From time to time church members get to hear from the pulpit, "Your minister has decided to accept the call extended to him by the church at..." Often these words are greeted with a sigh and followed with the comment, "Here we go again. We will need to call another minister."

Only how does a church go about doing that? How does a church orchestrate such a procedure? Most members would have difficulty explaining all of the necessary steps that need to be taken. Part of the reason may be that they have not had to do it too often in recent years. Part of the reason may also be that there is a lot of oral tradition surrounding the calling of a minister. True, some of the rules and information are written down in the Church Order, but there are a lot of other things that are not written down. Hence a refresher may be in order.

Appointing a Calling Committee⤒🔗

The first thing that a church council should do after its minister accepts a call is to appoint a calling committee. Is this required? No, it is possible for a council to act as a calling committee. There are, however, several problems with doing so. The first is that most church councils already have enough to do and should be careful not to add to an already heavy pastoral workload. The second problem is that this may create a certain resentment in the congregation as this is an area in which church members are often craving involvement. They want a say about who will be their next pastor and for Council to keep this activity to itself may create the impression that council is trying to control everything.

As a result, it would normally be wise for a church coun­cil to appoint a calling committee. The members of such a committee should, as much as possible, be a cross section of the congregation: young, old, blue collar, white collar. Make it representative in terms of occupation, sex, age, and income.

Also, do not wait too long in doing so. Over the years I have often asked myself, "Why are some churches so slow? They could have appointed a calling committee months ago and gotten the ball rolling, but they dragged their heels. And now, look, the minister or candidate that many of them wanted has accepted a call elsewhere." If your pastor announces that he is leaving, the next council meeting would do well to set up a calling committee and ask it to go to work. In short, there is no reason to wait until well after the farewell evening to appoint a committee. The acceptance of a call should not be treated as if it is akin to a funeral which often comes with a respectable waiting or mourning period before life can return to normal.

A Calling Committee at Work←⤒🔗

Once a calling committee has been appointed, it should get to work. This means that an executive should be decided upon and different tasks should be assigned. Thereafter, it is necessary for such a committee to review the stipulations of the Church Order as found in Articles 4-21. Seeing that they are busy with the calling of a Reformed minister, they need to know how to do this in a Reformed manner. In addition, it is good for the members to be aware of the broader picture of ministry.

Next, the committee should go through the most recent Yearbook of the churches and make a master list of all the ministers and candidates who are eligible for call. Although there is no written rule, it is generally assumed that a man who has been less than three years in a certain church is off limits. It also needs to be kept in mind that if you have called a certain man and received a decline from him, you cannot call him again without the approval of Classis.

After the master list has been compiled, the commit­tee needs to whittle it down. In doing so a lot of factors need to be considered. They may be placed under the headings of person, preaching, teaching, and pastoring.

With respect to his person, the committee needs to ask if he meets the qualification of a good minister as mentioned by Paul to Timothy and Titus. Love and commitment to the Lord, knowledge of Scripture and confession, prayer life, humility, and listening skills are necessary elements.

With respect to the preaching, the committee needs to be look­ing for someone who does it well. Do his sermons give evidence of a deep respect for the Word, real study, serious reflection, and pointed application? Are they clear, logical, interesting, and up to date?

With respect to teaching, the committee needs to inquire whether or not the man in mind is someone who can teach both young and old. Is his catechism teaching well received? Do his lessons convey real Bible truth? Is he sen­sitive to the views, questions, and needs of his students?

With respect to pastoring, the committee should be certain that he will be sensitive to the needs and bur­dens in the congregation. Will he visit faithfully? Will he open the Word and pray with the sick and the troubled? Will he go after the wayward? Will he be there for the lonely, the widows, the elderly, and the handicapped?

Do your Calling Work Prayerfully←⤒🔗

All in all, the calling committee has a lot of work to do. But it needs to be done. In the past when I was still a church visitor I would occasionally come across churches who were disappointed with their ministers and then, after asking a few questions, it became apparent that when they called him the necessary homework had not been done. The calling committee did not ask the right questions or contact the right persons. They relied on second hand information or on hearsay. They did not listen to enough sermons or ask a sufficient amount of pertinent questions. For its part, the church council failed to interact fully with the recommendation of the calling com­mittee. True calling work entails careful scrutiny.

A Calling Committee makes a Recommendation←⤒🔗

Once all of the hard work has been done, and the members of the calling committee receive the informa­tion they need, they should be able to come to some decisions about who to call. They may even be able to come up with a short list in which they identify preference 1, 2, and 3 in that order.

Sometimes the question is asked: "Should a calling committee not present two names to the church coun­cil and then ask council to present both names to the congregation?" Generally, this is not done for the simple reason that in this way a church limits its options. If two are presented and one is chosen, what happens when the chosen one declines? Do you then go to the other and say, "By the way, even though you are our second choice, we still want to call you." Not wise!

No, let the calling committee come with one recom­mendation to the church council. It will then have to decide whether it supports the recommendation and is willing to present it to the congregation.

The Council Proposes←⤒🔗

Should the church council be in favour of the rec­ommendation of the calling committee, it will need to decide on how it will involve the congregation. For many years and still in a number of churches, it has been a requirement that the man proposed to the congregation needs to win a certain percentage of votes to be called. It may be two-thirds or it may be three quarters. Failure to achieve either sixty-seven percent or seventy-five percent defeats the proposal and thus sinks the call.

But is this the best way? Over the years I heard of a number of calls that did not proceed because someone stood up at a congregational meeting and said some negative things about the proposed man. The result was that he did not make it. Only that is not the end of the story be­cause in several of those cases it turned out that the nega­tive information passed on at the meeting was not true at all. A proposal was sunk on the basis of misinformation.

The result is that more and more church councils are doing away with the vote. A name is presented to the congregation. The reasons for calling him are given. The congregation is asked to respond and ask questions. Answers are given. The church council listens very carefully. It takes what it has heard from the congregation, weighs the remarks at its next meeting, occasionally investigates further if needed, and then decides on whether or not to proceed.

Should Council decide to proceed, it will also need to deal with page three. What is page three? It is a reference to the letter of call. This letter usually consists of pages one and two in which a description is given of the office of the minister, what is expected of him and of the congregation. Thereafter comes page three and the particulars relating to stipend, book and car allowances, housing, benefits, medical, retirement, holidays, and pulpit supply.

The Counsellor←⤒🔗

There is one more aspect to calling that is often overlooked. It has to do with the role of the counsellor. At the end of Article 4 of the Church Order it states, "When a vacant church extends a call, the advice of the counsellor shall be sought." Now, that sounds somewhat weighty but the fact is that often it does not function very well.

The point here is that a classis appoints a counsellor for each and every vacant church in its region. This counselor is supposed to advise a vacant church. This means that the church can ask him for suggestions as to how to go about calling a new minister, whom to call, request input as to what should be in the letter of call, obtain his signature on the letter of call and thus make it official. You might say that in this way Classis tries to see to it that everything is done in a proper and orderly fashion.

The reality, however, is somewhat different. In many cases a vacant church hardly consults its counsellor at all. They just go to him for his signature. Thus he often acts as little more than a rubber stamp. Pity! It would be better if a vacant church requests a counsellor because it realizes that it will need his wisdom and experience for the calling process to go smoothly. So involve your counsellor more!

In Conclusion←⤒🔗

This editorial comes at a time when a considerable number of men are or soon will be available for call. What a blessing this represents in the life of the churches! At the same time it also represents a challenge to all of you vacant churches out there. Do your calling work prayerfully! And do it well to the honour of the Lord and the blessing of your local church!