Weekly Thought – November 18, 2025
Fred sent a small scrap of paper to his elder daughter with the following words: “Brenda, opportunity is not mandate.” She knew immediately he was saying “An open door isn’t necessary the will of God.” She often knew the exhaustion of seeing every opportunity as a requirement, not just an option.
Answering The Call
There’s a difference between a mandate and a call. A call is personal – it comes to the individual. A mandate is collective. While a call is an individual’s reason for service, a mandate is an organization’s reason for being.
A leader needs to have a sense of call to serve effectively. Prison evangelist Bill Glass emphasizes this when training the prison counselors. He says, “You have volunteered to be a counselor, but you have dedicated your life to personifying Christ in this prison.” He goes through a litany of experiences a volunteer might have that they find offensive, but then knows the dedicated will hang in.
A call may change. A person might sense a calling to a different organization or a different form of service. Sometimes I think the call may actually lead someone out of vocational ministry altogether. Recently, I talked with a pastor whose primary ministry was preaching. I asked him how he was doing. He admitted he was unhappy and so were his people. I then asked him, “What is your real love?”
“Winning people to Christ,” was his answer.
“In your saint-saturated organization,” I said, “there is nobody to win. And whenever you get up to teach you don’t see a single soul who needs salvation. You are by nature an evangelist. Have you considered leaving the formal pastoral ministry and going back into automobile sales where you are regularly in contact with lost people?”
“That is where I was the happiest.”
He had allowed church pressure and his ego to get involved, ending up in the pastorate. When I checked back with him he was back in sales happily using his spiritual gifts to tell lost men and women about the saving grace of Jesus.
His call to evangelism did not match the organizational structure he was serving. Now his call and his passion are in harmony. Being realistic about the call is an outgrowth of experience, giftedness, training, and desire. It is often more effective and satisfactory than mistaking circumstances and open doors as the mandate.
This week think carefully about: 1) Where am I drawn, not drafted? 2) Which areas in my life need harmonizing? 3) How can I help others distinguish between call and mandate?
Words of Wisdom: “A leader must have a sense of call to serve effectively.”
Wisdom from the Word: “Since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Ephesians 1:8 NET Bible)