Our speaker at BGST Chapel last Wednesday (3rd March) was Rev Terry Kee, Lutheran bishop of Singapore. What follows is a summary of his message, a message of relevance for everyone at BGST, Council, staff and students.

Rev. Kee began by considering the extraordinary perseverance of the apostle Paul: what was it that motivated him to endure all the hard work and troubles that came to him as an apostle of Jesus Christ? A clue is to be found in how he introduces himself at the beginning of Romans: ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…’ (Rom. 1:1).

Slavery could take various forms in OT and NT times, and people might enter into slavery for various reasons (because they had been taken prisoner in war, to pay off a debt, and so on). But Exodus 21:5ff describes the case of a man who, having served as a slave for a number of years, declares that he wants to remain for the rest of his life as a slave in the household where he has served (‘I love my master’). Such a man would have his ear pierced as a mark of his special status, and one of the things he would be declaring by this act would be that his master was a good and kindly man.

In a similar way, Paul was happy to offer himself as a bond-slave, a lifelong slave of Jesus Christ, as a grateful response to the grace that God had shown him in Jesus.

Do we need to motivate ourselves to press on in the ministry which God has given us? Do we find that years of service have made us disillusioned, that we have lost the hopes and aspirations we had when we began our ministry? There can be no better way to motivate ourselves than to ‘preach the gospel’ to ourselves daily, to remind ourselves of God’s goodness to us. Paul knew the power of the gospel, and that was why he offered himself as a slave of Jesus Christ.

Second, if we are servants of Jesus Christ, that means that we should not define ourselves as servants of the bishop, or of the pastor, or of the church council, or of the board of governors, etc. 
For many that may be all-too-welcome a message, implying as it does that if any person or group with authority in the church asks us to do something we are not keen on, we can reply with the words, ‘I’m not your servant, I’m the servant of the Lord!’ (This may in turn provoke the response, ‘Go and serve the Lord, then!’, followed by our being sacked.)

We must remember that if we call ourselves servants of the Lord Jesus, our own aspirations must be subjected to his will. The most important thing for us is to do what the Master wants, rather than what we have decided we want to do for the Master. For too many Christians, the desire to ‘do great things for God’ is really a desire to have large and public ministries. But the most important thing for us is that we should do, not what others want, nor even what we ourselves want, but what the Master wants.

How, then, should we resolve disagreements? What if Christians are divided regarding a particular course of action, some supporting it, others disagreeing? Perhaps the first thing we should do is seek God in prayer, bearing in mind that Christ is the head of the church, and may therefore be expected to give guidance regarding the way forward. Should we not therefore pray, with the aim of reaching agreement as to what we shall do?

There are further aspects of calling:
· Our calling may change as we go on in the Christian life
· Sometimes we may be mistaken about our calling, confusing something we happen to be good at with God’s calling.
· We must examine our motives in seeking a particular role or position.

We should remember that we are set apart by the gospel for the gospel: therefore if what we are engaged in does not in some way serve to advance the cause of the gospel, we should ask ourselves whether we are being faithful to our calling.

Rev. Kee ended his message with a challenge that we must continually remind ourselves that we are servants of Jesus Christ, who has called us for the work of the gospel.