Two resources helped me answer that question when I was in high school and college:
- C. H. Spurgeon, “The Call to the Ministry,” in Lectures to My Students: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Lectures to My Students 1 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1875), 18–39.
- James M. George, “The Call to Pastoral Ministry,” in Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, by John F. MacArthur Jr. and The Master’s Seminary Faculty (Dallas: Word, 1995), 102–15.
George suggests four criteria for evaluating whether God has called you to serve as a pastor, and you can remember them with the acrostic CALL:
- Confirmation: Has your church—especially your church’s elders—confirmed that God has called you (e.g., 1 Tim 4:14)?
- Abilities: Do you have the necessary abilities to teach, shepherd, and oversee the flock? A pastor must be “able to teach” (1 Tim 3:2), which includes not just holding sound doctrine but refuting error (Titus 1:9).
- Longing: Do you aspire to the office of overseer (1 Tim 3:1)?
- Life: Is your character above reproach (1 Tim 3:2–7; Titus 1:6–8)?
I have collected about thirty resources on discerning your call, and these are the four most helpful in recent years:
- Dave Harvey, Am I Called? The Summons to Pastoral Ministry (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012). Harvey diagnoses the call with six questions: (1) Are you godly? (2) How’s your home? (3) Can you preach? (4) Can you shepherd? (5) Do you love the lost? (6) Who agrees?
- Kevin DeYoung, “How Can I Tell If I’m Called to Pastoral Ministry?” DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed, February 15, 2013. DeYoung suggests ten diagnostic questions to ask yourself.
- Jeramie Rinne, “Don’t Assume,” ch. 1 in Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus, 9Marks (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 17–30. Rinne argues that you know you’re qualified to serve as an elder if (1) you want to be an elder; (2) you exemplify godly character; (3) you can teach the Bible; (4) you lead your family well; (5) you are male; and (6) you are an established believer.
- Jason K. Allen, Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know for Sure and What to Do about It (Chicago: Moody, 2016). Allen’s book is now the go-to resource for people—both men and women—who are contemplating vocational Christian ministry (not just pastoral ministry).
Allen’s easy-to-read book asks ten diagnostic questions (which function as the titles for the book’s ten chapters):
- Do You Desire the Ministry?
- Does Your Character Meet God’s Expectations?
- Is Your Household in Order?
- Has God Gifted You to Preach and Teach His Word?
- Does Your Church Affirm Your Calling?
- Do You Love the People of God?
- Are You Passionate about the Gospel and the Great Commission?
- Are You Engaged in Fruitful Ministry?
- Are You Ready to Defend the Faith?
- Are You Willing to Surrender?
I differ with Allen on a few relatively minor points—he encourages pastors never to drink alcohol (p. 35) and thinks 1 Tim 3 bars a person who has been divorced from ever serving as a pastor (p. 46). But the book overall is clear and convincing. If a person is struggling to discern if God has called them to vocational Christian ministry, this is the best resource I know of to share with them.
I love how Allen ends the book. Once you think God has called you to vocational ministry, what should you do next?
- “The call to ministry is a call to prepare …. Never before in the history of the church has theological education been so accessible, and never before has it been so needed” (pp. 128–29).
- “There is simply no place in ministry for sloppy exegesis, shoddy interpretation, or shallow sermons. One can be a faithful minister without a seminary degree, but one cannot be a faithful minister without knowing the Bible well” (p. 130).
Hello! My pastor (Justin Fuhrmann) linked me this in hopes that I would find it a useful resource for discerning the call I have recently been feeling with quite a vigor. I plan to look into getting these resources you’ve listed and am currently reading The Christian as Minister. I do have a question or two, though.
For your third useful resource, Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus, it states that one would know one is being called if male. Might I ask the context of this within the book? I actually once did a research project for a course tied to my degree in which my team and I concluded a strong stigmatic presence in regards to female pastors in a particular denomination. In your honest opinion, would this book be (even indirectly, unwittingly) elevating a stigma against women as pastors?
I also see you suggested the fourth resource for both men and women. Would you happen to have any further suggestions for resources that might prove useful for a woman seeking insight into a calling? Even if it is simply a general “what to expect” approach? That is, if such an angle for this type of reading would exist.
I’ve tabbed open most of these to look into further. I appreciate this blog post, even if only as a launching point. Thank you!
Hi, Leanna. I hope these resources serve you well. In reply, yes, the six resources I highlight above are complementarian. (For more about that, I recommend starting with this book.) I agree that the New Testament teaches that women may serve in all kinds of ways but not as elders in a church. See especially this book.
What do you think of Michael Bennett, Rethinking the Call to Ministry? I have found it very helpful—and I think a necessary—revision to many of the contemporary models (including those above).
Typically, we place personal desire first and a congregation’s confirmation is down the list. But what if that is backwards? And is there a place for a gifted person but whose desires are (mis)informed being encouraged by his pastors / church members? Could that even be the more biblical model? (See also Paul Harrison’s article in JETS 2001, “Pastoral Turnover and the Call to Preach“). Also Thomas Oden’s work intimates on the same point in the early church fathers (e.g., Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition).
I haven’t read those resources, Steve. Thanks for sharing them.
In reply, I agree with the resources I recommend above that those are the sorts of questions to ask in order to discern if you should serve in vocational Christian ministry. And I acknowledge that people can overemphasize a subjective call in a detrimental way. I’ve seen that play out in at least two negative ways:
1. A young man insists that God has called him to pastor, but his church and other spiritually mature people who know him well do not think he is qualified.
2. A man meets the criteria for pastoring (he is qualified to pastor, he aspires to pastor, his church affirms that, etc.), but he just isn’t sure that God has called him to pastor and is waiting for some sort of electric subjective experience. (See “God’s Will and Decision-Making.”)