Letters of Encouragement: A Curated Collection of Essays from Higher Things

This book is a collection of letters from pastors and professors of theology meant to encourage young men who either desire to be pastors or are interested in theology and want to learn more. Each letter is a topic in theology that either relates to the Office of the Holy Ministry or is a doctrinal topic that is helpful for all Christians to know.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 1517 Publishing
• Release date: Sep 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781956658330

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Letter 1 - Pastor as Vocation

Rev. Andrew T. Yeager

We Lutherans frequently refer to the term vocation which means calling, or station in life. In the way that we use the word in the Church, a vocation is more than a job. Jobs are given by people. Vocations are given by God.

Vocations are stations. Think of a Roman soldier, stationed at a particular spot along a border wall to stand sentinel through the watches of night (Mark 6:30-44; John 6:1-15). No other soldier has been commanded to stand there, in that one precise place in the line, but that one soldier alone. That is vocation. So, what is yours?

Go to Section 3 in your Small Catechism, the Table of Duties. Listed there are the titles of several vocations. Some of these describe you. There is the vocation of hearer of God’s Word, that is, a Christian. God called you to that one in your Baptism. He called you to be a member of the Holy Christian Church and a member of a local congregation. You will stand in that vocation your whole life.

Through marriage, there is the vocation of husband and wife. And from marriage comes the vocation of father and mother. Being a child is a vocation, too. There is the vocation of citizen of your country. There are the vocations of government offices, employers, workers, youth, widows. And there is the vocation of pastor. You can see how some vocations have been given to you, but not all.

Why does God call us to vocations? Because He wants us in a suitable space where we can love and serve our neighbor. And yes, everyone is a neighbor (Luke 10:25-37). But your vocation puts certain neighbors before you in a unique way and makes you certain they are your neighbors whom God is calling you to love.

God makes two things clear: what your vocation is, and who the neighbors are. A husband’s wedding band is a sure sign to him that he is in fact a husband and points to the woman he married—not to any girl, but to the one who put that ring on his finger on their wedding day. Children playing with their friends outside don’t run to just any house when the dinner bell rings; they know which table in what house will have food and the parents who prepared it waiting for them. The IRS leaves no room for doubt as to which national treasury your tax check is going to supply. So, Christians know their vocations, and they know the neighbors whom their vocations bind them to.

This, too, is true of pastors. I am a pastor. God has left no room for doubt about that. And, He has left no room for doubt about whom I am to serve. I am not called to just a random congregation in Dublin or Denver or Dubai, but rather to that one congregation on the outskirts of Decatur, Indiana, where He placed me.

My first call out of seminary was to be an admissions counselor. I recruited future pastors for one of our synod’s seminaries for three years. I talked with men who were aspiring to the vocation of pastor. Sometimes, prospective students would say things like, I think God is calling me to be a pastor. I would often sense a hint of reluctance or unease there. As in, I think this could be the case … but I am not really sure. It is at that point I would remind them that, in fact, God definitely had not called them to be pastor yet. But with God’s help and after years of preparation at the seminary, He might.

Here’s the thing about God’s call to be a pastor: He doesn’t leave it a mystery. When He calls you, you know. You know because the call doesn’t come immediately, that is, without human agents. God doesn’t lay the call on your heart, so that you must perceive it through feelings or intuitions. Sometimes in the Old Testament, God called men immediately, as He did the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 3). But now, the regular way God calls men into the Office of the Holy Ministry is externally, through His Church.

In my study, I have hanging on my wall a Diploma of Vocation. My church sent it to me in the mail after they called me to be their pastor in 2018. I look at it occasionally, just as I often look down at the wedding ring on my left ring finger. This document, like my wedding ring, signifies what God has made me by His call. I am a pastor. God doesn’t ever want me to doubt or second guess