Jason K. Allen - Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know For Sure and What to Do About It

Discerning Your Call to Ministry offers us a path forward to cut through the popular subjectivity and confusion often surrounding the term calling in order to provide thoughtful and scripturally informed guidance for those exploring steps toward ministry and ministry preparation. Readers will find each chapter to be a source of wise help and helpful wisdom, enabling them to think carefully, reflectively, and deeply about truly important questions regarding church, ministry, and service. I trust that Jason Allens fine book will receive the wide readership it deserves.

DAVID S. DOCKERY

President, Trinity International University

Everyone headed toward vocational ministry should take the time to read Discerning Your Call to Ministry. Each believer has a calling from God to be on mission for Him, no matter where He has placed us, but the call to ministry brings with it important questions, self-study, and considerations. My friend Jason Allen has put together a helpful roadmap that will bring greater clarity and focus to your ministry calling. It is an investment you will be grateful you made.

KEVIN EZELL

President, North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention

Navigating through your call to ministry is a spiritual journey. One of theological educations brightest stars, Jason Allen, provides profound but also practical insights to helping you through your journey of discerning Gods call in your life. Answering the questions raised in this book will lead you to a life and ministry of faithfulness to God and the calling He has placed upon your life.

RONNIE FLOYD

Senior Pastor, Cross Church

Immediate Past President, Southern Baptist Convention

I believe in a God-called ministry. Not a ministry that is achieved, but one received from the Lord (Colossians 4:17). For this reason, I am so glad my good friend Jason Allen has written Discerning Your Call to Ministry. This book is encouraging and engaging and invites us to know and do the will of God. Every person who desires to respond to Gods call for ministry should read this book.

JACK GRAHAM

Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church

For years Ive wrestled with these very questions posed by Jason Allen. I trust youll find his guidance as helpful as I did. If youre a prospective pastor, pick up this book and talk it over with a mentor. If youre a current pastor, keep some copies handy and pray God raises up future ministers in your midst.

COLLIN HANSEN

Editorial Director, The Gospel Coalition

Author of A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir

A mans calling into gospel ministry is of paramount importance and should be taken with the greatest seriousness. Discerning Your Call to Ministry asks the hard and necessary questions as you seek Gods direction and call upon your life. This book is for those who are dealing with the question of Gods call and for those who have been convinced of that call for many years. This is the book you have been looking for as you seek to fulfill your calling for Gods glory.

STEVEN J. LAWSON

President, OnePassion Ministries, Dallas, TX

Gods call to full-time ministry is a concept few people understand or explain well. Its not a mystical form of special revelation or an audible voice from heaven. And God doesnt call men to pastoral ministry without gifting them for the task and sovereignly drawing their hearts to the work. (Which suggests there are a lot of people doing pastoral ministry today who were never called to the task.) Jason Allen skillfully outlines and explains the vital biblical principles for discerning whether a person is truly called to ministry. This helpful handbook answers scores of questions I hear from young men and potential seminary students all the time. Im grateful for the help this volume will be and the influence I know it will have.

JOHN MACARTHUR

Pastor-Teacher, Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, CA

One of the hardest questions I faced as a teenager was this one: how do I know if the call I feel to ministry is genuine? I wish I had had this book. Jason Allen is an experienced, thoughtful guide on what it means to serve Christs church as pastors and teachers. This book will not only help young would-be ministers to discern their calling, but will also equip pastors and church leaders to disciple the next generation. The church has needed this book for a long time.

RUSSELL MOORE

President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention

This is a courageous and bold book dealing with one of todays most neglected subjects in the church. I am grateful to our Lord that Jason Allen has taken up the task to write this much-needed book. This is precisely what we need in the church today. To my knowledge there is no other guide that is as clear and straightforward on discerning ones call to gospel ministry as this one. It is thoroughly and gloriously biblical from beginning to end, and I heartily commend it.

BURK PARSONS

Copastor, Saint Andrews Chapel, Sanford, FL

Editor, Tabletalk Magazine

Not every day does one hear the wisdom of the ages from one of the youngest seminary presidents in America. Discerning Your Call to Ministry is a crisp, phenomenally perceptive introduction to the ministry that ought to be read by every young man considering the ministry. Steeped in insights from the Scriptures and from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Allen adroitly weaves his way through every salient query that needs to be the focus of a prospective preacher. I am especially thankful for Allens emphasis on the essential call of God to the ministry and for the importance of the pastors home. Headed for the ministry? Drop by this book on your way.

PAIGE PATTERSON

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX

How do I know if Im called to ministry? How do I know if Im ready to serve in ministry? These are two of the common questions I am asked again and again. Now I have the perfect response: read Jason Allens Discerning Your Call to Ministry. This book is thoroughly biblical. It is immensely practical. And it is incredibly helpful. It is now my number one recommendation to those who sense Gods call to ministry in their own lives.

THOM S. RAINER

President and CEO of LifeWay

Author of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Gospel ministry is no light thing, and Jason Allen asks the right questionsprobing, challenging, revelatoryin an eminently pastoral way to help those seeking the Lords will on the matter. Discerning Your Call to Ministry is a reliable guide to the gravity and gladness of the vocation of Christian ministry from a wise and experienced leader.

JARED C. WILSON

Managing Editor of For The Church (ftc.co) and author of The Pastors Justification

2016 BY
JASON K. ALLEN

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.