How Do I Know I’m Called to Be a Pastor?

How Do I Know I’m Called to be a Pastor? Fuller professors share their answers.

You Are Already Being Called

If you’re already asking whether you’re called to be a pastor, there is something behind the question that means you are called to pastoral work. So whatever that is, in whatever context, and based on your relationship with God, answer that call. Hopefully, you also find a community that can come around you and support you in it. If the question is there, the answer is that you are already called to this work.

Jaclyn Williams, assistant professor of the practice of preaching and chaplaincy

Take the Next Faithful Step

You don’t need to know yet whether you are called to be a pastor. You don’t need to plan out the next thirty years of your life. All God asks you to do is to take the next faithful step. Ask the question, am I called to investigate whether I’m called to be a pastor? Is the next faithful step for me to work in a church? Is the next faithful step for me to pursue a seminary degree? As you do those things, you will learn the things you need to learn, and you will be able to figure out if you are called to be a pastor. So, ask, what is my next faithful step? Can I take that step? Then ask, can I take the next faithful step after that? Eventually, you will be able to look back and see how God has been calling you.

Scott Cormode, Hugh De Pree Professor of Leadership Development

Ask God Whom You are Called to Pastor

“If somebody says they think they are called to be a pastor, I ask them to go to God in prayer and to ask, ‘Who am I called to pastor?’ If we don’t understand whom we’re serving, whom we’re walking with, or whom we’re called to help, we might receive the wrong training or end up doing harm to the people we’re called to lead. So spend time in prayer. Don’t only ask God, “Are you calling me to pastor?” but ask, “Who are you calling me to pastor? Who are they and what do they look like? Where are they from? What are their careers, hopes, dreams, and fears?” Then ask God to help you become a pastor for those people.”

Dwight A. Radcliff Jr., academic dean for the Pannell Center for Black Church Studies

Discerning a call to pastoral ministry? Learn about Fuller’s degrees, including the Master of Divinity (MDiv), which offers definitive training for agile, effective church leaders in an ever-changing world.