A couple of days ago I had lunch with a guy in his 40s that was asking me if I thought he was called to ministry.
Again.
I say again because if I had a free lunch for every guy in his 40s who comes to me wrestling with this question, well, I’d have a lot of free lunches. Maybe its the midlife crisis thing, I don’t know. But it seems men in this age group struggle with their calling. Some of them have fought against God on the issue for years. Others are wrestling with insecurity, or with the haunting of the “calling” their sweet, godly mother shackled them with - “sonny, you’re gonna be a preacher someday!”
So what do I tell them? I ask some questions to check where they are coming from:
- “What do you mean by ‘ministry’?” Obviously we are all called as ministers if we are children of God. Of course, these men are always asking about the vocational calling. They want to quit their boring jobs and step in to the exciting, lucrative world of paid ministry! So, the next question is…
- “Is doing ministry just a matter of paycheck and position? Do you have to be paid and have a title to minister? Or does God just want you to keep doing it as a volunteer?”
- “What specific role are you interested in playing?” Typically “ministry” means they want to be a pastor or church leader. In its purest, simplest form, we might say that the Bible pictures a minister, elder, pastor as a shepherd leader, one who leads and feeds the flock of God.
There are a few other questions we tackle, but then I lay out six diagnostic words that can help them in determining God’s calling. These are biblically based ideas, though they aren’t a biblically mandated criteria list. These come from years of watching and talking to people who have wrestled with this calling.
- LEADING - Does God seem to be impressing on your heart that He wants you to go into full-time, vocational ministry? Is it truly God calling you, or someone/something else? God literally knocked Saul/Paul off his horse with his calling. It was clear God was leading him into ministry.
- DESIRE - Is there a tugging, pulling, or yearning in your heart to do this? You may have quenched the fire, suppressed the feelings through the years - because of sin, fear, insecurity, rebellion, etc. But is that desire still pulsing in your soul?
- GIFTING - Do you have the skills, spiritual gifts, personality traits needed to do this ministry? I can say God’s “calling me” to be a great singer or athlete - but reality shows me He didn’t bother to equip me with the necessary equipment! God called Moses to lead His people, but He had already given him shepherding skills and experience.
- SUCCESS - When you use your abilities and do ministry, do you see fruit from the effort? Does your leadership attract people? Does your teaching impact people? In other words, are you “good” at ministry leadership?
- RECOGNITION - Does the Body of Christ agree with your opinion of your calling? The old saying goes, “you aren’t a leader if no one is following you - you’re just going for a walk by yourself.” In the Jerusalem church in Acts 6 the apostles told the people to look among themselves and recognize who should be the ministry leaders. Do people you minister with affirm your calling? Do they say “I can see you doing this as a career?”
- OPPORTUNITY - Do the doors to ministry jobs open? Where God guides, He provides, and He usually won’t tell you to walk through a door if He never opens the door. If you have been trying to get a ministry job for a long time but nothing happens, I would ask God if your “calling” is from Him. Yes, He often makes us wait on Him, He leads us to be persistent. But eventually, what He asks us to do He makes a way for us to do.
People can oftentimes answer the first four words in the affirmative - and be self-deceived. But the last two words are the gut check. I may live in the illusion I have skill, God is leading me, etc. But reality sets in if no one else sees a calling on me, and if God doesn’t give me the open door.
Just checking off these six do not mean you are called to ministry, but they are a good starting point in gaining your answer.
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