Dear BPCWA worshipper, Reading about Spurgeon’s College while researching for last week’s pastoral, I was reminded of a book I read during my theological training: “Letters to My Students”, a compilation of Spurgeon’s Friday lessons to the students at the Pastors’ College. It was a book I remember with much fondness. However, it is not because it bears Spurgeon’s name. I certainly do not agree with all of Spurgeon’s doctrine (he was known as a “Reformed Baptist”, a misnomer at best) and exposition (which were at times allegorical). This book was useful because it has good insights from his pastoral experience. We pray weekly for God to call someone to serve in the full-time teaching ministry in BPCWA. As a church, we must be able to recognise what a true call from God is, so we don’t simply take in anyone who says they are called. While certainly not foolproof, Spurgeon highlights some useful practical ways whereby a genuine call may be assessed externally. This is important to understand, if any among us feel that they are called, or would want to “give their lives to God” by volunteering to be in the full-time ministry, or when we are tempted to accept anyone because there is no pastor.

The calling must be from God. Spurgeon well reminds his students that a full-time call “to the work and office of the bishopric, in which is included both teaching and bearing rule in the church, which requires the dedication of a man’s entire life to spiritual work”. The person called does not concurrently hold a job outside, with a “separation from every secular calling and entitles the man to cast himself for temporal supplies upon the church of God” in order to fulfil the full-time call. Crucially, this is a specific call from God, not because of persuasion from others, being inspired by a person, the needs of the church, good intentions to help, or because one enjoys God’s Word and serving in the church, so why not do it full-time? Also, entering the full-time ministry must be because of a clear call from God. The ministry is not a work that one volunteers for.  Spurgeon rightly affirms, “he must wait for the call from above; and if he does not so, but rushes into the sacred office, the Lord will say of him and others like him ‘I sent them not, neither commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all’”. Spurgeon reminds readers of the commission of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, who were called before they entered God’s service. “The gift and calling” to preach is “of only a comparatively small number.” He reiterates, “a steward must hold his office from the Master. He cannot be a steward merely because he chooses to be so, or is so regarded by others.” While this book was written specifically to those called to pastoral ministry, I would add also that God’s call is specific – to the vocation (e.g., evangelist, theologian, pastor, or administrator) and place (i.e., which country and church). Spurgeon warns against “those who have missed their way” and “aim at objects they were never intended to pursue”, resulting in “fruitless ministries and decaying churches”. Not mincing his words, he adds, “As well be a professor [of salvation] without conversion, as a pastor without calling. In both cases there is a name and nothing more.” Certainly, hard words to accept in this day and age, to hear that genuine calls are rare among those who seek to be in the ministry, and many are apt to jump to take in anyone who is willing to say they’re called and do the work!

Signs of God’s call. God does not call without giving the person what is needed for His work. This goes against the operation of our God (Eph 4:11-12). Since God’s internal call is to the individual, there must be accompanying evidence. 1) It is “an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work”. He quotes a divine, “Do not enter the ministry if you can help it”. Spurgeon’s advice to his students was, “If you can do anything else, do it. If you can stay out of the ministry, stay out of the ministry.” A genuine call to the full-time and pastoral ministry is so irresistible and compelling that the person cannot find fulfilment or work in any other profession or calling. And, this desire is not impulsive, but consistent, despite temptations and trials, and whatever the cost it involves. Spurgeon succinctly cautions, “The fascination of the preacher’s office is very great to weak minds, and hence I earnestly caution all young men not to mistake whim for inspiration, and a childish preference for a call of the Holy Spirit.” This is a great danger, for certainly men of weak minds will do great harm both to themselves and the ministry they serve in. “If a man can detect, after the most earnest self-examination, any other motive than the glory of God and the good of souls . . . he had better turn aside from it at once.” This self-examination must be brutally honest. Without this honesty, you can destroy the lives of others, not just that of your own.  2) He must have “aptness to teach and some measure of the other qualities needful for the office”. We do not take a man’s word for it, but such a call must be tried and proven “to edify others with such discourses”. 3) “There must be other talents to complete the pastoral character.” This would include soundness in judgment, gentle manners, firmness, and courage. Spurgeon adds, “Gifts administrative in ruling well will be as requisite as gifts instructive in teaching well. . . Read 1Ti 3:2-7 and Tit 1:6-9. If such gifts and graces be not in you and abound, it may be possible for you to succeed as an evangelist, but as a pastor you will be of no account.”  4) There must be “a measure of conversion-work going on under his efforts”, and even before your call. Spurgeon further voices, “if the Lord gives you no zeal for souls, keep to the lapstone or the trowel, but avoid the pulpit”. 5) God’s call to preach is “made known through the prayerful judgment of his church”. The “preaching should be acceptable to the people of God.” He adds a note of caution of how those who are puffed up of their own abilities ought to be rejected. If the church, in following God’s guidance laid down in the Word, “do not elect us to office, it is plain enough that however well we may evangelise, the office of the pastor is not for us”. “Be fit for your work, and you will never be out of it. Do not run about inviting yourselves to preach here and there. . . The sheep will know the God-sent shepherd.”

Some who say they are called may be turned away. Spurgeon also shares the traits of those he has turned away from the college. 1) An ambitious desire to shine among men. These are men who look upon the “ministry as a platform to display their supposed abilities”. 2)Great feebleness of mind.“Unstable as water they will not excel.” 3) Those who cannot endure hardness. “We want soldiers, not fops, earnest labourers, not genteel loiterers.” One who does not have this “fire in the bones . . . must leave the ministry at once . . . and serve God in your proper spheres.” Those who cannot take hardness in the world must never think that they should instead serve full-time, thinking that it’ll be easier. This is the lie of Satan to cause Christendom more harm. 4) Zealots with a conspicuous absence of brains, whose “capacity is most narrow and their conceit most broad”, where “the noise all arises from the hollowness of the drum”. 5) Those who cannot teach, will not learn, but must be ministers. Such will “make a rent in the church . . . to accomplish their design”. Nothing destroys the work of God more quickly and devastatingly than pride. 6) Physical infirmities. The “general rule” would be “brethren with defective mouths and imperfect articulation are not usually called to preach the gospel”. 7) Failures in their endeavours. Spurgeon recounts many “who have pleaded that they were sure, quite sure that they were called to the ministry . . . because they had failed in everything else”. Whether or not they realise it, such men have a low view of God’s work. To such, he says, “I fear you have forgotten that the ministry needs the very best of men, and not those who cannot do anything else.” 8) Men with no conviction. Spurgeon recounts how he turns away applications from capable men who, when asked about their doctrine, are “prepared to receive the doctrines of the College whatever they may be”. Spurgeon’s conviction is “that men are not called to the ministry who have no knowledge and no definite belief.” Such men are hirelings, because they just want a job and will bend to any beliefs or the will of man to stay in the job. “A man who has not made up his mind on such points . . . is confessedly and egregiously ‘a novice,’ and ought to be relegated to the catechism-class till he has learned the first truths of the gospel.” Since God’s calling must be proven by practical proof of the ministry, there must be due examination so that one does not leave it in disgrace.

What stands out above all is that, despite Spurgeon’s earnest desire for God’s Word to reach many, he maintains a high view of God’s ministry. Because of this and despite his obvious desire to train many in his Pastors’ College, Spurgeon does not grovel and welcome all and sundry who say and wish to be called. This is an important lesson to practise. No matter how dire the need may be, this is what the church must learn and embrace. No man is perfect, but the pastor is an ambassador for God, so he must stand worthy of being such, or he will reflect badly upon the God he stands for. Spurgeon well says, “A man who would succeed as a preacher would probably do right well either as a grocer, or a lawyer, or anything else. A really valuable minister would have excelled at anything . . . Jesus Christ deserves the best men to preach his cross, and not the empty-headed and the shiftless.” A call to preach is of serious importance and cannot be taken lightly. It is a spiritual work. “The highest moral character must be sedulously maintained. Many are disqualified for office in the church who are well enough as simple members.” Spurgeon’s belief “is that we should be very slow to help back to the pulpit men, who having been once tried, have proved themselves to have too little grace to stand the crucial test of ministerial life.” Churches will do well to take heed to this. Sadly, we see men, because they have been ordained without carefulness (1Ti 5:22), failing miserably in one church but snapped up by another desperate church. This is a calling which Satan will seek to use for his own nefarious purposes. This is because Satan can use it to present to churches a danger that is so much greater than that of others. Only those who are called and humbly maintain an absolute reliance on and obedience to God and His Word will start and end well, and only by God’s grace and for His glory’s sake. May BPCWA always pray for and only receive proven men who are worthy of the ministry to stand in God’s pulpit. And, as we do our part, may our Lord always raise and call men who will be faithful pastors, exalt Christ and not please men, to the very end.

“Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.” (Heb 13:18)

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor