HOW DO I KNOW I'M CALLED?
John Newton
July 1, 1990
John Newton, the converted slave trader who penned the hymn "Amazing Grace," served for sixteen years as pastor of a small congregation in Olney, Great Britain. While there, a young man wrote for his counsel on discerning God's call to the pastorate. This was Newton's reply (published in 1787): Dear sir: I was long distressed, as you are, about what was or was not a proper call to the ministry. It now seems to me an easy point to solve, but perhaps will not be so to you till the Lord shall make it clear to you in your own case. In brief, I think [a true call] principally includes three things. 1. A warm and earnest desire to be employed in this service. I apprehend [that] the man who is once moved by the Spirit of God to this work will prefer it, if attainable, to hoards of gold and silver, so that, though at times intimidated by a sense of its importance and difficulty compared with his own great insufficiency, yet he cannot give it up. I hold it a good rule to inquire whether the desire to preach is most fervent in our most lively and spiritual moments and [also] when we are most laid in the dust before the Lord. If so, it is a good sign. But if, as is sometimes the case, a person is earnest to be a preacher to others when he finds but little hungerings and thirstings after grace in his own soul, it is then to be feared his zeal springs rather from a selfish principle than from the Spirit of God. 2. Besides this desire, there must in due season appear some competent sufficiency, gifts, knowledge, and utterance. Surely, if the Lord sends a man to teach others, he will furnish him with the means. Many have intended well in setting up to be preachers yet went beyond or before their call in so doing. The main difference between ...
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