Below is a video from David, explaining the purpose of Am I Called? and how it can help you in your journey. The church needs more pastors. The site www.AmICalled.com exists to help meet that need.

1. Do you have a holy desire (1 Tim. 3:1)?
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a pastor. In fact, when God calls a man, he usually implants a strong desire for the work in his heart.

A holy desire for the pastoral ministry will be motivated by a passion for the glory of Christ and the salvation of precious souls. To a certain degree, every Christian should have these desires. But potential pastors should have them to an unusually high degree.

Sadly, many want to be pastors for unholy reasons: these include a love of books, an ambition to make a name for yourself, or wanting to become a Seminary professor. On that last point, I know there are exceptions, but I get quite worried when Seminary students start expressing a desire to be a teacher of pastors without having spent even a day in pastoral ministry.

2. Do you have a Christ-like character?
Do you have the fruits of the Spirit in your life (Gal. 5:22-24)? Do those who know you say that you are being conformed to the image of Christ? No one is strong in all areas of character. But if I was to give a top three of non-negotiable character traits, they would be (i) love, (ii) love, and (iii) love. Of course, holiness, integrity, patience, and wisdom are all vitally important too. But without a love-filled heart you will never be a shepherd of sheep.

3. Do you have spiritual maturity (1 Tim. 3:6)?
When young men are converted, they or others often start talking about the ministry. There are exceptions to this rule, but in general it is best that young men spend some time working as Christians “in the world” before pursuing a call to the ministry. They will develop spiritual maturity there in a way that they won’t by going straight into Seminary. Even a few years of working among unconverted people has a rapid ripening effect on Christian character. It also helps to build empathy with Christians who are called to be salt and light in factories, offices, etc.

4. Do you have the necessary gifts (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9)
One of the most useful exercises I’ve given in my class on the Christian ministry was to ask the students to write up a job notice based on the characteristics and gifts found in the passages above. (Maybe I’ll ask some of my students for permission to post their responses in a future blog.) I noticed that one of the recurring gifts in these lists is self-control, or self discipline. This is so utterly indispensable for time-management in pastoral ministry, when we have no boss or professor to keep us on track. If you have a record of being late for work or appointments, or if you are regularly late in submitting assignments, what reason is there to think that you are suddenly going to change when you have to preach a sermon every Sunday at 9.30 am?

Another vital gift is simplicity. Are you able to preach or teach simply? I’m not talking here about “dumbing-down.” I’m talking about taking profound truths and translating them into simple, clear language (as Jesus did). Some men seem to have the opposite gift, the ability to make the simple complicated and confusing. If that’s your gift, then please don’t burden the church of Christ with it.

5. Do you have a proven track record?
This is related to (3) above. However, I want to make this a separate point to stress the importance of having proven oneself in “less public” forms of Christian service. If a young Christian man will not teach a children’s Sunday school class, or won’t join the “yard clean up team,” or excuses himself from the congregation’s evangelism program, then he is not fit for the ministry of the Word. If he is not faithful in the “little” things, he is not ready for the “bigger” things.

6. Do you have external confirmation?
Before pursuing the ministry, or studies for the ministry, you should seek input from your local church. You should ask your pastor and elders to examine you in points 1-5 above and give you their own more objective opinion of whether you have the marks of a man called to the ministry. You should seek their prayerful and practical support in going forward. If they express doubt or disapproval, you should usually view that as the voice of God speaking through His Church.

This list is not exhaustive, but it is a useful starting point for anyone wanting to examine and test their “call” to the pastoral ministry.

Pastoral ministry is not the only vocation which tends to be idealized by young men. In a recent post, Seth Kravitz (CEO of Insuranceagents.com) took business bloggers to task for over-romanticizing entrepreneurship. “Yes,” he says, “starting a company can be a wonderful experience. It can be empowering, life altering, etc….But what so many business bloggers forget to mention is everything else: stress, anxiety, doubt, heartbreak, sleepless nights, emotional roller coasters, destruction to relationships, lost friends, embarrassment, etc…”

Kravitz lists 20 statements, and challenges would-be entrepreneurs, “How many can you answer ‘Yes’ to?” As I read them, I couldn’t help wondering what a similar list for would-be pastors would look like.

Here are Kravitz’s reality-checking statements. How many of them are transferable to pastoral ministry? What would you add or take away? Which would you qualify or amend?

1. I am willing to lose everything.
2. I embrace failure.
3. I am always willing to do tedious work.
4. I can handle watching my dreams fall apart.
5. Even if I am puking my guts out with the flu and my mother passed away last week, there is nothing that will keep me from being ready to work.
6. My relationship/marriage is so strong, nothing work-related could ever damage it.
7. My family doesn’t need an income.
8. This is a connected world and I don’t need alone time. I want to be reachable 24/7 by my employees, customers, and business partners.
9. I like instability and I live for uncertainty.
10. I don’t need a vacation for years at a time.
11. I accept that not everyone likes my ideas and that it’s quite likely that many of my ideas are garbage.
12. If I go into business with friends or family, I am okay with losing that relationship forever if things end badly.
13. I don’t have existing anxiety issues and I handle stress with ease.
14. I am willing to fire or lay off anyone no matter what.
15. I am okay with being socially cut–off and walking away from my friends when work beckons.
16. I love naysayers and I won’t explode or give up when a family member, friend, customer, business associate, partner, or anyone for that matter tells me my idea, product, or service is a terrible idea, a waste of time, will never work, or that I must be a moron.
17. I accept the fact that I can do everything right, can work 70 hours a week for years, can hire all the right people, can arrange amazing business deals, and still lose everything in a flash because of something out of my control.
18. I accept that I may hire people that are much better at my job than I am and I will get out of their way.
19. I realize and accept that I am wrong ten times more than I am right.
20. I am willing to walk away if it doesn’t work out.

Picture: 2008 © Andy Dean. Image from BigStockPhoto.com

“You can still be called to the ministry and yet, at least sometimes, dread sermon preparation,” was my reply. Right or wrong?

If it was a constant and long-term dread, of course I would be seriously concerned. But I still think that just as the “flesh” makes a builder prefer to relax at home than to pour cement, and just as the “flesh” makes a mother of young children prefer facebooking to home-making, so the “flesh” can make a preacher prefer to read good books than to write a sermon. The curse on the ground affects preachers as well as gardeners.

I’ve often approached my sermon preparation with joy and enthusiasm. But, if I’m honest, I’ve also had times when I’ve dragged myself to the desk and “whipped” myself to do the hard mental, emotional and spiritual work of exegesis. Sometimes it’s a difficult text that’s going to require 10-15 hours of work to make it digestible for my hearers. That’s daunting. More often, I get started with great gusto only to hit a “wall” within a short time, and wish I could find some important blogs to read or papers to file.

I recently read about the four stages of software development, and couldn’t help but notice the parallels with sermon “developers”:

1. Oh Boy! – Excitement about the anticipated benefits of the software (sermon?)
2. Oh No! – Discouragement about the anticipated work required to write the software (sermon?)
3. Oh Well – Resignation that the work just needs to be done.
4. Oh Wow! – Excitement about the realized benefits from the software (sermon?)

I know all the twists and turns of that roller-coaster! So, if at times you dread sermon preparation, or lose heart in the middle of it, don’t despair. It’s still consistent with a call to the ministry and is to be expected as long as we remain fallen creatures in a fallen world.