Jan 23, 2017
Here are several questions you should ask yourself as you ponder a call to pastoral ministry:
1. Do I meet the qualifications laid out in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1?
This is the place to start. If your character is not mature, stable, and (in a non-perfectionist way) exemplary, then you are not ready to be a pastor. This does not necessarily mean you are on the wrong path if you don’t yet have victory over certain sins. It means you won’t be ready until you meet the Scriptural standards.
2. Do the Christians who know me best consistently affirm my gifts for ministry?
The most important call is the objective call of your church encouraging you to pursue pastoral ministry.
3. Do I like to teach all kinds of people in all kinds of settings?
Most people thinking of pastoral ministry are excited to preach. I want to know if they are excited to preach at the Rescue Mission and excited to teach five-year-olds.
4. Do I find myself stirred by good preaching?
If a man is called to preach the gospel he should be thrilled to hear it preached. The content should move him, and he should find himself thinking, “Oh, that I could proclaim this good news.”
5. Do I find myself stirred by bad preaching?
The last point was obvious. This one is less so, but just as important. I think there ought to be a fire in a man’s bones when he hears the word of God handled badly.
6. Do I enjoy being around people?
Some pastors are extroverts; I am not. I look forward to being with people more than some pastors I know, but not nearly as much as many men I admire. Whatever your personality, you won’t be a good pastor if you don’t like people and recoil from them as much as possible.
7. Do I make friends easily?
This is a subjective test (like many of these questions), but a lack of meaningful friendships is not a good sign. It could be an indication that you are too harsh, too much a loner, or frankly, too awkward to be effective in pastoral ministry.
8. Do I like to read?
Thankfully there is no GPA or SAT requirement for pastoral ministry. Yet, if we are to be “apt to teach” we must be eager to learn. Preaching grows thin and ministry gets stale without time in the Book and the books.
9. Have I thought about doing this for more than a few months?
Often when students or adults come to Christ they quickly assume that because they are zealous for the Lord they ought to go seminary and prepare for the ministry. This is usually misguided — sometimes because of pride and sometimes due to misplaced zeal. There’s a reason the Bible insists that church leaders not be recent converts.
10. Do I still want to be a pastor if I never write a book, never speak at a conference, and never have a big church?
Our passion must be to feed the flock, not feed our egos.
