To expose the errors of modern evangelical thinking about missions and to clarify the biblical perspective, David Doran has written an excellent book on faithful missions entitled, For the Sake of His Name. Towards the end, he outlines 4 realities of God’s call in one’s life to be a missionary. The 1st is God’s Call is Grounded in a Biblical Command, Not in Feelings. We all are given the Great Commission in Matt. 28 and the ministry of reconciliation according to 2 Cor. 5 and are commanded by the Lord to pray that he may send laborers into the harvest in Matt. 9. Those truths must be the ultimate ground of one’s calling. The 2nd reality is God’s Call is Governed by Godly Dedication, Not Human Ambition. Proven godliness is the mark of a missionary, not unbridled passion or personal ambition. The 3rd reality from Dr. Doran’s book is God’s Call is Given through a Settled Conviction, Not Special Communication. This is very similar to the 1st reality, except this 3rd reality highlights the longevity of one’s conviction to pursue this level of ministry. It wasn’t based on a dream one night or the result of going to some conference. No, it’s a consistent conviction that remains over the long haul as one becomes more and more equipped to pursue it. This settled conviction certainly includes an inner compulsion to the work of the ministry, but that compulsion is confirmed by the church. This leads right into the 4th and final reality: God’s Call is Confirmed by the Believing Community, Not Personal Autonomy. One portion of the author’s explanation of this reality is worth quoting at length:
The question of giftedness for the task of ministry and missions must be asked and answered within the context of local church ministry. The gifts were given for ministry within the church and for the church. [The sending process] is the process of recognition by the church of the gifts given by God to the candidate for ministry. If a man is not able to teach and not able to hold fast the word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict, then that man is not qualified for leadership in the local church, whether at home or on the foreign field. And these gifts cannot be displayed or evaluated apart from the community of believers. It is there that the ministry of the word centers and from there that the ministers of the word are [recognized, examined] and sent…
(David M. Doran, For the Sake of His Name, (Allen Park, MI: Student Global Impact, 2002), 266-279.)