Sometimes it happens that a minister is called for the second time by the same church. This brings no difficulties with it if a few years have passed and that church in the meantime had another minister. Things are different if the
[30] second call comes rather shortly after the first one and if the same vacancy still exists.
Calling a minister is a serious matter. Deciding upon a call is no less a serious matter. We may expect of each other that these decisions are not made without asking the Lord for guidance and the light of the Holy Spirit, so that the decision may be pleasing to Him and in the best interest of His churches.
If a minister has come to the conclusion that he had to decline a call, we may not make sport of it and say, "Well, let's try again." Is it, then, never permitted to call the same minister again when the vacancy continues and efforts to get another minister to come over to serve that church have not yielded the desired result? Yes, it is permitted, but only on certain conditions.
In the first place, the reasons why the call had to be declined the first time must have been removed or in any case have lost their importance to such an extent that they no longer constitute an impediment to acceptance of another call from the same church.
It is, of course, possible that other difficulties and conditions have arisen that would prevent a minister from accepting a second call, even though he has to say, "No" to the question whether the original reasons are still there. Thus a second call does not necessarily mean that a minister has to accept it.
When a church has received an affirmative answer to its question whether the original reasons for declining have been removed, and when that church wants to call that minister again, it has to ask the advice of the sister-churches. It has to go to the next classis, put the matter before the meeting and ask for advice whether to proceed with a second call. This is to prevent that a church takes such a step lightly and without sufficient ground. Here we keep watch over each other to see that things are done properly and in such a way that the style of the church is followed. Art. 4 speaks of the "approval" of classis. The word "approval" is actually too strong, even though we are using the word "approbation" in other contexts, a word that has the same basic meaning. It is better to read "the advice" of classis, whereby we keep in mind that we are in duty bound to follow the advice of a major or broader assembly by virtue of the promises made. We spoke of this in the beginning and will come back to it later on when dealing with the major assemblies.
|
Home
