Discerning God's Call series: Click | View Series

Pastoral Ministry

Ministry is more than hard. Ministry is impossible. And unless we have Holy Spirit-inspired fire inside our bones compelling us, we simply will not survive. Pastoral ministry is a calling, not a career. It is not a job you pursue to advance a career or a position that is preferable because you like attention. You don’t go into ministry because you liked your youth pastor or because your mom thinks you’d be good at it or to avoid manual labor. I am continually shocked at how many people are trying to do ministry without a clear sense of calling.

So what is a call? What does it look like?

To begin, let’s learn from those who have gone before us.

8 Qualities of a Minister

Martin Luther, the 16th-century church reformer and theologian who helped spark the Protestant Reformation, listed eight qualities that a minister must have:

• Able to teach systematically
• Eloquence
• A good voice
• A good memory
• Knows how to make an end
• Sure of his doctrine
• Willing to venture body and blood, wealth and honor in the work
• Suffers himself to be mocked and jeered by everyone

3 Indications of a Call

John Newton, the 18th-century Anglican clergyman and writer of the famous hymn “Amazing Grace,” noted three indications of a call. First, a call to ministry is accompanied by “a warm and earnest desire to be employed in this service.” Second, a call to ministry is accompanied by “some competent sufficiency as to gifts, knowledge, and utterance.” And third, a call to ministry is accompanied by “a correspondent opening in Providence, by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place, of actually entering upon the work.”

Is Ministry Your Calling?

George Whitefield, the 18th-century evangelist, gives this advice for those considering a call: “Ask yourselves again and again whether you would preach for Christ if you were sure to lay down your life for so doing? If you fear the displeasure of a man for doing your duty now, assure yourselves you are not yet thus minded.”

Qualifications

Charles Hodge, the 19th-century Reformed theologian, distinguished between intellectual qualifications, spiritual qualifications, and bodily qualifications, all of which must be present in a genuine call.

Robert L. Dabney, another 19th-century Presbyterian theologian, lists these qualifications:

• A healthy and hearty piety
• A fair reputation for holiness of life
• A respectable force of character
• Some Christian experience
• An aptness to teach

Though these men’s perspectives are culturally conditioned, you get the point: Examination is imperative. Confirmation is required. Calling matters.

As you discern God’s call on your life, consider the advice of those who have gone before. In the next three posts, we will look at three areas that I believe are crucial for discerning God’s call on your life: heart confirmation, head confirmation, and skill confirmation.

To be continued.

Vintage Church

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

At the recent AMBITION Boot Camp, I sat down with A29 vice president Darrin Patrick to talk about what wisdom he had for church planters and his tips for preaching. I believe he offers some invaluable counsel. Listen. Learn. Tweet.

Darrin Patrick's book Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission will be out this August from Crossway.

How Jesus Made Disciples

Reflections from the book of John on How Jesus Made Disciples.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #3: Past results often reveal future performance

Jesus looks out across his ministry, and he picks leaders who are already doing stuff. If you've never done anything, something radical could change, but the odds are tomorrow, you're not going to wake up and start doing a lot. If you're not faithful, you're probably not going to be faithful. There's something to be said for consistency, what Eugene Peterson calls, "long obedience in the same direction."

Some people walk into Mars Hill and say, "Okay, I want to do this." "Okay, have you ever done anything?" "Nope." "Okay, then why in the world would we give you this great opportunity? Shouldn't you first do anything? Humbly serve, find something to do, show us that you can show up two weeks in a row, find your pants, you know, just knock a few things off your to-do list, and then we'll talk about making you a leader." Because people walk, in they're like, "I want to be in charge of something." "All right, you can be in charge of you. We're going to start there, and if you nail that, we'll move on, okay?"

But Jesus doesn't just pick people who have never done anything. Some of these guys have run businesses. They're all following him in ministry. They're serving informally. The ministry's grown, now it's time to officialize the leadership, and he picks those who have already performed, they've already done something. You need to know this at Mars Hill, the best way to rise up in leadership is to be getting things done. Become a member, join a community group, lead a community group, lead a worship team, lead a serving team. Move up through deaconship, move up through eldership. Whatever God has for you, you've got to start by doing something. There are a lot of people who walk in, and they're totally fired up for two weeks, and then it's over, you never see them again. Past performance indicates future performance. We want to see somebody who's been doing something before we unleash them to do something else.

To be continued.

Docent Research

Customized research for pastors. High-level exegesis, theological analysis, and cultural research as well as writing assistance. Learn more.

One aspect of my job that I really enjoy is getting on The City at least a few times a day to interact with the church planters in Acts 29. The City offers us a private place to ask questions, kick around ideas, seek prayer, and coach one another. One great brother recently posted a question about how he should respond to someone who had become quite a vocal critic all over the Internet and in relationships with church members, making wildly unfounded accusations and creating a lot of additional work. It’s a common question, particularly in the age of the Internet. Since I’ve enjoyed many critics and endured many seasons of intense criticism, I, along with some other church planters, offered him some counsel. I am passing on what I posted for him in case it can be of service to others.

1. Don't respond.

Do NOT respond to him publicly or privately. It will only empower him and it sets a precedent that if someone freaks out, they get you to respond. If you do respond, you will draw more attention to him and make him more powerful. As it escalates, if someone from your church does or says something in response, it will escalate yet again and end up in the media. We only consider charges with evidence, like the Bible says, not accusations that are unfounded (1 Timothy 5:19). Never post anything online or send anything via email to or about a critic or else it can and will end up in the media, court, or at least the court of public opinion. Call your leaders if you need to discuss this, and, if you have to send something, CC your attorney so it is not open to disclosure in a lawsuit.

2. Don't have contact.

Do NOT have any contact with the unreasonable critic. Hire an attorney, have the attorney send a letter, and file a restraining order barring him from X number of feet from you if he threatens violence or disrupts a meeting. If he shows up at your home or church, call the cops and have him arrested. If he wants to see you, he needs to schedule a meeting—in a safe place other than your home—and you need a witness.

3. Get someone else involved.

Have another elder or trusted staff member follow things online and don’t waste your time or emotional treasure. This is just one guy and not a big deal. I know it’s personal so it is taxing. Satan wants you to respond to this guy, not to the Spirit. Let others follow the garbage online and if there is a credible threat of violence or lawsuit, they should notify you, but otherwise not involve you or waste your energy. Don’t get sucked in. Don’t follow online. Don’t. If you have to, have someone keep an eye on your Facebook, Twitter, etc., and delete his garbage and report him to be banned so you don’t have to.

4. Protect your family.

Your wife and family should not read any of this garbage. If you have to screen her emails to ensure no one is forwarding links to her, then do it so she’s not getting shot in the heart every time she opens her inbox.

5. This is a test.

You are a good thinker and writer so this will only get worse. This is a Little League test and if you pass it you get to move up to the next league. Don’t freak out and don’t overreact, and praise God you have enemies because we worship Jesus, who had enemies. If you keep doing your job, you will have more enemies of greater power, so this is not a season, it’s your life.
Sorry, man. I get it.

Vintage Church Team Study Pack

Designed for church leadership teams. Includes study guides and DVD curriculum. Check it out.

Nick Nye and Kevin Larson are both Acts 29 pastors and recent graduates of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. They sat down with for an interview with Towers, the seminary's news service, to talk about what church planting is really like. Read the full article here.

Nick and Kevin also answer some questions in these video clips.

Do church plants have struggles?

What do you enjoy about being a partner of the Southern Baptist and Acts 29 ministry?

What types of results have you seen?

Click through to the Resurgence if you can't see the videos above.

R.C. Sproul Interviews

Has R.C. Sproul ever been on the internet? What is the biggest upcoming theological battle? Dr. Sproul answers questions like these in this special interview series.

Preacher series: Click | View Series

Preaching Styles

In seminary and in conversations with other preachers it seems like everyone who talks to me about preaching asks the same questions: Are you a storyteller or an exegete? Are you topical or expositional? Do you preach narratively or propositionally? My answer to these questions is “Yes, and amen!”

The Bible shows us all of these things. The Bible has wonderful, well-crafted stories, but sometimes it simply reports facts and propositions. Biblical authors teach on a variety of topics and they often do so by going point-by-point through other Scriptures. Some passages take twists and turns that you don’t expect, using metaphors and symbolism, while other passages focus on clear commands and imperatives.

Because Scripture contains various types of sermons and various literary genres, there is no prescribed way to preach a text. If we are going to teach the Bible, then we have to craft and communicate our messages in a variety of ways.

Measuring Sermons

My approach to preaching is like laying carpet. When I first moved to St. Louis to plant our church, I laid carpet as a bi-vocational pastor. Laying carpet requires several steps. First, the carpet must be measured and cut to make sure it fits the space. Then the carpet must be stretched so that it doesn't wrinkle once it's down. And finally, good carpet-layers learn how to hide the seams so that you don’t see individual pieces shoved together side-by-side, but instead, see a floor covered by what looks like a single piece of carpet.

We "measure" our sermons by doing excellent scholarship in our preparation. We learn the parameters of a text and fit our thoughts into the framework of the text. We retrieve our main points from the text and allow it to guide our sermon. We "stretch" our sermons by covering the most important points of the text. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us discern which points to leave in and which ones to leave for another sermon. Lastly, we communicate the truths of the text in a way that "smoothes out the wrinkles," allowing people to apply the truths of Scripture in a way that holds the author's intended shape.

Hiding the Seams

We hide the seams by teaching biblical truth in a way that is understandable and “feels” linear, even if the text itself isn’t necessarily linear in its thought progression. Likewise, because the Bible is a single, big story, containing many smaller stories, we can make any text "feel" narrative. Sermons must have a logical progression if they are to be understood. And every sermon must weave the smaller story of the text into the greater story of the Bible. When sermons “feel” both linear and narrative, they reach a wide variety of people, from artists to engineers.

Mars Hill Music

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9 Leadership Lessons from Baseball: Click | View Series

Lesson 3: Develop a Minor League System

Any organization that has to hire mainly from the outside has failed in attracting, training, deploying, and retaining emerging leaders. Thus, the organizational future is in jeopardy; payroll will be high, performance will be low (because young leaders won’t be pushing the older ones), innovation will wane, and young talent will slow to a trickle.

To be continued.

Re:Train

The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) prepares missional leaders for ministry. View the professors, catalog, and application at retrain.org.

9 Leadership Lessons from Baseball: Click | View Series

Lesson 2: Get Your Stats

Once the senior leader is in place (the GM in baseball, the president in a company, or the lead pastor in a church), the right data has to be continually gathered. In baseball, this is the vast field of sabermetrics, where player stats are broken down into seemingly every conceivable category. One of the most common errors of a leadership team that has worked well together for many years is to begin to trust too much in the wisdom of the team. Having a great team is only half of what is needed for making great decisions. The other half of the equation is the right data. The following kinds of stats are examples for a church or ministry:

• Weekly attendance for the last two years or longer, if the records are accurate
• Number of adults
• Number of children
• Average age of adult attendee
• Number of faith professions last year
• Number of baptisms last year
• Number of donors
• Average household giving
• Budget percentages (e.g., salaries, facilities, missions)
• Debt (e.g., facilities)
• Number of full- and part-time staff members (ideally one staff for every one hundred people)
• Ages of full- and part-time staff members
• Total number of members (ideally much less than total attendance)
• Number of new members last year
• Membership process
• Communications process and software (internal and external)
• Size of eldership (more than seven elders requires multiple elder teams)
• Number of paid and unpaid elders
• Age and tenure of each elder
• Compensation scale review
• Salary and benefits review
• Job descriptions and personal playbooks
• Performance reviews
• Personality profiles and entrepreneurial aptitude of senior leaders
• Number of men on staff who have young children and wives who work outside the home
• Number of services
• Attendance per service at each campus (ideally any service over 80 percent capacity triggers a new service)
• Number of small groups
• Total number of people in small groups
• Format of small groups (e.g., are they sermon based or another format?)
• Midweek classes and their attendance
• How many weeks a year does the preaching pastor preach?
• Who preaches when he is out?
• How many weeks a year should he be preaching?

To be continued.

Pastor Dad

Every dad is a pastor who must learn to care for his flock well. Pastor Mark Driscoll's free e-book teaches spiritual insights on fatherhood. Get it here.

Growing up I played soccer, basketball, and football, but what I really loved was baseball. I lettered all four years of high school (mainly pitching and catching) but hung up my cleats once God saved me and called me into marriage and ministry in college. Now that I’m the father of three boys playing on five teams, I spend a lot of fun hours throwing the ball around and cheering from the stands.

We also spend time collecting baseball cards and watching the moves Major League General Managers and coaches make. I’ve learned nine leadership lessons from baseball that are important for any organization, especially a church.

Lesson 1: Get a Great General Manager

The GM is the organizational mastermind and architect who sets the vision and values, runs the finances, and hires coaches (in a church these are elders) who are senior leaders developing the talent (what Ephesians 4 calls equipping people to do specific ministry tasks).

To be continued.

Worship Podcast

The free Mars Hill Worship Podcast features content from Mars Hill worship leaders and songwriters. Download the podcast or subscribe to the feed.

For as long as I can remember, smart was equated with intellect and brain power. Smart had to do with grades in school, SAT scores, and one's GPA. This was the case until author Daniel Goleman kicked the old paradigm in the head in 1997 by writing Emotional Intelligence, which redefined how we understand intelligence. Goleman makes a case for relational intelligence that knows how to get along with others; being smart at building collaborative relationships. The good news is that emotional intelligence (EI) is not fixed, as IQ is generally thought to be. EI can be nurtured and strengthened in everyone.

Real Wisdom = Healthy Relationships

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere" (James 3:17).

It seems to me that James is equating real wisdom with healthy relationships. Is he leaning toward EI rather than IQ in describing wisdom that comes from the Lord Jesus? I find it helpful that Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of James 3:17 in The Message starts the verse off with, "Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others..."

This is the era of the team, not the solo leader. Leadership today is more about enabling and empowering than bossing direct reports around out of personal intellectual brilliance. Leaders who are good at developing and maintaining healthy relationships and tapping the power of those relationships will be the most valuable leaders to an organization or church. Long gone are the days in leadership where the know-it-all does it all as he sits at the top and dictates while both under-valuing and under-appreciating what others bring to the table.

So, how smart are you?

Churches Helping Churches

Who will help local churches in the wake of catastrophes? You can. Learn more here.