The Essential Marks of a Preacher

“How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14). With
airtight logic, the Apostle Paul sets forth the indispensable human link in
fulfilling the Great Commission—the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In
so doing, he instructs us in the way of the kingdom, that in every generation
God is calling out preachers to serve His church.

Paul’s timeless question is especially relevant for the
twenty-first-century church. Evangelical churches are in the midst of a massive
generational transition, with vacant pastorates and empty pulpits dotting the
landscape.

Vacant pulpits ought not induce the wringing of hands.
Christ is building His church. He does not hope for ministerial volunteers; He
sovereignly sets apart pastors to serve His church and preach His gospel.

Nonetheless, the church is to call out the called, and every
qualified man of God should consider if God is calling him to pastoral
ministry.

How might one know if God is calling him to the ministry?
There are four essential marks.

A Burning Desire

The leading indicator of a call to ministry is a burning
desire for the work. In 1 Timothy 3, Paul begins the list of ministry
qualifications by asserting, “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he
desires a noble task.” In fact, Paul testified that he ministered as one “under
compulsion,” fearful of God’s judgment if he did not peach.

In his Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon argued,
“The first sign of the heavenly calling is an intense, all-absorbing desire for
the work. In order to be a true call to the ministry, there must be an
irresistible, overwhelming craving and raging thirst for telling to others what
God has done to our own souls.”

Those who have been most used of God carried this weight of
the soul. Men such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Spurgeon owned
this inner compulsion that, like an artesian well, continuously poured power
and urgency into their ministries.

The preacher may not feel every Sunday what Richard Baxter
felt when he famously resolved “to preach as a dying man, to dying men; as one
not sure to ever preach again.” But the one called of God knows a constant,
ongoing desire for the work of ministry.

A Holy Life

First Timothy 3:1–7 offers a clear and nonnegotiable list of
character qualifications for the ministry. This list is prescriptive, not
descriptive; it is regulative, not suggestive. In summary, the minister of God
must be above reproach.

Before a church evaluates a pastoral candidate’s gifting or
talent, it must first evaluate his character. To be sure, for a man aspiring to
ministry, it may help to be winsome, to be eloquent, or to possess a magnetic
personality. Yet, before one looks for these secondary—and tertiary—strengths,
one must first meet the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3.

What is more, the 1 Timothy 3 qualifications do not simply
represent a one-time threshold to cross. Rather, they are a lifestyle to be
maintained, a character to be cultivated, and an ongoing accountability to
God’s Word and God’s people. One’s call to ministry is inextricably linked to
one’s biblical character. The two cannot—and must not—be decoupled.

A Surrendered Will

The Apostle Paul was set apart from his mother’s womb and
testified that he “became a minister according to the stewardship from God that
was given to me” (Col. 1:25). Paul chose to preach because God chose him to
preach. Every call to preach originates in heaven. Our response is total
surrender.

In fact, “surrendering to ministry” used to be common
parlance in evangelical churches. We would do well to recover that phrase,
because that is how one enters the ministry—through surrender. God’s call to
ministry comes with the expectation that you will go whenever and wherever He
calls you. His ministers are His agents, deployed for service according to His
providential plan.

An Ability to Teach

Finally, the one called to the ministry must be able to
teach the Word of God. In 1 Timothy 3, this is the distinguishing qualification
between the office of the deacon and elder. There are a thousand ways a
minister can serve the church, but there is one, indispensable, and
nonnegotiable responsibility—to preach and teach the Word of God.

Does the preparation and delivery of sermons fulfill you? Do
the people of God benefit from your ministry of the Word? Does your church
sense your gifting and affirm your ability to preach or teach about God?

Conclusion

Any man can choose the ministry, and too many unqualified
men have. Only a select few are called by God. Discerning between being called
of men and called of God is urgently important.

If God is calling you to be His servant, then realize, in the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.” If God has called you to be His preacher, never stoop to be a king of men.

*This article was originally published November 2015

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