CALLED: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE CALLED BY GOD? by GERI ANN FULLER

In the Bible, a calling was not simply a sense of internal direction. It was an interaction with the Divine. Some wanted to negotiate their own contracts. Moses, for example, when called to lead Israel, asked God to let someone else (his brother Aaron) speak for him. Some looked for or received support from someone else to understand the call, such as young Samuel, who went to Eli. When Esther was called to help Israel, her uncle Mordecai challenged her, “Who knows if you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” She fasted and prayed until she was certain the call was from God, but she did have an outside voice weighing in. For these and others, the call to action was a directive.

Some who were called didn’t accept the call. The first two men called to lead the Adventist church during its formation said no. After Ellen White accepted the call, remarkable events persuaded the early church that her call was indeed from God.Other women are mentioned in the Bible carrying positions of leadership: Deborah, Miriam, Esther, Huldah, Phoebe, Priscilla.

TEAM’s goal is to witness our church treating men and women as equals in Christ as taught in Galatians 3:28: “In Christ there is neither male nor female . . . for you are all one in Christ.” Dr. George Knight speaks about the New Testament custom of laying on of hands, which we call ordination today, as the way the early church “recognized the divine appointment of the apostles.” Paul and Barnabas, he says had already received their commission from God. The laying on of hands was not the event where they received their call; it was an acknowledged form of designation to an appointed office.

Paul in writing to Timothy (II Timothy 4:1) instructs that His followers are to preach God’s Word. The charge was not gender-oriented. Luke wrote (Acts 2:18) “Even on my male servants and female servants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.”

The church of the Old Testament followed Levitical laws, including laws regarding the priesthood, which the Adventist Church does not observe, since we understand God speaks the same truth to different people in different times and different ways. Using the Levitical saws as justification for denying full recognition to women pastors doesn’t make sense. Does God call women to pastoral ministry? It’s sad that in a church that teaches the Bible and with a history of women’s leadership stemming from its earliest days, we are still asking this question.

TEAM’s goal is to witness our church treating men and women as equals in Christ as taught in Galatians 3:28: “In Christ there is neither male nor female . . . for you are all one in Christ.”

By telling the story of how women’s health, teaching and evangelistic efforts have contributed to the success of the spread of Adventism, this book displays the injustice of excluding women from leadership even as their uncelebrated and often unacknowledged efforts form the foundation of this success. The book reminds all of the need for a non-gendered faith, one that celebrates the efforts and contributions of all, equally.

Jeanne Mogusu PhD, MPPA, MDiv, Pastor

Ottschofski, Hannele. Tired of Waiting: Women in Church and Society (p. 8). Kindle Edition.