A Call to the Ministry

As recently men­tioned, I’ve taken part in a practicum for those aspir­ing to the pas­toral office; and I’ve found it both enlight­en­ing and encour­ag­ing. Of the mate­ri­als I was required to digest by far the most encour­ag­ing was a ser­mon series by the well know Reformed Bap­tist Albert Mar­tin. The name of his series is the same as this post: “A Call to the Min­istry.”  His five-part series on the topic is the most gut-wrenchingly hon­est and thor­ough look at the topic I’ve ever heard, and it should be a required lis­ten for any­one that desires the pastorate.

The ser­mon series is five parts, and I want this post to be a sum­mary of the con­tents of the ser­mons. How­ever, don’t use this post as a sub­sti­tute for lis­ten­ing the ser­mons. His emo­tion, inflec­tion, and choice of words adds to the mag­ni­tude of his mes­sage. Even though it was made almost forty years ago it’s as rel­e­vant then as it is today. Each header is a sum­mary of the ser­mons in the 1–5 ordering.

Unhealthy Rea­sons to Aspire to the Pastorate

Of first impor­tance is to iden­tify rea­sons for desir­ing the pas­torate that are not healthy or bib­li­cal. Al iden­ti­fies five items that do not meet the bib­li­cal qual­i­fi­ca­tions for a valid call to the pastorate.

An inac­cu­rate assess­ment of their own gifts and graces
This one seems obvi­ous, but it is a good reminder that we can eas­ily blind our­selves. This also is a great rea­son why this call­ing must be fleshed in the local church, and the call­ing must be val­i­dated externally.
An uncru­ci­fied lust for author­ity and atten­tion that the office brings
There is a nice ring to some­one being called “pastor/elder,” and it is essen­tial that if that is a rea­son one desires the office then that per­son is not at a point where he should have that authority.
An unbal­anced ideal of what con­sti­tutes spirituality
Because the role of the pastor/elder is one not held by many it can be seen by some as those that have the role have attained a higher plateau of spir­i­tu­al­ity. If some­one desires the office so they can feel they have attained this higher level of spir­i­tu­al­ity they do not deserve the role.
An inad­e­quate view of the breadth of min­is­te­r­ial qualifications
I have seen this quite fre­quently actu­ally. Many have not truly sat down and med­i­tated on what the scrip­tures say is nec­es­sary for a man to be qual­i­fied for this office.
An unmet desire for identity
If you have phys­i­o­log­i­cal needs for iden­tity or a title then putting that per­son in the role of pastor/elder is both irre­spon­si­ble and ill-advised.
An unsanc­ti­fied pres­sure from others
Some­times other pas­tors, par­ents or friends push a young man into pur­su­ing the min­istry; and that is an unsanc­ti­fied action on their behalf. The man him­self must be probed by God to seek out the office.

Signs Nec­es­sary for a Valid Call to the Pastorate

After look­ing at things that would dis­qual­ify a man from seek­ing the office, then we must reflect of signs that are nec­es­sary pre­req­ui­sites to the office. He also uses John Owen to dis­tin­guish between an extra­or­di­nary call to an extra­or­di­nary office (such as the apos­tles) to an ordi­nary call to an ordi­nary office (that being a pastor/elder).

A desire born of right motives
This is on the heels of the pre­vi­ous mes­sage. The motives must be pure, ver­i­fied from scrip­ture and orig­i­nal to the man from God if they are to prop­erly purse the office.
Graces indi­cat­ing a gen­uine Chris­t­ian experience
The per­son desir­ing the role should, in fact, be a believer (and a strong one at that)! If the gift of divine regen­er­a­tion is not evi­dent then they quite obvi­ously (although appar­ently not some) must never be given this office.
Gifts indica­tive of divine provision
The hard truth is that if Christ has not endowed you with the gifts nec­es­sary to be a pastor/elder such as preach­ing, coun­sel­ing, etc. then this per­son should not have the office. Albert says that is hor­ren­dous to think that Christ would give peo­ple to the church to edify them but not pro­vide those men with the gifts and means they need to accom­plish that task.
Oppor­tu­nity indica­tive of a prov­i­den­tial opening
At some point in the man’s call there must be an oppor­tu­nity for them to fill such an office. It might look very dif­fer­ent from person-to-person, but God must pro­vide that opening.

Men­tal Gifts Indica­tive of a Pastor

Albert probes into three top­ics from the pre­ced­ing lec­ture of signs nec­es­sary to purse the office of pastor/elder. In this lec­ture he tack­les the men­tal gifts nec­es­sary for one to pur­sue the office.

A mind sub­mis­sive to scripture
If a man’s mind is not com­pletely sub­mis­sive to the word of God then that per­son is in no place to teach oth­ers by it. He must con­tin­u­ally be renewed by the scrip­tures to encour­age oth­ers in this.
Under­stand­ing of the basic con­tents of scripture
A teacher of the scrip­tures must have at the very least an under­stand­ing of the basic con­cepts of the scrip­tures. They must know what the books of the Bible are and what their con­tent con­tains if they are to suc­cess­fully meet the next requirements.
Under­stand­ing of the mean­ing and inter­re­lat­ed­ness of scripture
A teacher must have the nec­es­sary intel­lec­tual knowl­edge of the scrip­tures through var­i­ous the­o­log­i­cal dis­ci­ples. Albert men­tions four: sys­tem­atic, his­tor­i­cal, bib­li­cal and what he calls “exper­i­men­tal” the­ol­ogy. The last of those is the real appli­ca­tion of God’s word to one’s life and situation.
Access to the tools nec­es­sary to make mean­ing plain
There is no excuse for one to expound the scrip­tures and not have easy access to the com­men­taries, lex­i­cons and other mate­ri­als nec­es­sary to make the mean­ing of scrip­ture seem plain.
A mind fur­nished with sound, prac­ti­cal judgement
As Solomon prayed for wis­dom to lead God’s peo­ple so to must those who aspire to the office of pastor/elder have fur­nished to them a mea­sure of sound, prac­ti­cal judge­ment in spir­i­tual matters.

Spir­i­tual Gifts Indica­tive of a Pastor

After elab­o­rat­ing on the men­tal gifts nec­es­sary for this man he turns to the spir­i­tual qual­i­fi­ca­tions one must exhibit to pur­sue this office.

A deep knowl­edge and devo­tion to the per­son of Jesus Christ
If this man does not daily yearn for Christ in all things and as his ulti­mate sat­is­fac­tion then he is use­less to encour­age oth­ers to do this very act. He must be wholly depen­dent on the per­son and work of Jesus Christ. Christ him­self asked Peter three times if he loved him, and as a result of Peter’s affir­ma­tion he assures Peter each time to “feed his sheep” (John 21:15–17; cf. Mark 1:17).
A deep expe­ri­ence with issues of sin and grace
A min­is­ter that wants to hide his own per­sonal strug­gles with sin, grace and assur­ance is not fit to coun­sel oth­ers; because those seek­ing his coun­sel will see any ben­e­fit pos­si­ble from his words. A min­is­ter must be trans­par­ent to their own strug­gle and not seek to keep a facade about them that they don’t strug­gle with these press­ing spir­i­tual matters.
A deep love for people
If a man thinks he can sim­ply spout out doc­tri­nal points to a con­gre­ga­tion and not love deeply the peo­ple he is teach­ing then he also is not fit for this office. Even when a con­gre­gant talks of things that don’t inter­est the man his gen­uine love for this per­son will be evi­dent, and he will be given the means to empathize and love his people.
A mea­sure of the author­ity of unction
The word “unc­tion” isn’t used too often these days, but it refers to the anoint­ing for min­istry by the Spirit. It must be evi­dent that the Spirit has anointed that per­son for min­istry, and it must not be based only on things such as inflec­tion or charisma (although those gifts can cer­tainly be a part of valid call).

Mechan­i­cal Gifts Indica­tive of a Pastor

He uses three texts: 1 Tim 3:2, Titus 1:9 and 1 Peter 5:2 to talk about the fol­low­ing points.

Has a teach­ing ability
The man has a proven abil­ity to speak, flu­ency of utter­ance, suit­able lungs/volume, abil­ity to order thoughts, some gift of sim­plic­ity of speech and his speech drips of divine authority.
Has an abil­ity to rule/govern/shepherd
A man may have the proven abil­ity to teach, but with­out the proven abil­ity to rule and exer­cise spir­i­tual over­sight of the peo­ple of God than that man is not qual­i­fied to hold the office. The per­son who can do this has an atti­tude of servi­tude and doesn’t lord it over the peo­ple of God. The peo­ple of God also must find it nat­ural to fol­low you as a spir­i­tual leader, and they respect you in that office.

Final Reflec­tions

Not yet had I lis­tened to a man so acquainted with the spir­i­tual and prac­ti­cal require­ments to be a min­is­ter. At times I was moved to weep about the depth of what is required of a man to hold this office and lead oth­ers. He cuts through the flesh and bone and gets straight to the mar­row of the issue. I will encour­age any­one who seeks the office to lis­ten to his words and take them to God in intro­spec­tion and prayer before con­tin­u­ing to seek this office.