Calling vs. Role: Your Ministry Position Is Not Your Calling

I am troubled today by the number of church leaders I talk with who seem to have confused their calling with the role they are filling. There is a big difference between your call and your role.

Let me suggest that you are not called to be a Lead Pastor, Student Pastor, Worship Pastor, Elder, or any other role in the body of Christ. That may sound heretical but hang with me.

Identity (Security) > Calling (Being and Doing–Wiring) > Role (Impact)

It Starts With Identity

I have written elsewhere that our identity is clearly established in the New Testament. (I've said more about this in You Have Nothing to Prove) We are disciples of Christ who, as beloved children of God, are his workmanship, in community with other like-minded believers, on mission as his ambassadors in this world.

That is our identity, and it is the foundation of our calling. If we haven't established our identity clearly on this principle, we will not be able to fulfill any calling, let alone the calling God has for us in a healthy manner.

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (2 Timothy 1:9, NIV)

Paul says this also in Ephesians:

…I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1–6, NIV)

Called to Be Before Called to Do

Paul is clear that God has called us to be before he called us to do. This is a powerful concept. These two passages clearly identify our primary calling as to be set apart for God’s use.  We are called to be holy, humble, gentle, patient, and bear with each other in love and live in hope with other followers of Christ.  This is clearly a primary calling to live a life of intimacy with our Lord. Before we DO anything, we must BE rooted in and seeking after intimacy with Christ.

Too often pastors feel they are called to a role, rather than this way of life. A secure identity must provide the foundation that provides for this sense of calling.  As we are rooted in Christ and see our calling as a part of pursuing intimacy with him, then our doing grows out of that. Then and only then flows one’s role.

Yet so many young pastors and leaders tell me they are called to a role when neither their identity nor this sense of their calling is secure.

We see this most clearly as leaders crash when they no longer are able to fill the desired role. COVID literally destroyed thousands of pastor’s sense of calling because they had confused identity and calling with their role.  They discovered they have no firm identity apart from their role and no clear sense of calling without it. Many left the pastoral ministry as a result. 

One’s calling is a lifelong pursuit of growing in our intimacy with Christ and learning to use our gifts to fulfill our unique purpose in his Kingdom.

This is why I have filled a number of roles within pastoral ministry and love what I do.  My calling hasn’t changed, only my role.  I won't retire as long as I have a sound mind and body. There is no retirement in one's calling. Sure, I will reduce my workload, but my calling transcends what I do to get paid.

Let me say it this way, it doesn't matter what role I am in; my calling doesn't change. So I love what I do, which is true of anyone using their calling. It is surely frustrating at times and not always fulfilling, but in the long term I am able to see God building character in me and producing fruit in others.

My Role Kept Changing. My Calling Didn't.

This happens as I pursue my calling to be intimate with the Lord and to grow in my abiding. It is through my journaling, my time in His Word, and the work of rooting out the sin in my life that so easily creeps in. As I continue in this pursuit, I find my strengths and wiring are magnified through their impact with others.

Obviously, my role continues to change. I no longer lead the organizations I started, including Healthy Growing Leaders. These organizations are for God to use as he pleases, and he uses leaders to lead them where I couldn't have. But I still currently fulfill my call.

My calling was not to lead organizations, as I once thought, but to lead leaders in the pursuit of their callings. As I have said elsewhere, I had confused my ego needs (aka my insecurities) with my Kingdom gifts. I felt called to lead a large organization -  a church, a non-profit, a ministry - but now I know I am called to make a large impact. And almost all of that is now behind the scenes, where no one knows my name. In fact, I am speaking to a group this fall, which will be the first time I have spoken to a group larger than 15 people in the last decade! And that is fine. I have been truly fulfilling my calling of influencing leaders to fulfill their calling consistent with their wiring.

The Doing That Comes Out of Being

After establishing the primary part of our call in the first six verses of Ephesians 4, Paul continues to identify the second part of our call:

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it… So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:7, 11–13, NIV)

So there is a doing that comes out of our being. We are not simply called to be intimate with our Lord and Creator, to snuggle close and only remain there. We are called to grow in that intimacy so that we become aware of, and strengthened in, our gifts to be used for healthy Kingdom purposes.

This is where I spend a great deal of my time, helping leaders understand how their hardware and software inform their calling. I help them see how God created them uniquely, fearfully and wonderfully (Psalm 139). God wants to see his kids flourish as they use their uniqueness to make an impact in their world in their own unique way (Ephesians 2.10).

Kind of like a parent who enjoys watching their children build sandcastles on the beach. Often the parent helps the child more than the child appreciates, but that doesn't detract from the joy of seeing the excitement on that little face when it is completed. I think God experiences the same thing with us.

Being and Doing…You Can't Keep Just One

Both of these components must remain: a being and a doing. I find it so easy to see segments of Christianity focus on one and neglect the other. Some see themselves purely in worship of our Lord, their whole life revolving around it, while others are the activists, laboring around the world to serve others in the name of Christ.

Many movements have been founded on both aspects, but over time they drift toward one side or the other. Some churches, organizations, and movements will always favor one aspect, but there must be a consistent marriage of the two. One without the other leads to a neutered gospel. Either people will live in a holy bubble, or they will become mere social or moral activists as time passes.

Only once our identity is firmly established, and our calling is clarified as both being and doing, are we ready to talk about role.