D 01 - What Constitutes a Call to the Ministry?

1. What constitutes a call to the ministry?

Answers formerly given to this question seemed to say or to imply that the minister must receive a special call of a supernatural nature from the Lord. There is an element of truth in this view, but it may make a misleading impression. All men engaged in worthy service are called to their work by the Lord. God’s plan extends to everyone’s work, but each one can and must find out what is the Lord’s will for him, not by any supernatural voice or sign, but by the use of the ordinary means for discovering the divine will.

If we study the calls to enter the Lord’s service that are recorded in the Scriptures, such as to Moses, Exodus 3:1-12; Bezalel, Exodus 31:1-5; Gideon, Judges 6:11-18; Samuel, 1 Samuel 3:1-14; David, 1 Samuel 16:11-13; Isaiah, Isaiah 6:1-13; Amos, Amos 1:1; Peter and Andrew, James and John, Mark 1:16-20; the twelve disciples, Mark 3:13-19; Paul, Acts 9:1-12; and many others, we discover that no two received a call in just the same way, and so no one need be surprised if his call is peculiar to himself and conforms to no other one’s experience or even to any Scripture example. In some instances apparently accidental or trivial circumstances have turned young men into the ministry. Frederick W. Robertson in his youth had his heart set on the career of a soldier, but, an expected commission failing to arrive, he went to Oxford University to study for the ministry. When the belated commission turned up within five days, he accepted the circumstance as an indication of the divine will, continued in his course and became one of the greatest preachers of his century. In other cases a quiet conviction is born in the soul and a young man feels lie is called to the ministry as Wordsworth was called to be a poet. He was returning home in the early, dewy hours of a day when * Magnificent the morning rose, in memorable pomp,” and then, he says in the Prelude, My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows Were then made for me; bond unknown to me Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly, A dedicated Spirit.

Back of such a call to the ministry may be a mother’s prayers or a father’s desire, the memory of a sermon or some special providence. Many are the ways in which God makes known his will. The wind bloweth where it will; so is everyone that is born or called of the Spirit. The call to the ministry is indicated by means, and these primarily include the Christian experience, prayer, and the spirit of obedience, but they also include one’s ability and aptitude and temperament and taste for the work and his opportunity for entering it.

One may be fitted for the ministry and not have an opportunity of preparing for it; and he may have the opportunity and not be fitted for it. When physical health and mental ability and spiritual temperament and opportunity for preparation and a sense of the appeal of its work combine into a conviction of duty to enter it, such a combination and conviction constitute a clear call to the ministry. Let no young man set up impossible conditions or erect unreasonable barriers to exclude or excuse him from this calling, but having a reasonable measure of ability and a sense of duty he should make his decision and commit his way to the Lord.