Some years ago when I was teaching as an adjunct professor at a Christian university I went to chapel to hear a leading evangelical author and public speaker. I wish I hadn’t.

This individual had the conch in front of hundreds of university students. He was passionate about poverty and injustice and railed and ranted for a while about the injustices of the global economic system. Then he zeroed in on the sheep in front of him.

The basic message was as follows. You are here at a university with the intent of pursuing careers and having a good life and making money. You are buying into the middle class rat race. Instead you should forsake what you are doing—now—and take up the challenge of full-time ministry and venture off to new lands. What God needs is a willing pair of hands! It’s not about the qualifications and credentials, but about the willingness to go and serve.

There is a grain of truth but a load of spiritual manipulation and misdirection in that approach. This perspective assumes people going into a profession are getting an education for eventual riches and prestige, that they aren’t going to do anything ministry wise, that there is no sacrifice and that availability is all that is required. It puts no value of expertise and knowledge and building up credentials.

 Yes, we should not focus on a career, professional credentials and a certain level of income as our primarily goals in life and need to be willing to serve. However, this speaker made a big assumption that his audience was not prepared to serve. Next, the speaker’s approach was also manipulative as, guess what, this speaker just happened to have a ministry that does what he is advising students to do. So this is effectively saying you are called to my specific ministry—as opposed to being called generally.

The bottom line: the speaker’s message might be right for some people at a particular time, but it is not a general operating principle for all believers. It also presents a view that is at odds with a biblical perspective on calling.

The most unfortunate byproduct of this approach is to undermine calling. Does God just require a pair of hands and a willing heart? Yes, in some circumstances. Is this the prevailing model? Absolutely, not. God has given gifts and He expects them to be used. Gifts are the toolbox of calling. A person needs to discern their gifts. Then they need to pursue all their activities with excellence. God would prefer that people strive for excellence.

The Bible is rife with references to the importance of excellence. He who is diligent will stand before kings. Expand your influence by being great at what you do. Believers are to bring their first fruits and offer their best. The Apostle Paul continually talks about running the race and striving. We should be as a workman approved unto God. In short, our best witness is to be excellent at what we do,

This notion of a mere willing pair of hands is a concept with far-reaching implications. This feeds too much into the notion that ministry competences function one a different plane. Do we send our best and brightest into full-time ministry? Regrettably, many times not. We should say to these students: work diligently as what you do, become excellent at it, tap into your passion and gifts, and use that hard-earned skill in all the contexts of life.

All of this gets back to the notion of calling. Don’t lay a spiritual guilt trip on anyone else. Instead, challenge people with the notion that they must work at their calling, which is both general and specific. Through this process they will identify gifts. Work at being excellent to harness the full impact of your gifts. This will then allow you to live up to your potential.

The bottom line is that we should in the context of calling remember the phrase, “ready, willing, and able”—and remember “able.”