WE ALL BELIEVE that God speaks to men to call them into the ministry. God calls men to go to specific places to fulfill his will. That calling is high and holy. That calling is a sacred privilege to be used by God to minister to saints and to the lost of the world. It is not to be taken lightly. In fact, God's calling is more than a suggestion: it is a command. God never forces compliance, but men that run from a call of God regret it for the rest of their life. “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”Sometimes that call is inconvenient, but we serve an inconvenient Christ. The call of God for a virgin girl to give birth to the Christ child was inconvenient. Yet, she consented to the will of God. Saul's call on the road to Damascus was very inconvenient, but he immediately complied with directions from Jesus Christ. The twelve apostles left their jobs and their homes to follow his call when they heard Jesus say, "Follow me." It was not convenient. Apostolic preachers receive respect and reverence, as they should, from their congregation. Much of that respect and reverence is there because the congregation knows that their minister is called by God Almighty, that he is an agent of Elohim, a representative and an oracle for the God that called him.

In the book of Acts 13:1-4 it records the fact that God called Barnabas and Saul to be missionaries. In verse 2 God tells the church of Antioch, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Here the church is being notified of the fact that Barnabas and Saul have been called, and the church is being instructed as to what they are to do because of that calling.

Verse 3 records how the church prayed, fasted, laid their hands on them, and sent them away. Verse 4 says that they were sent forth by the Holy Ghost.

Do verse 3 and verse 4 contradict each other? Verse 3 says that the church sent them, but verse 4 says the Holy Ghost uses the church to send missionaries, God uses the church as the channel through which he operates.

The Church recognized and honored the call of God on the lives of missionaries Barnabas and Saul. The missionaries have a call, they must go. They must fulfill that call. They have their marching orders. They are constrained by the love of Jesus Christ.

Now, I have said all of this to bring to your attention that there was another calling recorded in this passage of scripture. The second calling was to the church. God said to the church, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." The church understood it's calling as a command from Jesus Christ to send Barnabas and Saul, who were also called. Even Barnabas and Saul were called of God to separate and to send the missionaries. Two callings, both from God, both essential, both working together to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. A missionary's call is holy and imperative. It is inspirational and glorious. Even so, the church's calling to send our missionaries is imperative and holy, inspirational and glorious.

Jesus commanded, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." He said that we are to reach all nations, even to the uttermost part of the earth. If missionaries are commanded to go, we that remain are commanded to send.

Let us be faithful senders, as faithful as we expect our missionaries to be in going. Let us accept our scriptural calling as senders of missionaries. Let every child of God do their part in sending the gospel to every nation; to all the world for which Christ Jesus gave himself.