Pastor Ryan's Call to Ministry
The tender times of childhood often contain profound experiences of one’s life-long calling. At the age of 12, the Lord clearly spoke to me that I was called to ministry. The excitement and anticipation of God “calling me to ministry” in the summer of 1986 filled my heart with eagerness and joyful willingness. However, it would take another 8-12 years before this general call became a specific one. In the mean time, God was still very much at work in my heart...
Have you ever had the experience of others seeing something in your life that was obvious to them before it was evident to you? During my teens God began to reveal to wise Christians in my life that I was called to the pastorate. Yet, He had not yet revealed this to my heart. During both junior and senior high school my late mother began to gently comment and hint that I was called to be a pastor as she observed my life. Simultaneously, other godly saints (from our church and my Christian high school) echoed my mom’s same sentiments.
In my twenties, three experiences brought clarity to this call. The first took place while listening to a sermon of my pastor at the time. One Sunday he put this question to each congregate: “If you could articulate your calling in one word, what would it be?” From the core of my being, the Spirit of God answered immediately, clearly, and strongly, “PREACH!” This experience awakened two subsequent things in my life – both an undeniable burning to preach God’s Word and numerous affirmations by godly saints that the Lord’s hand was upon me to do so.
Second, although my calling was clear, my “job description” was not. Was God calling me to be a pastor? evangelist? seminary professor? With this question ruminating in my mind, I headed off to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to pursue my heavenly summons and personal passion to preach. While earning my undergrad there, God made this clear to me through two people. The first was through my friend, John, who saw it as clearly as all those individuals had in my teen years. He told me repeatedly that first year at MBI, “You’re a pastor, Ryan.” This caused me to become more open to the idea, but I was still unconvinced. The defining event came in the spring of 2000. I was being mentored with a handful of other students by a young and dynamic professor, Andrew Schmutzer. Late one afternoon, he explained from Ephesians 4.11-16 that a pastor’s primary job in the local church is to preach and teach the Scriptures. That moment became a mile-marker in my life. It was an epiphany of sorts, answering a question that I had prayerfully pondered for many years. “I am called to be a pastor,” I realized. The Spirit of God had birthed, burned, and cultivated in my heart the very thing His inspired Word explains, and that is this: a call to preach is a call to the pastorate! Since then, there’s been no turning back.
However, there was one more final and necessary step of practicality. My wife (whom I met at Moody) and I decided to take our first year of marriage and build a good foundation with one another. A key component of that first year was serving and exercising our gifts in our local church – a loving, theologically solid, and godly community. During the last six months of our time there, I did an internship – which involved teaching a home Bible study (through I John), attending elder meetings, spending scheduled time with the pastoral staff, writing a paper on communion, mentoring a young man, and preaching before the congregation. Upon completion of this internship, my inward call to the pastorate was objectively affirmed and confirmed by the congregation and the elders. After this, we headed off to Louisville, KY and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for additional training for this calling.
I think it’s important for you to know this journey. The call of God to pursue the pastorate must have two aspects: a burning, subjective desire and an objective verification of that desire by the local church. Both are crucial requirements in order to discern the legitimacy of a man who aspires to preach from the Word of God and then apply it to the lives of his sheep.
Copyright ©2012 New Covenant Community Church
