The calling of a minister

The Baptist denomination, believing as it does in the authority of the local, gathered church, differs from most denominations in determining whom it shall have to be its minister. 
The responsibility for calling a minister rests with the local church and is not decided by a central authority.  That is not to say that the Baptist Union of Great Britain does not help in the matter but, rather, offers help through the Regional Minister by regularly providing details of those who are seeking a
pastorate - either as students coming to the end of their training or as pastors looking to find a new challenge.
These details come to the church’s deacons, who then have the responsibility of attempting to match them to a previously prepared ministerial profile, agreed by the church.  Upon discovering a potentially suitable match, the deacons will meet the prospective minister and, if appropriate and with the support of the church meeting, arrange a preaching engagement. Should the engagement be acceptable to the members then, the following church meeting can invite the prospective minister to ‘preach with a view to becoming minister’.
We have now come to this point and I am pleased to say that Mr Graham Clarke BA, has accepted an invitation from the church to ‘preach with a view’ and will lead the end of their training or as pastors looking to services on 20th July.  Mr Clarke has served the YMCA in a number of senior roles and, after receiving God’s call to the ministry, has completed a three-year course with Regent’s Park Baptist College, Oxford.  He has also served as student minister at Eastleigh Baptist Church, in Hampshire. 
I therefore invite all members and those associated with the church to make every effort to be present on Sunday 20th July, both at the services and also at an ‘open afternoon’ session where we will be able to meet Graham informally.
Please hold Graham and our church in your prayers so that, together, we may learn God’s will, both for him and for the ministry of our church.

By Roy Brackenbury.
 

From Paul...

“NOW A LEADER must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkeness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money... He must not be a recent convert... He must also have a good reputation with outsiders. From 1 Timothy 3: 2.7.