One of the regular questions I receive is, “How do I know whether I’m called to the pastorate?” It would be one thing if God sent text messages from heaven with your name on it—discerning a call would be a whole lot easier. Did you get the text or not? But since this doesn’t happen, how can you answer this question? Historically, the church has distinguished a person’s call into internal and external categories.
The internal call is the personal sense that one has. Speaking from my own experience, I can remember having a sense, motivation, and desire, to serve as a pastor. It was difficult to explain other than to say, I had a desire to serve as a pastor, to preach, and teach the word of God. This is an important aspect of the call to ministry. If you have no internal desire to serve in the pastorate, then don’t pursue it.
The external call is the encouragement, counsel, and confirmation from others in the church that you should pursue the pastorate. Have others told you that you should consider pursuing the ministry? Have others recognized that you appear to have the necessary gifts to serve in the pastorate? When you have shared your desire to serve in the pastorate, have others encouraged or discouraged you to pursue the ministry?
These are two very important aspects of the call. Often people have an internal call but no external call. They have a sense they should serve in the pastorate but others don’t recognize the person’s qualifications. On the other hand, people might see that a man appears to have the gifts for the pastorate, encourage him to pursue it, but the man doesn’t have an internal sense that he’s called to the pastorate. You want and need both the external and internal call before you pursue the pastorate.
How does this work in real life? Again, drawing upon my own experience, I never set out or made a plan to pursue the pastorate. I simply sought to serve the church. When I was in college I volunteered to teach Jr. High Sunday School. I did this because I sensed an internal call to do so. No one asked me to volunteer. My service was welcomed. When I was a college graduate, I volunteered to teach the college Sunday School class for the same reasons—I sensed a call to do so. Later, when I sensed a call into the pastorate, people in my church confirmed my internal call—they saw my service in the church, that I served as a Sunday School teacher, and that I was already informally exercising the gifts for ministry. They not only confirmed my internal call but my church made provisions to pay for my seminary education. All of this is to say, you want both an internal and external call before you pursue the pastorate.
What if you’re unsure about your internal call? What if the external call is present but you’re just not sure whether to pursue the ministry? I received counsel from a colleague that has great wisdom. His own advice to prospective ministers is,
“Can you see yourself doing any other vocation? Can you really see yourself being a plumber, accountant, police officer, or computer specialist? On the other hand, if you simply can’t envision yourself doing anything else—if you’ve got a burning desire, a fire in your belly, to preach the word of God—then this is a likely indicator that you should be in the pastorate. If you can see yourself doing anything else—don’t pursue the pastorate. Chances are you aren’t called. But if you can’t imagine doing anything else, then you are likely being called to serve.”
You therefore need both an internal call, a personal sense that you need to serve as a pastor, as well as the external call, the confirmation and encouragement from the church that you genuinely possess the gifts to pursue the pastorate. Pray that the Lord would give you guidance discerning his call to serve as a pastor in Christ’s church.