good News of Salvation when he
wrote to the Church in Rome, “And how shall they preach, except they be
sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom 10:15).
While the vocation of a Minister of the Gospel is glorious, it is also a
difficult one. This is seen in the way the Apostle Paul reminded Timothy that
he needed to “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim 2:3) in
the course of committing the truth of the Gospel to others.
Like the specific competitive
sports where the sportsman needs to meet certain qualifications in order to be
successful, the relevant qualification to be a Minister of the Gospel is also
clearly set forth in the Scriptures. The man of God suitable for the Gospel ministry
needs to have the right Character, Conviction pertaining to the Scriptural
truth and Competence to deal with
the demands of the ministry with respect to teaching through speaking and
writing, preaching, counselling and leadership. Let’s call it CCC, this is set
forth in no uncertain terms in 1 Tim 3:1-7 and Tit 1:5:9. Putting it in summary
form, we have the following; Character:
Blameless, Husband of one wife; Conviction:
Not a novice, having a good report; Competence:
Apt to teach.
Just like the competitive sport,
where representing the country is concerned, the athlete needs to be tested
through competitive training with the best in his field before being selected
to be part of the A team, it is also important that we test a potential
candidate for the gospel ministry through some kind of full-time remunerated
internship where the man concerned will not only have training given usually by
the incumbent minister as his mentor but will also be subject to the rigour of
ministerial demands of preaching, teaching and leadership on a full-time basis.
This could be a one to two-year internship. If the man is deemed suitable by
the relevant authorities as well as the Pastor Mentor, he can then be sent for
a further 3-year ministerial training program in a desired seminary after which
he will be examined and called to the ministry of the specific Church. Our
Church, FERC has also adopted such a model[1]
as in many other Reformed Churches. This was announced in one of our Family Conversations
in August 2016, entitled “Policy for
Induction of Full Time gospel Minister”. Details of the Policy is pinned up
on the notice board.
To be a minister of the Gospel is
indeed to be a co-worker with our heavenly Father in calling men and women to repentance
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As such there is no more higher calling than
this calling on earth; indeed, we should be encouraging our Children and
praying for suitable men (young and old) to consider this wonderful calling to
proclaim the Good News of the Bible, particularly so at this juncture of our
Church life. We nevertheless recognize the arduous nature of this calling and therefore
has put this policy in place so that our candidates can be tested, trained, affirmed before being sent into the ministry. Let
us all unite in prayers that the Lord of harvest would send labourers into the
field here in Ang Mo Kio and beyond the shores of Singapore!
“Then saith he unto his disciples,
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest”
(Matt 9:37,38). Amen.
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