How do I know that I am called to pastoral ministry?

I’m often asked by young people that are in seminary or considering seminary, “How do I know that I am called to pastoral ministry?” And that’s a great question and very appropriate to ask. We want to know what the Lord wants us to do with our lives. We want to serve him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We want to make sure that we’re doing the vocation that he has equipped and prepared us for and called us into. How do we know that? And there are several things that I would suggest that a person do.

One is that you think about your own desire for ministry. I think most people don’t go into pastoral ministry; they don’t have some kind of desire to go into pastoral ministry, but I would ask you to ask yourself about your desire. Is your desire a desire that is based in getting God to love you or getting people to love you and experience a sense of affirmation? Or is it a desire to serve the people of God, not to build yourself up, but to make much of Jesus Christ? And so very few people go into the pastoral ministry that don’t have some kind of desire to do it, but you need to check your desires and see if your desires are focused on serving God and others or whether there’s some deep need for affirmation that you have that you’re seeking to be fulfilled by going into pastoral ministry.

Second I think you need to ask the question, “Does the church see in me the gifts and the character for pastoral ministry? Do the elders in my local congregation see the gifts of teaching that I need to have, see the the theological convictions that I ought to possess, see appropriate Christian maturity in my life, see character in the way that I relate to other people? Do I have a track record of taking care of people in my relationships? Do I serve people for God’s glory in my relationships? Are people able to give a good account of my character in the congregation and then in the community?”I think the important thing is we want to be motivated by a sincere desire to serve God and to love and care for his people.

So I want to know does the church see the gifts and the character and the competencies that one needs for pastoral ministry, and then you ask the question about opportunity: “Do I have opportunities for this pastoral ministry?”

I think it’s a good thing to read about this a little bit. Ed Clowney’s book Call to Ministry is a very important book. Dave Harvey’s book Am I Called? will provide some great questions for examining yourself in terms of preparation for pastoral ministry. There are various classic treatments of this question in the history of Protestant theology. Spurgeon reflects on this a good deal. Newton has a number of helpful reflections. Martin Luther has helpful reflections. So if you read great Protestant pastors of the past, they can help you process this question.

I think the important thing is we want to be motivated by a sincere desire to serve God and to love and care for his people. In the end, what pastors are, are people who are called to help Christians live the Christian life better and those who are called to preach the gospel to the lost so that they might come to faith in Christ and might walk with God forever. And those things need to be part of your DNA if you are in pastoral ministry.