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by
Dave Harvey
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August 26 - September 30, 2024
an infinitely more profound way, our call to ministry, just like our call to salvation, ultimately says little about us and a great deal about the Caller.
Before he calls us to ministry, he calls us to himself.
The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian？ I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord？ The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray？ I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures？ I did read them, but what led me to do so？ Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that he was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace
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those called to preach the gospel can be the most susceptible to drift from the gospel.
There is no call to the ministry that is not first a call to Christ. You dare not lift your hands to place God’s name in blessing on his people until you have first clasped them in penitent petition for his saving grace. Until you have done that the issue you face is not really your call to the ministry. It is your call to Christ.5
Your question of calling isn’t merely subsequent to the call to Christ; it’s essentially tied to it.
Being chosen for ministry is great. Being chosen for sonship is infinitely greater. Who am I？ I’m one with Christ, no matter what happens with any specific sense of calling I may have. My union with him is the most important and meaningful thing about me. Keeping this as our source of identity is essential.
A man finds out where he truly locates his identity when he can no longer do the ministry he felt called to do.
It’s true that you’re unworthy, incapable, and filled with potential failures. But here’s the good news: acknowledging those limitations is what makes you a fit vessel and starts you on the path of fruitful service. God designs gospel ministry in a manner that diminishes us and exalts him.
Don’t treat your fears and weaknesses as if they’re some strange phenomenon previously unknown in the annals of Christian history.
Does your sense of call orbit around your own abilities, vision, or performance？ The gospel call says infinitely more about the glory and grace of God than it does about those things.
Remove the gospel, and authentic biblical ministry disappears.
Truth is, gentlemen, if we don’t have a gospel, we don’t have a job—at
Brothers, if you love the idea of pastoral ministry because you think you’re qualified to help people with their problems, or because you can ponder theology, or because you like the idea of people coming every week to hear the latest thing you have to say, then serve the church by getting off the bus.
Pastoral ministry exists for the proclamation and protection of the gospel for people inside and outside the church. We need to value the gospel and know what we have so we can share it with others.
As a believer, you already have a full-time ministry: to bear fruit as a disciple of Jesus Christ (John 15:1–16).
The local church is the essential context for pastoral ministry. This means if you’re called to pastoral ministry, you’re called to the church.
If you believe you’re called to pastoral ministry, you must see your potential calling in the context of the local church, where ministry is shaped and defined according to Scripture.
Identifying called men ... is the responsibility of the local church.
Here’s another limitation of seminary: if we’re not careful, we treat the ministry like a skill set that can be memorized, drilled, tested, and graded—all in isolation from the people we want to serve.
all of our book knowledge doesn’t amount to much if we can’t make it relatable to other people.
An ability to parse Greek is commendable, but it’s of little help as a pastor if you can’t apply the gospel to someone’s life.
Studies indicate that a pastor does not reach significant effectiveness until five to seven years into a pastorate. Some observers suggest ten years. When we consider that the average pastorate lasts from three to seven years we see that we have a problem. The question is; what is the problem？
Seminaries will never be able to impart a love for the local church in future pastors unless they labor in partnership with the local church.
a man who’s ambitious for pastoral ministry either has been seriously dealt with by God, or is about to be seriously dealt with by God. If that’s you, get ready for some serious (and sometimes dangerous) grace.
man who’s ambitious for pastoral ministry either has been seriously dealt with by God, or is about to be seriously dealt with by God. If that’s you, get ready for some serious (and sometimes dangerous) grace.
The church is not a career path.
The professionalization of the ministry is a constant threat to the offense of the gospel. It is a threat to the profoundly spiritual nature of our work. I have seen it often: the love of professionalism (parity among the world’s professionals) kills a man’s belief that he is sent by God to save people from hell and to make them Christ-exalting, spiritual aliens in the world.
When the church chases professional qualifications, we create a ministry elite.
We mistakenly train people to trust credentials, not character or competence.
“Insecure ministers who are stripped of importance hope to be elevated through professionalization to the same social standing as other professionals, such as physicians and lawyers.”
you’re probably not much like Newton, Spurgeon, Tozer, or Bunyan.
you’re probably more like I was—an ordinary guy wrestling through an extraordinary call and wondering where the whole thing leads.
Don’t ever despise scholarship. The church will falter without people skilled in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and other languages necessary fo...
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monitor your heart for the church as you expand your mi...
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every church or family of churches should have a strategy for developing and deploying its own pastors.
the best and most proper place for the education and preparation of pastors is in the local church.
We should be ashamed that churches fail miserably in their responsibility to train future pastors.
the majority of these qualities are actually commanded of all believers in some fashion.
The man called to ministry is not some kind of super-Christian who lives by a higher code. Nope, he’s just a called man with gifts that enable him to lead God’s people and with a grace that empowers him to be an example.
“The minister today,” says Joel Nederhood, “is really nothing more than an ordinary member of the church of Jesus Christ, who is called to express His nature as ‘man of God’ in an especially high degree.”2
God’s call upon a man delivers the grace necessary for the godliness needed.
Identifying a called man isn’t about interviewing candidates or reviewing their GPAs; rather, it’s a glorious exercise of discovering a deposit of empowering grace. Grace shines through their lives and becomes a sign that they’re summoned to pastoral ministry.
“God’s work in a man demonstrates God’s call of a man.”
Men don’t become pastors because of potential. They become pastors because God’s grace is already at work in them.
Too often a man is set aside from ministry because of church politics or vague assessments of deficiencies. And too often, when a man’s character hasn’t stood the test, he remains in ministry by simply rewriting the test, making it about his popularity or prior service.
“Ministry is a character profession,” pastor Charles Swindoll
A pastor is a Christian specifically summoned to serve God’s people in the ministry of teaching, leadership, and oversight. This identity is essential to his calling. It keeps him from assuming that his leadership begins with his rights or preferences.
In any Christian view of life, self-fulfillment must never be permitted to become the controlling issue. The issue is service, the service of real people. The question is “How can I be most useful？” not “How can I feel most useful？”
some guys seem willing to lead the church to the detriment of their families!
