The main argument Jason K. Allen makes in his bookDiscerning Your Call
to Ministryis the importance of discerning if God called you to ministry. In
other words, an individual needs to understand if it is indeed God calling
them to the ministry. In discerning one’s call, it is important to
understand if they are either called to minister, called to ministry, or
called to the ministry. Allen noted, “every Christian is called to minister.
As I explained to Mike, to minister—or to serve the body of Christ—isn’t for
a select few. It is part and parcel of the Christian life.”[1] We are all
called to be servants of God. However, this is different between called to
ministry and being called to the ministry. If one is called to ministry, then
they are not subject to meeting the qualifications of being an ordained
minister as found in 1 Timothy 3. Another point that Allen makes is that
“a call to preach or teach the Word is a distinguishing mark of a call to the
ministry.”[2] Allen makes it very clear that it is important to discern your
call to ministry because God sets apart those who are called to be
ministers. If we are confident that God has set us apart for His service of
preaching and teaching the Gospel by answering affirmatively the ten
questions Allen discuss in ten chapters of his book, then we have
successfully discerned God’s call to the ministry for our lives.
My call to ministry was not similar to what Allen promotes because I was
young when God called me to the ministry. At the age of ten, God called
me to the ministry in a dream. In the dream, an angel dressed in all white
was in my bedroom at the foot of my bed. The light of the angel
brightened up my entire room. The angel expressed to me that God has
chosen me to preach the Gospel to the nations. When I looked up, the
angel was gone. I had trouble sleeping the rest of the night. Even with
this vivid call to ministry, I was not interested in preaching the Gospel or
serving God in any capacity. I was very passionate about sports when I
was younger and had a desire to become a professional athlete. Even
though I did not make it as a professional athlete, God still called me to
the ministry. Honestly, I did not think that I was good enough because I
felt as if I could not preach dynamically as the pastors I served under
throughout my life. All of this changed in August 2010. I was returning
home from our church’s revival, I heard God’s voice again to call me to
preach and serve Him as a minister of the Gospel. The final excuse that I
gave to God was that “I cannot preach like Bishop Sheals (my current
pastor), Pastor Smith (my first pastor in Buffalo), or Pastor Alexander (the
pastor I served under while living in Charlotte, NC).” After I said this to
God, God in response directly told me “I did not call you to preach like
these men, I called you to preach the Gospel.” Needless to say, I
surrendered to God’s call and said yes. As a result, running from God’s
call and my questioning and giving God excuses ended and I was very
confident in God calling me to the ministry.
I believe that it okay to question God’s call on your life for ministry. I
believe this because this is a very serious call as lives and souls are at
stake. It is important to evaluate yourself to determine if God has set you
apart for service to the ministry. This will include questioning your call to
ministry. As Allen eloquently stated, “the ministry is too consequential to
be taken casually.”[3] Therefore, it is extremely important to know for
sure that you are set apart by God to the ministry.
[1]Jason K. Allen,Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know for Sure
and What to Do About It(Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2016), 19.
[2]Ibid., 22.
[3]Ibid., 137.
