The Great Commission and the Holy Spirit

This Sunday, the pastor at the church we attended spoke on missions, using Acts 13:1-4 as the basis for his sermon. He talked about how the church at Antioch commissioned Saul (Paul) and Barnabas as missionaries, and discuss how he felt that his own church had failed to raise up missionaries from the congregation from baptism to commissioning. He also explained that he felt that Christians who were waiting on a specific call from the Holy Spirit to serve as missionaries had already received the only call that they really need - the Great Commission.

Now for those of you who might need refreshing, the Great Commission as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) says, "19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." In this context, I agree with the pastor that we are all called to make disciples as we go through our daily walk. However, I would distinguish this from a call into full-time missionary work. The Great Commission was delivered, in my opinion, to all believers. Yet, the church at Antioch did not close the doors and send every one of its members out to be full-time missionaries, they only sent Saul and Barnabas, as far as we can tell from the passage, so there appears to me to be a special calling from the Holy Spirit on these men that set them apart from the others.

That goes to the heart of what I thought the pastor failed to emphasize in his sermon, namely the first part of verse 2 - "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said..." Now the passage doesn't explain how the Holy Spirit said that these two men were called to be missionaries, but I don't think that that is important to us. What is important here is that the men of the church were worshiping and fasting, and God, through His Holy Spirit, told them something specific about these two men. Now, when things were tough for Saul and Barnabas down the road, which they undoubtedly were, they both had a specific calling that they could cling to as evidence that God meant for them to be doing what they were doing. That's not to say that we too don't have a specific calling from God to be His witnesses - we do. But the calling for Saul and Barnabas went beyond that. I am sure that it was something that they both felt, but it was also confirmed to a larger group through other means than just Jesus's final words.

Now again, I don't think that there would necessarily be anything wrong with a believer going out and serving on the mission field without any other calling other than the Great Commission. However, when doubts and fear arise, and times are hard, it seems to me that a firm calling from the Holy Spirit, confirmed by your church leaders, would be a strong point on which he (or she) could cling. I know from our experience with the church plant that the lack of a clear calling from God (for both of us) was the source of many hours of confusion and doubt for LJ and me once things got truly hard. I imagine that the same is true for many pastors as well. Am I off base here?