PASTORAL MINISTRY-CALLING
Nothing is
more needed among preachers today than that we should have the courage to shake
ourselves free from the thousand and one trivialities in which we are asked to
waste our time and strength, and resolutely return to the apostolic ideal which
made necessary the office of the pastorate. (We must resolve that) we will
continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the Word.
Certainty of
the call of God is not only necessary for sending you into the ministry;
nothing is more essential for keeping you there. Regardless of the blessings and fruitfulness
God grants to your service, there will be dark, heavy days when you would walk
away from the Gospel ministry if it weren't for the bedrock of assurance that
you are doing what God Himself has called you to do. Not having an unshakable sense of divine call
is one of the main reasons why so few who begin to preach stay devoted to it
for a lifetime. But preachers who, like
Jeremiah, are sure of the fire of God's call in their bones (Jer. 20:9), can,
as Jeremiah did, endure glaciers of opposition and icebergs of discouragement.
Don Whitney
The Call of God to Preach the Gospel, www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
Used by Permission.
You can no
more send yourself into the pulpit than you can send yourself to China as an
official ambassador from the US. A
Gospel minister must be God-called.
Don Whitney
The Call of God to Preach the Gospel, www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
Used by Permission.
None of the
following, as desirable as many of them are, should be the reason why you
believe God has called you to the ministry of preaching: Ambition to be
noticed, to prove yourself, or to “make a difference;” confidence that you
could do well in the ministry; compassion for hurting people; confusion about a
mystical experience; fluency in public speaking; knowledge of the Bible;
failure at all other types of work; belief that ministry would be the best
means to an easy life, study and intellectual pursuits, or wealth; acquiescence
to the expectation of a parent or the selfish opinion of others; conviction
that the church needs you. Do not enter
the ministry if one of these is your main motivation. You must be called.
Don Whitney
The Call of God to Preach the Gospel, www.BiblicalSpirituality.org. Used
by Permission
David
Brainerd prayed with fasting for the Lord's leadership regarding his entry into
ministry. He said of his experience
during that day, “I felt the power of intercession for precious, immortal
souls; for the advancement of the kingdom of my dear Lord and Saviour in the
world; and withal, a most sweet resignation and even consolation and joy in the
thoughts of suffering hardships, distresses, and even death itself, in the
promotion of it…. My soul was drawn out very much for the world, for multitudes
of souls. I think I had more enlargement for sinners than for the children of God, though
I felt as if I could spend my life in cries for both. I enjoyed great sweetness in communion with
my dear Saviour. I think I never in my
life felt such an entire weanedness from this world
and so much resigned to God in everything.
Jonathan Edwards
Revised edition ed. by Philip E.
Howard Jr., The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, Moody Press, 1949, p. 81.
God’s call is
an inner conviction given by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by the Word of God
and the body of Christ.
Erwin Lutzer
Pastor to Pastor, Kregel, 1998, p. 11.
My calling is
sure. My challenge is big. My vision is clear. My desire is strong. My influence is eternal. My impact is critical. My values are solid. My faith is tough. My mission is urgent. My purpose is
unmistakable. My direction is forward.
My heart is genuine. My strength
is supernatural. My reward is promised. And my God is real. I refuse to be dismayed, disengaged,
disgruntled, discouraged, or distracted.
Neither will I look back, stand back, fall back, go back or sit
back. I do not need applause, flattery,
adulation, prestige, stature or veneration.
I have no time for business as usual, mediocre standards, small
thinking, normal expectations, average results, ordinary ideas, petty disputes
or low vision. I will not give up, give
in, bail out, lie down, turn over, quit or surrender. I am a minister. That is what I do.
Author Unknown
For a truly
God-called man, one of his greatest fears is of his life not counting for
Christ, all his efforts making little difference for the sake of the kingdom.
Author Unknown
He who would
be a faithful minister of the gospel must deny the pride of his heart, be
emptied of ambition, and set himself wholly to seek the glory of God in his
calling.
William Perkins
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical
Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 143.
Used by Permission.
(Pastors) are
initiated by the Holy Spirit, confirmed by prayer, and qualified through the
consistent testimony of a pure life in the eyes of all.
John MacArthur
The Master’s Plan for the Church,
Moody, 1991, p. 193.
Those who are
truly sent by God . . . are marked by the fact that they are faithful to the
message of the Gospel, exalting the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming to men the
good news of salvation through Him, and bidding men to turn from their sins and
come to Christ as Savior and Lord. They back all of their proclamations by the
authority of the Bible, the Word of God, and they call Christians to lives of
holiness while they themselves are living examples of holiness. Unless a man is divinely sent to preach the
Word, his ministry will be ineffective to produce faith and life in those to
whom he ministers. God must do the sending. I always tell young men who ask me
about entering the ministry that they should never become ministers if they can
possibly help it. If a man could be satisfied as president of the United
States, as president of a bank or a college, as a pitcher for a big-league ball
team, or in another position of honor or distinction, he has not been called to
the ministry. God has not sent him. When God sends a man there is a yearning,
churning, burning inside him. Like Paul he must cry .
. .“Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel” (1
Cor. 9:16). This must be the heart feeling of everyone who has been sent with
the Gospel.
Donald Grey Barnhouse
God's Covenants: Romans 9:1-11:36:
Expositions of Bible Doctrines Taking the Epistle to the Romans as the Point of
Departure, Eerdmans, 1963, p. 91-92.
None but He who made the world can make a Minister of the
Gospel. If a young man has capacity,
culture and application (it) may make him a scholar, a philosopher, or
an orator; but a true Minister must have certain principles, motives,
feelings, and aims, which no industry or endeavors of men can either acquire or
communicate. They must be given from above, or they cannot be received.
John Newton
You
are not your own; you are a man under orders.
And the One who has drafted you and signed your orders expects that you
carry them out in a manner worthy of Him, and in such a way that His authority
and His kingdom cannot be ignored. Now
go, labor, work, and do your duty well knowing that it is the greatest
privilege under heaven to be in the personal service of the Almighty.
David W. Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 48.
Even as God is at work shaping desire and growing a man in the
areas of knowledge and ability, the first and most visible mark of the called
man is godly character. While great gifts and broad knowledge are certainly a blessing in
public ministry, no amount of academic or ministerial brilliance matters if the
man is not first known to be conspicuously holy.
David Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 55.
It must be seen that…the spirit of love in the minister arises not
so much out of natural personality, but is a gift of God. This love, then, will be a reflection of
God’s love and will demonstrate itself not only in a man’s sincere love for God
and His truth, but also a deep compassion for people accompanied by a loving
compulsion to seek after them, aid them, and extend the grace of Christ to
them. How insightful is the comment
often heard that “one should not take the job of shepherd until he learns to
love the smell of sheep.”
David Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 64-65.
In evaluating a man’s ability to teach it is necessary to inject
some objectivity into a largely subjective task. The communication of God’s truth by a man
appointed and duly gifted by God will at least be recognizable as being: clear
and understandable; winsome and arresting; and life-changing.
David Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 82.
When I was a child I heard my father say, “If God has called you
to preach, don’t step down to be the President of the United States. But if your heart will let you do anything
besides preaching, do it!”
David Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 99.
If a
commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a
Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?
David Livingstone
This is
something that happens to you: it is God dealing with you, and God acting upon
you by His Spirit; it is something you become aware of rather than what you
do. It is thrust upon you; it is
presented to you and almost forced upon you constantly in this way.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p.
104, Used by Permission.
It was Mr.
Spurgeon, I believe, who used to say to young men – “If you can do anything
else do it. If you can stay out of the
ministry, stay out of the ministry.” I
would certainly say that without any hesitation whatsoever. I would say that the only man who is called
to preach is the man who cannot do anything else, in the sense that he is not
satisfied with anything else. This call
to preach is so put upon him, and such pressure comes to bear upon him that he
says, “I can do nothing else, I must preach.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p.
105, Used by Permission.
A man who
feels he is competent, and that he can do this easily, and so rushes to preach
without any sense of fear or trembling, or any hesitation whatsoever, is a man
who is proclaiming that he has never been “called” to be a preacher.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p.
107, Used by Permission.
I have always
felt when someone has come to me and told me that he has been called to be a preacher, that my main business is to put every conceivable obstacle
that I can think of in his way.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers and Preaching, Zondervan, 1971, p.
108, Used by Permission.
It was God’s
hand that laid hold of me, and drew me out, and separated me to this work.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Quoted in: On Being a Pastor, Moody
Press, 2004, p. 19.
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…(if anyone) could be content to be a newspaper editor, or a grocer,
or a farmer, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a senator, or a king, in the
name of heaven and earth let him go his way; he is not the man in whom
dwells the Spirit of God in its fullness, for a man so filled with God
would utterly weary of any pursuit but that for which his inmost soul
pants. If on the other hand, you can say
that for all the wealth of both the Indies you could not and dare not
espouse any other calling so as to be put aside from preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ, then, depend upon it, if other things be equally satisfactory,
you have the signs of this apostleship.
We must feel that woe is unto us if we preach not the gospel; the
Word of God must be unto us as fire in our bones, otherwise, if
we undertake the ministry, we shall be unhappy in it, shall be unable to
bear the self-denials incident to it, and shall be of little service to
those among whom we minister.
C.H. Spurgeon
He that can
toy with his ministry and count it to be like a trade, or like any other
profession, was never called of God. But
he that has a charge pressing on his heart, and a woe ringing in his ear, and
preaches as though he heard the cried of hell behind him, and saw his God
looking down on him- oh, how that man entreats the Lord that his hearers may
not hear in vain!
C.H. Spurgeon
I always say
to young fellows who consult me about the ministry, "Don't be a minister
if you can help it," because if the man can help it, God never called
him. But if he cannot help it, and he
must preach or die, then he is the man.
C.H. Spurgeon
A
man must not consider that he is called to preach until he has proved that
he can speak. God certainly has not
created behemoth to fly; and should leviathan have a strong desire to
ascend with the lark, it would evidently be an unwise aspiration, since he is
not furnished with wings. If a man be
called to preach, he will be endowed with a degree of speaking ability,
which he will cultivate and increase.
If the gift of utterance be not there in a measure at the first, it is
not likely that it will ever be developed.
C.H. Spurgeon
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. If your call from
the Lord be a real one you will not long be silent. As surely as the man wants his hour, so
surely the hour wants its man. The
church of God is always urgently in need of living ministers; to her a man is
always more precious than the gold of Ophir.
Formal officials do lack and suffer hunger, but the anointed of the Lord
need never be without a charge, for there are quick ears which will know
them by their speech, and ready hearts to welcome them to their appointed
place. Be fit for your work, and you
will never be out of it. Do not run
about inviting yourselves to preach here and there; be more concerned
about your ability than your opportunity, and more earnest about your walk
with God than about either.
The sheep will know the God-sent shepherd; the porter of the fold
will open to you, and the flock will know your voice.
C.H. Spurgeon
Whatever
“call” a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he
certainly has not been called to the ministry.
C.H. Spurgeon
It is a marvel to me how men continue at ease in preaching year
after year without conversions. Have they no bowels of compassion
for others? No sense of responsibility upon themselves? Dare they,
by a vain misrepresentation of divine sovereignty, cast the blame
on their Master? Or is it their belief that Paul plants and Apollos
waters, and that God gives no increase? Vain are their talents,
their philosophy, their rhetoric, and even their orthodoxy, without the
signs following. How are they sent of God who bring no
men to God? Prophets whose words are powerless, sowers whose seed
all withers, fishers who take no fish, soldiers who give no
wounds-are these God's men? Surely it were better
to be a mud-raker, or a chimney-sweep, than to
stand in the ministry as an utterly barren tree.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
trials of a true minister are not few… Let no man who
looks for ease of mind and seeks the quietude of life enter the ministry; if he
does so he will flee from it in disgust.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
The gifts
rather describe the what of ministry, and the
call then designates the where of ministry.
Ted W. Engstrom
The Making of a Christian Leader, Zondervan,
1976, p. 96. www.zondervan.com.
If the
preacher is called by men, he may sensibly give those who called him what they
want, but what if the preacher is called by God? How can he dare speak less than all the truth
of God?
Richard Owen Roberts
Preaching that Hinders Revival,
Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.
The
true doctrine of calling is that the man whom God has designed and qualified to
preach learns his call through the Word.
The Word is the instrument by which the Spirit teaches him, with prayer,
that he is to preach.
Robert Lewis Dabney
The Public Preaching of Women, October
1879.
I felt shut
up to do it and saw no other course of life open to me.
J.C. Ryle
Those whom
God calls to the work, He usually so strips and empties, so pulls down,
humbles, and abases, so shows them what the ministry is, and their own
unfitness for it—that they shrink back from so arduous and important a work,
and can scarcely be persuaded that they are called to it. We need hardly remark how different this is
from the forward, pushing, bold, if not presuming spirit which so many manifest
in their ambitious aim almost to force their way into the pulpit.
J.C. Philpot
The Call and Qualifications for the
Gospel Ministry.
The way also
in which texts are brought to his mind, opened up to his understanding, or
applied to his heart; the light cast upon a passage when speaking from it, the
suitable Scriptures which are brought to his memory to confirm his views upon
it, and the sweet enjoyment which he has himself in or after the time of
speaking from it; the secret prayer and meditation on the word which he has
before he goes into the pulpit, and the holy savor which often rests on his
spirit after the labors of the day; the sense which he has of the blessedness
of the work, and his willingness to spend and be spent, labor and suffer, live
and die in the Lord's service – these and similar experiences confirm him in
the persuasion that the Lord has called him to the work, and is with him in it.
J.C. Philpot
The Call and Qualifications for the
Gospel Ministry.
If God has called
someone to ministry He will provide the grace to meet the qualifications for
it. The biblical criteria for those in church leadership pertain not only to
intellectual and theological skills but also to character, with an emphasis on
moral and spiritual maturity. Any effort aimed at identifying those called to
church leadership and providing encouragement to them must entail appropriate
steps at character development [according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1].
Sam Storms
Are You Called to Ministry – Part II, November
8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
There is a
primary sense in which all Christians are “called”, for Jesus Christ is Lord
over all of life, over every task, over every endeavor. But there is another
sense in which only some are “called” to fulfill those special responsibilities
and ministries set forth in Scripture on which the life and order of the church
directly depend.
Sam Storms
Are You Called to Ministry – Part I, November 8,
2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Whether young or
old, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, should presume to dispense the
mysteries of Christ without the strongest of all possible reasons for doing so
– the imperative, invincible call of God. No one is to show cause
why he ought not to be a Minister: he is to show cause why he should
be a Minister. His call to the sacred profession is not the absence of a call
to any other pursuit; it is direct, immediate, powerful,
to this very department of labour. He is not here
because he can be nowhere else, but he is nowhere else because he must
be here.
James Henley Thornwell
The Call of the
Minister, 1875.
Let
every preacher take note: Amid the frustrations and hardships of ministry, the
most Christ-like thing is to stay focused on your calling, give thanks to God,
and go on preaching the Gospel.
Joel Beeke
The
Faithful Minister, Tabletalk, May 2008, p. 36, Used by Permission.
No church is
better able to confirm a call to the ministry than a man’s home church – it is
the natural and appropriate proving ground.
He should submit himself, therefore, to the spiritual leadership of his
church fellowship, asking them to test his call.
Derek Prime and Alistair Begg
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 25.