Status Updates From The Path to Being a Pastor:...

Pursue godliness. Pursue godliness more than you pursue position or publicity or prestige. Pursue godliness more than you pursue the pulpit. Pursue godliness more than you pursue others’ recognition of your godliness. Pursue godliness when no one is looking and no one cares. Pursue godliness when it seems like godliness is not getting you where you want to go.

In my view, saying ‘I aspire’ is more biblical, more humble, more accurate, more fruitful, and more freeing.

So, even the ‘internal call plus external call’ has its pitfalls. It can set up a too-subjective standard to which aspiring or current pastors must measure up, or else. Personally, I recommend ditching the language altogether. But my goal in all this is not to be a language cop. I am far more concerned about the posture than the phrasing.

Typically, the internal call is identified with just such a consuming desire. Some say, ‘Unless you are gripped by an unrelenting, irresistible desire to become a pastor, don’t do it.’ . . . Scripture nowhere says that a pastor must not be able to be content doing anything else.

My goal is for you to trade in the question, Am I called? in exchange for two different questions. First: Are you qualified to serve as an elder? Second: Should serving as an elder be your job?

I am convinced that the language of ‘calling to ministry’ points the whole conversation in the wrong direction. . . . I aim to persuade you to set aside the language of calling and replace it with aspiration, specifically, aspiring to the office of elder, with the further aspiration of serving as an elder full-time. Instead of saying, ‘I’m called to ministry,’ say, ‘I aspire to be a pastor.’