How Does One Become a Preacher

The Call to Preach
The divine call to preach is a special message that one receives, and it is different from other divine calls. Some people receive a call—i.e., have a vocation to be a servant of God in a manner that does not involve preaching or caring for souls in that manner. Some are called to be brothers or sisters, contemplatives, or laborers in the vineyard (Matt 20:1-16). There are many types of vocations, and preaching is a special type of vocation that must be tested and tried and affirmed through the assistance of one’s spiritual advisors. This paper will analyze what it means to be called to preach and show how the characteristics of this divine call can be discerned.
A divine call in most cases is more than just a message that one receives and immediately responds to. It is more like a process, or an evolution, that one goes through in order to come out as the person God wants you to be. This can be seen in the examples given in the New Testament. Christ called His disciples to follow him (Matt 4:19) but that did not mean that they were necessarily prepared for the task that lay ahead. They had some talents—for example, Peter was a fisherman and Christ used that skill to His own purposes, saying, “I will make you fishers of men” (Matt 4:19). Others were despised, such as Matthew, who was a tax collector—yet Christ called him as well. This sort of unexpected and unlooked for message may not have an earthly explanation, or maybe it has something to do with the internal character of the human and the store of goods in the soul. This hypothesis aside, none of the disciples who were called to follow God demonstrated any outward signs of being individuals who would lead a church, let alone the early Church founded by Christ. In fact, the ones who expected to be approached by God were those who would ultimately be responsible for His crucifixion: the High Priests of the Temple.
What Christ did with His disciples upon calling them was what all those who here the call from God must undergo: a time of training, a time of testing, a time of action, a time of prayer, a time of fasting, a time of growing and developing, and a time of anointing. They must be directed, guided; they must be prayerful so that they can grow in the Spirit. It should be remembered that of the original 12 Apostles, one of them would not go on to preach—and his name was Judas; which shows that though one may be called it does not mean that one will necessarily become a preacher.
Indeed, the call to preach is a special call that cannot be discerned simply. It must be discerned throughout the process of responding to the vocation. The discernment additionally cannot be performed alone. One must be guided in the process by a spiritual leader, who can examine the development of the recipient of the call to assess whether the attributes are there for preaching, whether the natural evidence exists for the individual to be a preacher. The spiritual leader will look for signs, such as the disposition of the soul of the individual, the individual’s character, whether there is patience, interest, desire, ability, knowledge, social and emotional intelligence, and so on. The preacher is a kind of leader who must not only possess a skill with words but be inclined to take the commanding position at the front of a congregation. Moses, for example, was called to deliver God’s message to Pharaoh and to the Israelites—yet he was not called to be a preacher because he lacked the physical skill needed to speak well publicly. He was a very poor public speaker and that is why God appointed Aaron to be the mouthpiece for Moses: Aaron, not Moses, was thus called to be the preacher (Ex 6:28-7:7).
The example of Moses and Aaron shows the extent to which physical skill and ability plays a part in being called to be a preacher. Even if one has the ability to speak, one still has to find one’s voice (Hooks, 1986). That voice has to be both human and divine. It has to be guided by the Holy Ghost, yet capable of reaching the ears of men. The preacher acts, in this sense, as the mediator between God and men hearing the words that God wants said in his heart and mind, and then saying them in the ways that will allow them to be heard by the people listening. When the Apostles were visited by the Holy Ghost, they were given the gift of tongues, which allowed them to speak to various people whose own languages were not the native languages of the Apostles. In other words, the Apostles had to be able to translate their speech into that which could be understood by those in the world they encountered.
Then, again, it must also be understood that the Holy Ghost did not descend upon the Apostles until after they had spent a long time with Christ, listening, watching, observing, learning and praying. Even after the Crucifixion—the biggest test of their faith (and a test which Peter himself failed 3 times, just as Christ predicted)—the Apostles were still not confirmed in their faith. They were scared, weak, some in hiding, others planning to vacate the premises and go back to their own lives (Luke 24:13-35). Yet, the risen Christ prevented the Apostles from breaking up and going their separate ways. He caught the two on their way to Emmaus and directed them back towards the community of disciples. This shows that when one is called to preach, one is not called to do so alone but rather as part of a community. God wants preachers who are united, who are spiritual brothers to one another, and who can provide the support and assistance that is needed in the life of a preacher. Even in the early Church, the Apostles were often accompanied by friends, disciples, and had a support network of churches praying for them, writing to them, calling to them, and so on. The Church is a community and a preacher is part of that Church, and as so must be able to respond to the needs of those around him and rely on them for help too.
Earley (2010) says as much when he describes the essence of evangelism as a recognition of being part of part of something bigger than oneself. The call to preach is not an isolated incident that happens in a vacuum, but it is rather like a call to join a fraternity of brothers, a group of like-minded individuals among whom there is no place for sinful pride or pretension. God’s church was made to be humble and preachers are expected to demonstrate the kind of virtue and love that God Himself wants from others not just in their words but also in their actions. Thus, it is no good for a preacher to be able to move mountains in a sermon but fail to be virtuous and humble when he is away from the pulpit. Actions speak louder than words, and one’s spiritual leaders within the community will be able to help one who has been called to develop his faculties so that his actions align with his words. God does not call someone in order that he might go on to scandalize others through his actions. God wants actions to correlate with words. He called the disciples but did not confirm them for years. He traveled with them, developed them, taught them, asked them questions, waited for their ignorance to diminish and their awareness to grow. He tried them and tested them and, most importantly, He showed them through His own actions what a preacher must be willing and able to do in order to be a true man of God: He fasted in the desert, resisted temptations from the Devil, and allowed Himself to be humiliated by those who hated Him. He helped heal the sick and refrained from judging sinners. He taught so as to elevate and never did it for His own sake but always so that the will of His father might be obeyed and always so that the glory would be God’s in the end.
An individual who does not recognize this fact is very likely an individual who will never become a preacher. The call to preach comes with an unspoken call to study the Bible, to develop one’s love for souls and for sinners. It comes with a call to strengthen one’s character and to sharpen one’s skills—because these are all things that Christ taught His disciples to do. He did not call Peter and right away send him out to be His spokesman, His preacher. Such would have been the height of foolishness and God’s church never would have had the “rock” that it had and which Peter ultimately became (and only after passing the first test of faith—that moment when Peter recognized God’s divinity and asserted it as such). Faith is, indeed, most important in the process of being called to preach—and as Peter shows in his own story it must be maintained, and if it is ever momentarily lost, it must be pursued with great repentance as Peter himself does.
In conclusion, the call to preach is not just a call that one answers simply and the next day sets about preaching without having conducted any type of training, character strengthening, Bible studying or meditation and spiritual growth. If one hears the call to become a mouthpiece for God, as Aaron was for Moses, one must be able to purify one’s own self. One must be able to humble one’s self and submit oneself to one’s spiritual leaders that they might assess the physical and spiritual attributes one possesses as signs that can identify one as having the gift from God to be a true preacher. In short, the call to preach is a process and a vocation that is realized over many years of study, practice and growth.
References
Earley, D. (2010). Evangelism Is: How to Share Jesus with Passion and Confidence. Nashville: B & H Academic Publishing Group.
Hooks, B. (1986). Talking back. Discourse, 8, 123-128