Are We Willing to Embrace Whosoever God Calls Today?

In every generation, the Church is called to discern afresh who God is raising up to lead. However, rather than listening to God’s voice, some have shifted the focus to restricting whom God is allowed to call. This reversal distorts the Church’s call to listen attentively to the Spirit. Discernment has too often been replaced by disqualification.

The posture has moved from one of hopeful recognition—looking for signs of God’s Spirit in surprising people and places—to one of narrow policing, as if God must first seek our approval before extending a call. This risks distorting the nature of discernment, making it an obstacle to the Holy Spirit. True discernment invites openness.

We must ask: are we truly opening our hearts and minds to the Spirit, or are we trying to control who is deemed “worthy” of the call? It is not ours to decide who is worthy, but rather to bear witness to the signs of God’s calling—and to rejoice when the Spirit shows up where we least expect.

Today, some seek to ignore the Spirit’s calling and legalistically exclude from ministry certain individuals—those in committed relationships who choose not to marry, perhaps due to financial constraints, engaged couples who might be living together or engaged in relations before marriage, and those in same-sex relationships—often appealing to the Confession of Faith as their basis for doing so. Yet notably, the Confession of Faith never condemns or rejects persons in same-sex relationships nor addresses the topic of sex outside of marriage and the recent attempt to specifically add such a restriction to the Constitution was unsuccessful.

Even if the Confession had addressed these topics, the Cumberland Presbyterian tradition has never claimed that the Confession of Faith is infallible or exhaustive. When we treat the Confession as infallible or absolute, we risk turning it into an idol—a static, rigid substitute for the dynamic and ongoing movement of the Spirit. Our founders made it clear that the Confession was specifically NOT meant to bind the Holy Spirit or constrain whom God might call. As they wrote, “The compilers of the Confession of Faith and Discipline of our church never intended it to be considered an infallible standard by which the Holy [Spirit] must be limited, when [God] calls [persons] to the sacred office.” It must also be pointed out that the 1984 Confession does affirm an inclusive stance towards family: “The church recognizes and ministers to people living in a variety of family patterns, including those persons who by choice or circumstances are single. It seeks to embrace each person and all groups of persons within the family life of the covenant community”( CoF, 6.16).

We recognize the Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith as a living document—one that bears witness to God’s love (John 3:16), but not as the infallible final word on every matter. As such, it must be held with love and humility, never wielded as a weapon in harmful, restrictive, or exclusionary ways. Our tradition allows room for diverse interpretations, for human understanding to grow and evolve, and for the unfolding movement of God’s Spirit to manifest within our denomination.

Our founders were not preoccupied with rigid doctrinal conformity. They left space for “scruples”—a recognition that faithful people may conscientiously differ on nonessential matters. That is why ministers and elders today vow to affirm that the Confession “contains” the essential doctrines of Scripture, rather than asserting it is complete, infallible or beyond question. This openness preserves the freedom of conscience and honors the ongoing movement of the Spirit.

The fact that the Confession of Faith may be amended is both a demonstration of theological humility and an acknowledgment of God’s ongoing revelation. This reforming principle remains pertinent today, particularly in the face of attempts to force “strict subscription” to the Confession or to weaponize it in a exclusionary way to disqualify a minority within the church whose callings have already been recognized, and who are already faithfully serving the denomination, and who’s ministries bear the fruits of God’s grace.

Rev. Chris Warren of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church Murfreesboro writes: “Humans are not very much like God. We are not like God at all in our understanding, power, or abilities. Yet, we strive to become like God. That desire is at the heart of the story of the first sin. The tempter told the humans that if they ate of a particular fruit, they would be like God. So of course they tried it. Being like God would be a pretty difficult temptation for most of us to resist.”

“Yet, we are still nothing like God and have nothing like God’s understanding. We can’t even understand our neighbors across the street who are like us in so many ways. Efforts to determine who God can and can’t call to ministry are the result of people succumbing to the temptation to eat of the fruit like the first humans. It is a case of mortals wanting to put themselves in the place of God and say, “this one is worthy, and this one is not.” It is an attempt to limit a God who cannot and will not be limited.”

“Scripture is filled with examples of surprising people who were called by God. That is to say, the surprises are for us, not for God. Throughout scripture, God saw qualities in people that we would never see; and indeed, that many of them didn’t see in themselves. But, God called them, and they served. Thankfully, a human-conceived institution didn’t stop people like Moses, David, Abraham, Jacob, Mary the mother of Jesus, and many others from serving. They heard God’s call, and they responded.”

“It is only natural for us to continue to disagree on many things; however, the folly of trying to limit God is surely something on which we can all agree. God cannot be limited. Our language, our culture, and many other things limit our ability to understand God and other people. Let’s not make the mistake of believing that God intends for us to limit God’s work in the world. If we can just learn to accept people who have been called by God to serve, step back, and get out of their way, then we will see some awesome work that God can do through loving people (regardless of how they differ from us). It may be surprising to some people, but it isn’t a surprise to God.”

Our founders recognized that God is still actively at work in the world, calling individuals to share the Gospel. They emphasized the importance of attentively listening and responding to (without unnecessarily limiting) the Holy Spirit when it came to who was called to ministry. The church eventually listened when African Americans were called to ministry, and when Louisa Woosley and other women were called. Woosley herself boldly testified, “To deny women the pulpit is to deny the Holy Spirit.” Her words challenge us still. The question now is whether we are continuing to listen to the Spirit—and if so, are we willing to embrace whosoever God calls today?

The 189th General Assembly, in its amendment to the Preamble to our Constitution acknowledged in essence that in an increasingly diverse body such as ours, it is the “spirit of the law, rather than the letter, which must prevail.” In light of this wisdom, let us remember that our faith is built on the foundation of God’s unconditional love and grace. It is a faith that calls us to embrace the diversity of humanity made in God’s image, to recognize God’s surprising choices, and to avoid the folly of trying to limit God’s boundless work in the world to those with whom we share 100% doctrinal agreement.

As we continue our journey as Cumberland Presbyterians, it is our hope that we honor this wisdom from our founders and forebears. As we strive to live out the love and acceptance that God so graciously extends to us, it is our prayer that we may listen to the Spirit and wholeheartedly and prayerfully support and encourage ALL those whom God calls to serve in Christ’s name.

Related Links