# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1858_S230
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

230 On the Transfer of Preachers.

...reflect on the matter, take counsel with their own conscience and with godly people, and on no account resist God, who best knows and understands, as an all-knowing Lord, at what place each man could be of most use to him. — To a preacher whom God calls and who is unwilling to follow, God threatens terribly, which is proven there with the sayings of Matt. 25:30, 1 Cor. 9:17, and with the examples of Moses, Ex. 4:11, of the prophet, 1 Kings 13:24, of Jeremiah, Jer. 1:17, and of Jonah, Jon. 1:4. — This too is certain, that a preacher who acts against his calling can bring an uneasy conscience upon himself. For as soon as some misfortune befalls him, his own heart preaches to him: This is God's righteous judgment; he showed you a way to escape this misfortune, which you despised; you preferred your temporal advantage to the honor of his church and the spread of his Word; therefore God now punishes you, etc."

12. We add further, from p. 535: "It might be objected that God alone knows whether the pastor will accomplish greater or lesser benefit in the new call, and that theologians ought not to concern themselves with the effect and benefit of their calling, but with a regular call; and that he therefore should not press the point of the greater benefit to be had in the court preachership.

To this we answer: I. It is, to be sure, properly and certainly known to God alone at what place a preacher will accomplish greater benefit; but it by no means follows from this that a preacher, in comparing his present and his new vocation, should not reasonably weigh the circumstances of both callings, and take note where, God willing, he might accomplish greater benefit for the church — for otherwise there would be no guidance left at all as to which call he should prefer to the other.

Far better on this point speaks the often-mentioned Theological Deliberation: "A called preacher should not rush blindly ahead, and should not accept every call with blind impetuosity for the sake of greater salary, greater honor, and desired ease, on the plea that God simply wills it so; rather he should diligently compare his present call with the new one laid upon him, having regard not to income, honor, and outward comforts, but to the officiis vocationis — that is, to the duties of his calling. He should look carefully to see which congregation has the greatest need of him, and in which place he could accomplish greater benefit for our God.

If he then finds that, in the new call, the building up and extension of the kingdom of God can be carried forward more than in the former one, he should follow it, and take good care not to bury his talent, entrusted to him by God, for the sake of easy days and income.

II. From the regular, lawful call itself one may fairly well infer at what place one could best serve God.