Sunday at First Baptist Rockport was a day of great significance as a new Pastor, Scott Jones,was called. We really have some interesting words in our Christian vocabulary. Most of them have some Biblical base. Our church " called" a pastor. For many the word "church" means a building or buildings. The building sat silent. It called no one. The members who were present and who voted "called" the new pastor. A lot of folks think of a call as some rather loud sound. A bugle call. A duck call. The call of a whooping crane. Again the term has a different meaning. The call was virtually silent. It was the prayerful scratching of a pen or pencil on a small voting tab. All of those scratches when tallied made a "call". Scott Jones felt "called" by the Lord and so responded to the "call" of the church. Confused? You might be, but it all makes sense in our Baptist way of doing things. We didn't "har a preecher" as I remember one old gentleman saying many years ago. We called a preacher. The process involved a great deal of work by our pastor search committee. It involved much prayer. It involved times of stressful disagreement as is often the case with committees. It involved prayer on the part of individual church members. It involved trust in these persons selected by the church to bring a prospective pastor before us. It is not an easy process. The final results are a "call" and a positive response to that "call".
God's voice in matters like this is not always easily heard. We have to be quiet to hear His call to us. "Be still and know that I am God.".