I recently received an email with an interesting question. It came from an influential seminary teacher and a background occurred to me, but the entire email could be boiled down to this question about defining a calling: “Should I leave the seminary for pastoral ministry?” In an attempt to help him, I offered four questions for him to consider as he prayed and asked for advice. The thoughts below represent a modified version of what I sent you.
The question of preaching: Do I feel called to go beyond teaching and assume the role of preacher?
- Your communication and/or teaching skills seem already tested and fruitful.
- So these are not skills.
- It is preferable to consider this topic in terms of desire.
- Aspiration or internal motivation.
- Do you feel in yourself a growing desire to build a church by proclaiming the gospel to people and helping them apply it?.
Another way to consider this topic might be to examine the fruits of your current teaching/preaching. Do your communication skills go beyond education, but also to building gospel values?Can your wife and friends say your messages are relatively clear and easy to follow Can you connect the Bible with people’s lives?What about the lives of non-believers?
One of the things that took John Piper out of his teaching role and took him to church was the way his devotions in the classroom affected his students. His pastoral gifts became evident when he opened the scriptures to others. As you ponder the department, take the time to consider this role and preaching in your responsibility and how your crown affects others.
The central question: How can I think of becoming a pastor in practice, rather than being a ministry specialist?
Teaching in a seminar puts someone in a very specific role. You teach specific topics that are familiar to you and teach them over and over again. I’m sure this allows you to find a routine throughout each semester.
Pastoral ministry, however, requires someone to miniaster in a much broader and more unpredictable role. You are a preacher, teacher, counselor, visitor, and hospital administrator. Need to be in a position? And then talk, even in areas where you can When there is a crisis in a person’s life, it should be available to serve you, so I think you should really consider whether a broader developmental lifestyle, rather than a deeper style, makes pastoral ministry more or less attractive.
The model question: Does the idea of building a better-worked model of things that I think seem more or less important in this next phase of life?
One of the things that led me to pastoral care and a particular leadership role is that it allowed me to build a model to work with the things I believe in, for example: I afirmo and teach that Christian life must be centered on the gospel. Being a pastor has allowed me to recognize what is really for ordinary Christians and how to help them achieve it. This allowed me to develop a functional model (rather than a theoretical model) of what it means to be focused on the gospel.
As I speak to pastors and leaders, building a model of work for ministry is not an unusual instinct; the model becomes the laboratory and platform by which certain theological ideas and practices are conceived, refined and exported. When I think of Keller, MacArthur or even Spurgeon (not to mention many other men), the strength of their ministry lies not in their exceptional gifts, but in the model of work they have built and in which they remain. Arnold Dallimore once wrote of Spurgeon Church: “The Metropolitan Tabernacle was not, as some thought, simply a very popular preaching center. . . Was the Tabernacle a great working church? (I am the one who points out).
A burning desire to build a “great church that works”, a term I use to refer to a church dedicated to application, could be an indication that God takes you out of the academy and brings you closer to pastoral ministry.
The question of desire: Could I be satisfied if my life had ended and I had never been a pastor of a church?
This is a very subjective question, so it must be carefully considered, however, this is an important issue. Pastoral care is an inevitable goal and it is only a matter of time, or could you be happy to end your days as a seminary teacher?
One way to deal with this problem might be to explore whether you believe God has called you to train scholars for religious service or to train disciples and train ordinary members and church leaders. It will probably be an eventful experience. Most pastoral positions will require you to simplify the complex and will not necessarily give you time to develop further in specific areas (unless you are incredibly talented, which you might as well be, or a pastor of a church with very competent staff. , led by an excellent executive pastor). This does not mean that you cannot return to the academy after your pastoral ministry; it just means that the pastoral ministry will arm you more to apply the truth more broadly rather than study the nuances more deeply.
One thing that needs to be taken into account, I hope, will resolve some of the anxiety associated with this decision: moving to the pastorate is not fatal for a future at the academy, if you decide to keep it. I think thinking helps men avoid addressing decisions like these as if they were making a decision for the rest of their lives. Think of it as a decision for next season, perhaps the next three years. So, if you decide on pastoral ministry, take only a three-year commitment and build a back door for you and the church you are called to. This will give you and the church the opportunity to assess your effectiveness in pastoral ministry and, if necessary, give you a way back to the academy.
Whatever decision you make, you can be sure that God will make you fruitful. The church needs scholars and pastors, May God give you grace and light to help you discover the role in which you will bring it the greatest glory!
By: Dave Harvey, © 2014 Call Me? Original: The call of the seminary to the pulpit
Translation: Joel Pedro Cavani Review: Yago Martins © 2016 Faithful Ministério All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: Do I have to leave the seminar for pastoral care?
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