Call

(based on words written by George Whitefield)

Great Head of the Church,
once more raise up to yourself
young men and women
whom you may use
in your glorious employ.

Make them men and women
mighty in the Scriptures,
their lives dominated by a sense
of your greatness, majesty and holiness,
and their minds and hearts aglow
with the great truths of the doctrines of grace.

Call into your service men and women
who have learned what it is
to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions;
who are willing to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake,’
who will bear reproach and falsehood,
who will labor and suffer,
and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades,
but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat.

Let them be men and women who will preach
with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes,
and upon whose ministries you will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit,
and who will witness ‘signs and wonders following’
in the transformation of multitudes of human lives,
in Jesus' name, amen.