If You Can Do Anything Else . . .

“If you can do anything else, don’t go into pastoral ministry.”

I really wish we had not given that advice to young men considering a call to ministry. The advice was intended to communicate the idea that you need to be so committed to the call to ministry that you cannot be content doing anything else. However, what was received by many young men was–If you are interested in anything else, or you can be successful at doing anything else, then you are not called to ministry.

I was meeting Kevin at our local Denny’s at 6 am on Thursdays for discipleship.  Kevin was a VP of a major corporation headquartered in our area. In the course of the conversation, he said “I think I was once called to ministry.” Almost without thinking, I responded with “When did God un-call you?” He then described how he had been discouraged from going into ministry because of an issue that came up when attending a Bible Institute as a new believer. The Holy Spirit used that conversation to spark a renewed call for Kevin’s life. He enrolled in Bible College and finished his degree while continuing his work as a business executive.  After graduating he left the secular work world and served the Lord dynamically in full-time ministry for several years before God called him home to heaven.

Most pastors I know have intellectual gifts and talents that would make them quite successful in many careers. Like Kevin in the business world, Mike Redick, missionary to SE Asia was a successful chef before entering the ministry. Others have come from the trades, military, teaching, performing arts, and many other fields of occupation. Advice that discourages our best, brightest and most talented people from giving their lives in full-time service needs to be discarded.

That advice also implies that God only calls to ministry—that He does not call people to be doctors, electricians, engineers, or at least that they can be less sure about their calling than a preacher is about his.  It also discourages the idea of bi-vocational ministry. Many, many of God’s most faithful ministers throughout the church age were also farmers, craftsmen, and tradesmen.

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. 1 Timothy 3:1

1 Timothy 3 lists qualifications for ministry. Failure in some areas permanently disqualifies, but most of the qualifications are more not yet than not at all. Paul starts the chapter by saying that the desire for ministry is one of the indications of a call and that desiring the pastoral office is a worthy aspiration.

Jesus told us to pray for laborers for the harvest field. We desperately need a new generation of leaders to fill the pulpits of churches, plant new churches and do the work of missions around the world. I don’t think God planned to leave His people without leadership.  I wonder how many we have discouraged from the path He intended for them with well-intentioned but misunderstood advice.

God called Peter from the fishing boat, Paul from the law, Thomas from the tax collector’s table, and Moses from keeping sheep.  Is there someone in your congregation that God might be calling to serve Him in full-time or bi-vocational ministry? Encourage him.  The harvest needs laborers.