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Keep fueling the fire of your call, retired Arkansas executive urges


RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP)–If the fire of a pastor’s call goes out, the problem is not with God, the retired executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention told 450 pastors and spouses attending a conference at Ridgecrest (N.C.) Conference Center.
“If the fire is out, guess who’s responsible? God wants you to keep putting fuel on the fire,” Don Moore said during the May 17-19 “Revisiting Your Call” conference.
“For a dedicated Christian, every aspect of your life is a calling,” Moore said. “Consecrate the task God has given to you and do it for God.”
Moore preached from Acts 13:2-3 about the calling of Paul and Barnabas to ministry. From this and other passages, he identified four dynamics of a call from God: providential preparation, divine confrontation, deliberate considerations and glorious grace.
He asked attendees to consider, “Who or what did God bring into my life to prepare me for the call?” Noting there is “no clever neat little formula” to an understanding of God’s will, Moore also asked those present to consider how God called them.
A pastor for 26 years, Moore defined grace at work in God’s call as “the manifest presence of God in the life of an obedient believer.”
He also examined Timothy’s call to ministry as encouraged and recorded by Paul in 2 Timothy 1 and identified three appeals to a ministry call.
First, he said, is the appeal to memory. In the second appeal, faith experiences, Moore urged those present to “find out what God wants you to do and where he wants you to serve.”
Finally, Moore listed an appeal to action. Instead of finding inspiration and methods from the world, Moore emphasized focusing on God.
In a workshop, Moore cited the importance of spiritual integrity, which he defined as wholeness, completeness, sincerity, truth, honesty and being genuine.
“A person of integrity has nothing to hide and nothing to fear,” he said.
He went on to describe integrity as both a pacemaker that keeps a heart beating at a minimum rate and a governor that keeps a bus from exceeding a predetermined speed.
In another workshop, Kerry L. Skinner, associate director of prayer and spiritual awakening at the North American Mission Board, discussed anger as a “condition of the heart.”
Skinner identified five steps in the process of repentance: admit wrong, express sorrow to God and ask for forgiveness, cleansing and empowerment.