Resources for learning about a call to the ministry

Many prospective students are uncertain about whether Christ has called them to the ministry. This is a difficult question for many and we would encourage you to pray as well as talk to your pastor and our Dean of Students about this. There are also a number of publications which have been written on the subject. We provide links to a number of these below with some excerpts: 

Called to Preach, by Dr. John R. Sittema

"How do you know if you're called? It's a tough question. I remember well a spiritual mentor trying to convince me not to enter the pre-seminary program in college, believing that if he could dissuade me, I would not be truly "called." I also know of many others who have been encouraged, nudged, or even pushed into the ministry against their wishes. An acquaintance was told by family members since his earliest remembrance that he was destined for great things in the ministry, following as he would in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both well-known preachers and authors. The poor fellow was trapped. He left the ministry a broken man only a couple of years after seminary, unable to handle the pressures in large part because he was overwhelmed by doubts about his calling."

Has God Called You? Discerning the Call to Preach , by R. Albert Mohler Jr.

"Has God called you to ministry? Though all Christians are called to serve the cause of Christ, God calls certain persons to serve the Church as pastors and other ministers. Writing to young Timothy, the Apostle Paul confirmed that if a man aspires to be a pastor, "it is a fine work he aspires to do." [I Timothy 3:1, NASB] Likewise, it is a high honor to be called of God into the ministry of the Church. How do you know if God is calling you?"

"The Call to the Gospel Ministry"  by Paul Mizzi (Truth for Today)

Many dangers lurk before a man when he is willing to accept a call to the gospel ministry on the basis of subjective experience only.A subjective experience is no sure proof of the Lord's will. The Lord has nowhere promised to speak to us except through the inspired and all-adequate Scriptures. When and as soon as we drift away from the inscripturated Word, then we have no way to know and ascertain the source of our thoughts and ambitions.For the overseership of a local church is an ambition, a godly ambition, and one should approach it with fear and trembling. The pitfalls are many. And the most common is mere subjectivity, what I think, and that without reference to the Scriptures, to what the church thinks and everything else.