Dear Editor,
I was glad to see Roger Weil’s article on the call to full-time ministry, in August’s en. I wonder if I could underline what Roger says about the involvement of the local church in the process.
There is, in my experience, a serious danger that the call to ministry is viewed primarily as a matter for the individual concerned. This tends to lead to damaging introspection and confusion. It is vital that the pastor and elders are fully involved from the start in the process of discerning whether a man is called to ministry. Like much else in church life, the process throughout needs to be corporate rather than individualistic.