Decision Making

A good friend Laura has told me that three things are needed when making a good decision: volition, affection, and intellect. Funny, these are the recognized three primary human psychological faculties.
Volition is will, choice, decision. "Choice is the familiar, and volition the scientific, term for the same state of the will" according to Wikipedia. Volition has to do with our desires. Volition can be external or internal depending on whether the desired change is the surrounding world or inside ourselves.
Affection is feeling or emotion. However, in decision making affection really goes beyond emotions to values and propensity (natural inclination).
Intellect according to Merriam-Webster is:1 a : the power of knowing as distinguished from the power to feel and to will : the capacity for knowledge b : the capacity for rational or intelligent thought especially when highly developed. Intellect leaves out emotion (affection) and will (volition).
This is why in decision making it is important to use all three human faculties! Making a decision on desire alone could prove to be financially disastrous. Making a decision on affection alone could make one happy for the moment until the long term sets in. Making a decision on intellect alone could be financially great but emotionally miserable.
Making decisions in any area of our lives really should involve volition, affection and intellect! This is true even when pursuing a "calling" to ministry. Many I fear enter ministry "callings" using only the faculty of affection. As my good friend Laura commented on my previous posting "Called", one must use our intellect as well to ensure our skills and experience fit with the ministry. One can not rely only upon feelings! Volition is involved as well. The desire of our will must be to love the community in which we are being "called".
To make any decision without volition, affection, and intellect can only result in unhappy persons, in unhappy situations. God gave us a heart, soul, and mind to be used in conjunction with one another.

"Called"

How do you know that you are being "called" into ministry? After going through several interviews for a ministry position, I've been told by several caring friends that I need to be sure I have been "called" into the position. But when I press further, most I ask can not give me a solid answer as to what a "calling" looks like.
According to Michael Anthony in Management Essentials for Christian Ministries, being called in God's service can include miraculous calls such as Abraham, Moses, and Gideon in the Old Testament. However, this is unusual. In the New Testament, when Jesus began selecting his disciples, he simply told Simon Peter and Andrew to "follow me" (Mt. 4). Some people experience a deep assurance, a firm inner conviction that God has spoken to them, calling them to the work of ministry. For most ministers, however, the sense of call is more ambiguous, more tentative (http://www.exploreministry.org/).
It seems God most often chooses ministry leaders based on their inner heart condition. "Patriarchs such as Abraham Isaac, and Jacob were certainly called into a special relationship with God based on little more than the condition of their hearts and the sovereignty of God" (Anthony, p. 22). Look at King David. When God spoke to Samuel he was very clear that although men look at the "outward appearance" God is interested only at what is in the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).
So what does this mean for me? Do I only need to be sure that my inner heart is right w/ God? What about skills? David certainly did not become a King over night. The twelve disciples went through three years of mentoring side by side with Jesus before becoming a "formidable ministry team" (Anthony, p. 23) . Look at the apostle Paul. He also went through three years of "orientation" before "his engagement in the gospel ministry" (Anthony, p. 23). Although Paul was a learned scholar of Judaism, "his Arabian sabbatical was designed to train him in the true meaning behind the prophecies" (Anthony, p. 23). See Galatians 1:17 and Acts 11:19-26.
So I need my inner heart to be right with God but I also need skills and training. That is why I am at Talbot, to learn the skills I need to minister more effectively to children. That takes care of the skills and training bit. But, what about my inner heart? I can only cry as the psalmist David did in Psalm 139-"O LORD, you have searched me and you know me...Search me, O God, and know my heart".



Reference notations:
Management Essentials for Christian Ministry Edited by Michael Anthony and James Estep
Biblical References from New International Version copyright by International Bible Society
The Fund for Theological Education website www.exploreministry.org