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The Call to Pastoral Ministry

James M. George

The call of God to vocational ministry is different from God’s call to salvation and His call to service issued to all Christians. It is a call to selected men to serve as leaders in the church. To serve in such leadership capacities, recipients of this call must have assurance that God has so selected them. A realization of this assurance rests on four criteria, the first of which is a confirmation of the call by others and by God through the circumstances of providing a place of ministry. The second criterion is the possession of abilities necessary to serve in leadership capacities. The third consists of a deep longing to serve in the ministry. The final qualification is a lifestyle characterized by moral integrity. A man who fulfills these four qualifications can rest in the assurance that God has called him to vocational Christian leadership.

I often receive calls from men who for various reasons are interested in seminary training. Most of these men believe God is directing them into the ministry as a full-time vocation. This inclination has often been termed “the call.” This chapter will explain what is involved with the call and will seek to alleviate the misunderstandings surrounding this unique experience.

The call of God to vocational ministry has several different dimensions. First, there is the call to salvation. This must be the starting point for any call to service or ministry. The one seeking to identify his call to vocational ministry must first be sure he is called to Christ (2 Cor. 13:5). One dare not contemplate a ministry of the gospel of grace to God’s people until he has experienced God’s grace in his own life through saving faith in Jesus Christ.

The calling to salvation also entails a call to serve (Eph. 2:10). God not only predestined us to salvation, but He also predestined us for a life of service. Service is every Christian’s privilege and obligation. This calling to service means that we as Christians constitute “a royal priesthood.” Our privilege is to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). Käsemann saw this as referring to the duty of one who has personally experienced the gracious power of God to publicly acknowledge that fact.1 Thus, all believers should engage in the ministry of service as priests of God. To accomplish this, they have the Holy Spirit through whom God has given them spiritual abilities (1 Cor. 12:11). These spiritual gifts are for the express purpose of service for the common good of the church (v. 7). The apostle Paul wrote the Ephesians, “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph. 4:7). First Corinthians 12:8–10, 28–30 and Romans 12:6–8 list these gifts. Christians are stewards of these gifts and will give an accounting of their stewardship (1 Pet. 4:10).

Beyond the call of all Christians to use their spiritual gifts, God extends a call to the vocational ministry of leadership. Realizing that every believer should be involved in ministry, we will use the term the ministry in the present context to refer to a specific type of service rendered to the church by a particular group of leaders.

The call to leadership involves gifted men given to the church by the Lord of the church (Eph. 4:12). This responsibility is both corporate—providing leadership in worship, preaching, teaching, shepherding, and evangelism—and individual—discipling and counseling.

God used Charles Haddon Spurgeon greatly during the latter part of the nineteenth century. He preached to thousands of people weekly in London at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Besides his strong passion for preaching, he had a great desire to develop young men for the ministry. This yearning spurred him to institute what he called the “Pastor’s College” as a part of the ministry of the church. His book Lectures to My Students, a compilation of lectures to students of the college, gives keen insight into the serious nature of the call to vocational ministry. In the early pages of his book, he asked,

How may a young man know whether he is called or not? That is a weighty enquiry, and I desire to treat it most solemnly. O for divine guidance in so doing! That hundreds have missed their way, and stumbled against a pulpit is sorrowfully evident from the fruitless ministries and decaying churches which surround us. It is a fearful calamity to a man to miss his calling, and to the church upon whom he imposes himself, his mistake involves an affliction of the most grievous kind.2

Spurgeon continued by stressing the importance of recognizing the call when he said, “It is imperative upon him not to enter the ministry until he has made solemn quest and trial of himself as to this point.”3

William Gordon Blaikie also ministered in London about the same time as Spurgeon. He too saw the importance of a call to the ministry and gave six criteria for evaluating a call: salvation, desire to serve, desire to live a life conducive to service, intellectual ability, physical qualifications, and social elements.4

Calvin divided the call into two parts when he stated, “If one is to be considered a true minister of the church, it is necessary that he consider the ‘objective or external’ of the church and the secret inner call ‘conscious only to the minister himself.’ ”5

Oden concluded his chapter on “The Call to Ministry” with a discussion on the correspondence between these internal and external aspects of the call, when he wrote,

The internal call is a result of the continued drawing or eliciting power of the Holy Spirit, which in time brings an individual closer to the church’s outward call to ministry. The external call is an act of the Christian community that by due process confirms that inward call. No one can fulfill the difficult role of pastor adequately who has not been called and commissioned by Christ and the Church. This is why the correspondence between inner and outer call is so crucial for both the candidate and the church to establish from the outset with reasonable clarity.6

Why is it so necessary that a person experience internal and external compulsion to ministry? In his classic volume on ministry, Bridges has stated the reason why a call is so important:

To labour in the dark, without an assured commission, greatly obscures the warrant of faith in the Divine engagements; and the Minister, unable to avail himself of heavenly support, feels his “hands hang down, and his knees feeble” in his work. On the other hand, the confidence that he is acting in obedience to the call of God—that he is in His work, and in His way—nerves him in the midst of all difficulty, and under a sense of his responsible obligations, with almighty strength.7

As Bridges has stated so eloquently, the issue is with the man himself and with his confidence before God. The man is confident that God has commissioned him for a task that only the power of God can sustain. Criswell spoke of this confidence: “The first and foremost of all the inward strengths of the pastor is the conviction, deep as life itself, that God has called him to the ministry. If this persuasion is unshakable, all other elements of the pastor’s life will fall into beautiful order and place.”8

Answering the question, “How important is the assurance of a special call?” Sugden and Wiersbe said, “The work of the ministry is too demanding and difficult for a man to enter it without a sense of divine calling. Men enter and then leave the ministry usually because they lack a sense of divine urgency. Nothing less than a definite call from God could ever give a man success in the ministry.”9

The minister of today, like the prophets of the Old Testament, are under constant attack and pressure as they speak of the things of God. Lutzer has spoken of the difficulty of ministry as follows:

I don’t see how anyone could survive in the ministry if he felt it was just his own choice. Some ministers scarcely have two good days back to back. They are sustained by the knowledge that God has placed them where they are. Ministers without such a conviction often lack courage and carry their resignation letter in their coat pocket. At the slightest hint of difficulty, they’re gone.10

Believing in the importance of the call as these men do, I suggest four questions that a man can use to evaluate whether he has a call to the ministry. The acrostic CALL summarizes the four steps outlined by questions about these issues: Confirmation, Abilities, Longings, and Life.

IS THERE CONFIRMATION?

Confirmation is of two types: confirmation by others and confirmation from God.

Confirmation by Others

Acts 16:1–2 gives a good idea of how important public recognition is in confirming the call to leadership and the ministry. Timothy was probably a convert of Paul on his first missionary journey (see 14:6). Paul called him “my true child in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2). As Paul started his second journey, he traveled through the regions he had visited on his first journey “strengthening the churches” (Acts 15:41). He arrived in Timothy’s hometown where he found that Timothy was “well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium” (16:2). The result was, “Paul wanted this man to go with him” (v. 3). Timothy’s public confirmation made him a desirable asset to Paul’s missionary team. Later as Paul wrote to Timothy, he reminded him of this public confirmation by referring to the “laying on of hands by the presbytery” (1 Tim. 4:14). Both Paul and the leadership in the local community had seen how God had blessed and used Timothy in local service, so they recognized and commissioned him to serve God in the ministry on a broad scale.

Spurgeon agreed that public confirmation is a necessary step beyond the internal feeling that a man has concerning his call to the ministry. He concluded, “The will of the Lord concerning pastors is made known through the prayerful judgment of his church. It is needful as a proof of your vocation that your preaching should be acceptable to the people of God.”11 Many men who have the internal compulsion to enter the ministry are hesitant to subject this feeling to a church for confirmation. For whatever reason, they do not trust the church with this important area of their lives. Spurgeon told his students,

Churches are not all wise, neither do they all judge in the power of the Holy Ghost, but many of them judge after the flesh; yet I had sooner accept the opinion of a company of the Lord’s people than my own upon so personal a subject as my own gifts and graces. At any rate, whether you value the verdict of the church or no, one thing is certain, that none of you can be pastors without the loving consent of the flock; and therefore this will be to you a practical indicator if not a correct one.12

Bridges also gave sound advice when he spoke of the counsel of others, especially friends and experienced ministers who “might be useful in assuring the mind, whether or not the desire for the work be the impulse of feeling rather than a principle, and the capacity be self-deceiving presumption.”13

The Bible says much about seeking advice and wise counsel. Proverbs is especially excellent in this area: “Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory” (11:14); “the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel” (12:15); “through presumption comes nothing but strife, but with those who receive counsel is wisdom” (13:10); “without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed” (15:22).

Besides the advice and counsel of others is the procedure of ordination, which is the step of publicly recognizing one set apart for the ministry (see chapter 8, “Ordination to Pastoral Ministry”). The Bible indicates that the early church had a specific process whereby bodies of Christians chose and set apart leaders for service. Paul’s instruction that Titus appoint elders (Titus 1:5) exemplifies a number of passages that point to the idea of an ordaining process. The basis of the appointments was the recognition of qualified men in each of the cities. A good definition of ordination is the public confirmation of an inner qualification and giftedness.14 It is a public testimony of a man’s gifts, his education, and his ministry experience. Even though the man being ordained is no different than other members of the congregation, public ordination provides a visible affirmation that God has called an individual to use his unique abilities and gifts for the whole church.

Confirmation from God

Newton found three indications of a call to the ministry: desire, competence, and the providence of God. He termed the third indication “a correspondent opening in providence, by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place, of actually entering upon the work.”15

This factor covers all we have discussed thus far. God’s sovereignty provides for the calling of certain men for leadership in the local church. God gives them the gifts to carry out the functions of the ministry, gives them the desire to serve in this capacity, and then orchestrates the circumstances to provide for the place of ministry.

All this speaks of open doors and God’s blessing. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16:8–9, “But I shall remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; for a wide door for effective service has opened to me.” He then proceeded to balance the opportunity with the obstacles: “and there are many adversaries.”

These adversaries are a constant element in the ministry and sometimes cause frustration and limit results. Results are not the final indicator of God’s blessing, however. Many have labored throughout their ministries with little or no visible fruit. Jeremiah prophesied for more than forty years (Jer. 1:2–3) without much, if any, response from the people. Adoniram Judson labored seven years in Burma before having his first convert, but he still saw God’s hand of providence in his ministry. The ministry is never easy nor are the results always positive, but a sense of God’s confirmation of the work should always be present.

Besides asking if there is confirmation from God, the man seeking to know whether he has the call must ask himself several practical questions:

Answers to these questions come only through active involvement in a local church ministry. Receiving public confirmation requires public ministry. This public ministry involves the use of gifts and abilities that others can identify, help develop, and encourage. Without these abilities, confirmation will be missing. So abilities are an integral part in the process of determining the call.

ARE THERE ABILITIES?

Ephesians 4:11–12 provides the background of this second question, which deals with giftedness. In part, the verse says that Christ “gave some as . . . pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints.” Pastor-teachers are God-appointed gifts to the church.

Just as God called out men for specific tasks in the Old Testament, so in the New Testament God has His chosen ones to accomplish specific tasks during this church age. The task is the “equipping of the saints for the work of service” (v. 12). Fulfilling this responsibility entails an equipping of the called man. Formal and informal education by other men can achieve part of this equipping, but spiritual giftedness from God has the major role in a man’s call to the ministry. Bridges said, “The ability for the sacred office is very distinct from natural talent, or the wisdom and learning of this world.”16

Many a man has thought himself a prime candidate for the ministry, because he loved God and was the debate champion in college. As important as these assets are, unless God has selectively gifted the man for the ministry, he labors in vain who builds the house (Ps. 127:1).

Besides the speaking gifts of preaching and teaching, usually considered essential for the ministry, Spurgeon also suggested several other qualifications:

I should not complete this point if I did not add, that mere ability to edify, and aptness to teach is not enough; there must be other talents to complete the pastoral character. Sound judgment and solid experience must instruct you; gentle manners and loving affections must sway you; firmness and courage must be manifest and tenderness and sympathy must not be lacking. Gifts administrative in ruling well will be as requisite as gifts instructive in teaching well.17

Many men who want to be ministers go to a seminary or Bible school to get the gifts necessary for the ministry. This is a mistake. Since each Christian at the time of conversion has received all the gifts that he will need for ministry (1 Cor. 12:11), training cannot furnish the necessary gifts, but if the gifts are already there, training can develop what God has previously given.

What are the abilities needed for the ministry? The quotation just cited from Spurgeon alludes to them. Basically the functions of a minister are of three types: instructional, pastoral, and administrative.

Instructional. In Ephesians 4:11–12 the pastor-teacher’s responsibility is “the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” The word equipping is the Greek word images/aa3.jpg (katartizō). This word, translated “mending” in Matthew 4:21, occurs in the description of Christ’s call to James and John. He summoned them while they were “mending their nets,” that is, equipping their nets for fishing. This suggests that a major function of a leader is a figurative mending of the saints, getting them ready for service.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:10 the translation of this word is “complete.” The apostle Paul wanted to return to the Thessalonians to “complete what is lacking in your faith,” that is, to finish what he had started earlier. Galatians 6:1 also has katartizō, this time in the sense of restoring a sinning brother. Abbott-Smith gave the meaning of this word as “to furnish completely; complete; prepare.”18 Stedman suggested the nearest modern equivalent is “to shape up.”19

How does this instruction occur? The two major avenues for instruction are preaching and teaching. In 1 Timothy 5:17 Paul referred to certain elders at Ephesus as “those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” The NASB has correctly translated the Greek phrase images/aa4.jpg (hoi kopiōntes en logō) by “those who work hard at preaching.”20 “Since en logō (“in preaching”) is anarthrous, it should not be identified as the word of God,”21 although the foundation for these discourses was the Word of God. Basically, en logō referred to any general form of oral discourse given in some kind of public assembly. It probably included exhortation, admonition, and comforting, as well as the proclamation of the gospel.22

The second avenue of instruction in 1 Timothy 5:17 is “teaching” (images/aa5.jpg, didaskalia). Teaching overlaps the function of preaching to some degree. Since preaching is more of a public ministry, teaching is the explanation and application of that which is proclaimed.23 It can be either public or private, as Paul described his teaching ministry in Ephesus (Acts 20:20).

According to 1 Timothy 3:2 a leader must be “able to teach.” In Titus 1:9 he must “be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” In Hebrews 13:7 the writer described leaders as those “who spoke the word of God to you,” thus implying that leaders are communicators.

Shepherding. Both Acts 20:18 and 1 Peter 5:2 have commands for church leadership to feed the flock of God. Feeding the flock relates to the function of teaching. In fact, shepherding duties link closely with teaching duties. In Ephesians 4:11 Paul combined the two in the title “pastor-teacher.” Yet the Bible makes a distinction between shepherding and teaching. Teaching imparts a body of knowledge, but shepherding imparts a life more broadly. Paul showed this distinction in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 where he said, “Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God [teaching] but also our own lives [shepherding].”

In Acts 20:28 Paul admonished the Ephesian elders “to shepherd the church of God.” He did not command these elders to take care of their own flock but to take care of God’s flock, the church. First Peter 5:2 notes the same stewardship when Peter told his fellow elders to “shepherd the flock of God among you.” The church leader is an under shepherd who will give an account to God (Heb. 13:17), so he must shepherd with utmost care.

How is he to do this shepherding? Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 to face the reality of enemy attacks (v. 29). Attacks will come through the efforts of “savage wolves” who will arise from within the flock (v. 30). The enemy will try to divide the flock, necessitating constant watchfulness by the church’s leaders (note the command “be on the alert,” v. 31). Leaders must “admonish” and intimately involve themselves with the people “with tears” (v. 31). Ultimately, they must entrust the flock to God through prayer, with the assurance of growth in the flock through study of the Word (v. 32).

Administrative. The basic function of a New Testament leader is overseeing.24 Acts 20:28 called the Ephesian elders “overseers.” First Peter 5:2 told the leadership to “exercise oversight.”

Oversight involves ruling, a function to which 1 Timothy 5:17 refers when Paul instructed Timothy to “let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor.” Also, the writer of Hebrews alluded to ruling in his reference to leading: “Remember those who led you” (Heb. 13:7). Two other verses in Hebrews 13 refer to the ruling function: “Obey your leaders, . . . for they keep watch over your souls” (v. 17) and “Greet all of your leaders” (v. 24).

How are leaders to rule? Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 20:25–26 that they were to be servants, not lords. As an obedient disciple, Peter gave the same advice in 1 Peter 5:3: “Nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.” As Christ was a servant (Matt. 20:28; John 13:1–16), so leaders are to follow His example and be servants of the church.

How is your ability to teach and preach? Do you enjoy communicating God’s Word in a preaching or teaching environment? How are your leadership skills? Do you take the initiative or are you a follower? How would you rate yourself as a shepherd? Do you have a heart for people? Do you love to care for those “lost and without a shepherd?”

IS THERE A LONGING?

In 1 Timothy 3:1 the apostle Paul has written, “If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.” The word translated “aspires” is images/aa6.jpg (oregomai), a word occurring only three times in the New Testament. It means “to stretch oneself out in order to touch or to grasp something, to reach after or desire something.”25 It pictures a runner lunging for the finish line. The second time the word appears is in 1 Timothy 6:10 where it is translated “longing” related to money, which is the object of so much love as to make it the very foundation for “all sorts of evil.” The third usage is in Hebrews 11:16 where it is rendered “desire,” with the object of desire being a “better country.” So each context determines how legitimate the stretching and reaching is.

The second word speaking of inner compulsion in 1 Timothy 3:1 is images/aa7.jpg (epithumeō), a verb meaning “to set one’s heart upon, desire, lust after, covet.”26 The noun form of this verb usually has a bad sense, but the verb has primarily a good or neutral sense, which expresses a particularly strong desire.27 This aspiration for the ministry is therefore an inward impulse that releases itself in outward desire.

Sanders noted that it is not the office but the work that is the object desired.28 It must be a desire for service, not for position, fame, or fortune. So this aspiration is good as long as it is for the right reasons.

Spurgeon gave the following warning concerning the desire for the ministry:

Mark well, that the desire I have spoken of must be thoroughly disinterested. If a man can detect, after the most earnest self-examination, any other motive than the glory of God and the good of souls in his seeking the bishopric, he better turn aside from it at once; for the Lord will abhor the bringing of buyers and sellers into his temple: the introduction of anything mercenary, even in the smallest degree, will be like the fly in the pot of ointment, and will spoil it all.29

This inner desire should be so single-minded that the aspiring leader cannot visualize himself as pursuing anything else except the ministry. “Do not enter the ministry if you can help it,” was the wise advice of an old preacher to a young man when asked his judgment regarding pursuing the ministry.30 Bicket said, “If you can be happy outside the ministry, stay out. But if the solemn call has come, don’t run.”31 Bridges called the “constraining desire . . . a primary ministerial qualification.”32

Do you long for the ministry? Is it impossible for you to function in any other vocation? Do you see yourself only in the ministry? If your answers to these questions are yes, one more area is critical for determining your call to the ministry.

IS THERE A LIFESTYLE OF INTEGRITY?

The Bible says much about a leader’s character. It is interesting that it says more about what a leader is to be than it does about what he is to do. This is a good clue as to what God thinks about this important prerequisite. It does not matter how much education or how much experience a person has. If he does not meet qualifications of biblical morality, he is unfit to be a leader in God’s church. Phillips Brooks, a prominent clergyman during the nineteenth century, said of this important subject: “What the minister is is far more important than what he is able to do, for what he is gives force to what he does. In the long run, ministry is what we are as much as what we do.”33

Paul told Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself” (1 Tim. 4:16). Why is this so important? The Old Testament priests had to practice elaborate washing and cleansing procedures, as well as sacrificing offerings for their own sins, before they could minister in behalf of the people (Heb. 5:3). How could they intercede for others when their own sin had not been covered? So it is for the New Testament leader. Spiritual leadership without character is only religious activity, possibly religious business or, even worse, hypocrisy.

Henry Martyn wrote in his journal, “Let me be taught that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul.”34 Peter commanded every Christian to be “holy as your father in heaven is holy” (1 Pet. 1:15–16) and exhorted the leaders “to be examples to the flock” (5:3). As those who are to assist the people in worship and be examples, New Testament leaders must have lives that set a standard for the rest of the church. The standard for conduct and character to guide the leader as he guides God’s people is the Word of God. The qualified leader is a man of the Book, using it not just to prepare sermons and teaching notes but, first and foremost, to prepare himself. The Bible is not a textbook but a manual for transforming the life of one who aspires to leadership.

Within the covers of the Bible, certain sections are particularly relevant to the qualifications for leadership. First Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:6–9 are key passages that deal with a leader’s qualifications. Certainly no man claims that his life measures up to these standards perfectly as a model for what the rest of the church should be, but the Bible gives the standards as an ideal to strive for. As an added safeguard, God usually also provides a core of godly men in each church to supervise and hold one another accountable to fulfilling these standards.

These, then, are the four major questions for a person to ask when considering the ministry. Is there confirmation? Is there appropriate giftedness? Is there an insatiable longing for the ministry? Finally, is there a life of integrity? If a man can answer these questions in the affirmative, he can in all confidence say he has the call of God to pursue ministerial options. He can proceed with joy, for God has an exciting and rewarding, but also an incredibly demanding, life waiting for him. To cope with the incredible demands, he has the assurance of God’s help and empowerment.