Part of the heart of the Reason Together podcast, and subsequently, this blog has been that we must be willing to think through biblical things that we often take for granted. The purpose in that is not to discredit but to verify. This is basic rationality and prudence. However, on occasion, that means we do come across a verse or two that we thought meant one thing, but it turns out to mean something else. I must be unequivocally clear: the point of that is not to “cast off tradition”, “shed orthodoxy”, or “compromise.” The point is to make sure we really and truly understand what God has said. There is a long and disappointing history of people who misunderstand biblical things and it is simply wise to not become yet another tick in the statistical sequence. 

One such passage is Romans 11:29 which says:

“For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

For as long as I can remember, this verse has been proclaimed to mean that once you have been called to vocational ministry, you are in it for life. Permanent vocation rather than permanent calling. But is that true? Upon close examination, it does not appear to be... biblically, logically, or practically. 

The passage in question is discussing God’s promises to Israel as a nation. Just because the Gentiles had been grafted in to share in some of Israel’s blessings, does not nullify God’s promises to Israel. God has not withdrawn from Israel the opportunity to be saved. The Greek text in Romans 11:1 expects a negative answer. He has NOT cast them away!

The whole passage is as much anti Replacement Theology as anything. He will not abandon them. He has simply planned in His eternal counsels to fulfill His promises to them after the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. His gifting to them and calling of them is without repentance. The verse has everything to do with His national calling out of(κλῆσις klḗsis) or invitation to Israel as well as His complete inability to repent of promises. It has nothing to do with a commission to vocational ministry. 

If God can call someone to something, He can call them from something, and that does not mean He changed His mind. It simply means He had always planned to repurpose them after a while. His calling to all Christians is permanent. It is vocations that change.  

What about retirement? I’ve only known a few men who believed they were supposed to be in full-time, vocational ministry until death. Most I have known have allowed for some sort of retirement in view. If Romans 11:29 is a permanent vocation, how can we permit retirement of any kind? 

How can we account for being bi-vocational? Is a man supposed to let his family starve when ministry cannot support him because God doesn’t change His mind? Should he turn away the secular job the Lord drops in his lap? When Paul stepped away to make tents, was he running away from his call? Is God schizophrenic because He called the man to a secular job to help him pay his bills but still has him in ministry too? 

This is just a simple, logical syllogism: If God can call Paul and his entourage from one city to another because he was in full-time ministry regardless of his location, and every Christian is in full-time ministry, then logically, God can take someone from vocational ministry to workplace ministry. If God can move a pastor or missionary from city to city, church member to deacon, deacon to pastor, pastoral assistant to pastor, pastor to retirement, then God can move a man from full-time vocational ministry to part-time, and from part-time to workplace ministry and back to full-time vocational ministry, and so on. He does all of this without changing His mind. God is not indecisive. He is just not bound to your block-like planning. He is strategic, and He puts His men in play where, when, and how He wants them.

Is a man who leaves vocational ministry not still in full-time Christian service just in a different way? How do you know the Lord does not want him to regroup before calling him somewhere else? Why can’t the Lord have him be a missionary in a workplace for a while, or even for the rest of his life? Do those people not need a missionary in their workplace? We should just all remain qualified and ready so the Lord can use us however he wants.

What do we do about 1 Corinthians 7:20:

“Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.”

Well, even a cursory reading of the surrounding context will show that Paul wanted those in Corinth to not envy each other's backgrounds. Some had been Jews and some Gentiles. Much in the same way, many kids who grew up in Christian homes secretly envy the people who got saved later in life and have "war stories" from their past life of sin. After all, they get more attention. They get asked to give their testimony more often. Likewise, they envy you because your childhood was so godly and anodyne. So, that passage as well falls short of the permanent vocation view. 

Obviously, some leave vocational ministry who should not, and that is regrettable. But what about those dear servants of God who used to be on foreign mission fields or in pastoral work who are now evangelizing and discipling roofers and bricklayers and the like shoulder-to-shoulder because the Lord had a use for someone there? To hold the permanent vocation view is to insult them and discredit their personal mission field as unimportant to God. No one doubts their permanent call to service because we all have that. Let's just not try to be God in someone's life when it comes to their vocational call.