***Free 128 page PDF ebook, “The Call to Ministry” Journal, by Al Mohler, Don Whitney, and Dan Dumas, detailed below***

Through my time as a student pastor I have seen many students pursue a call to ministry.  This is a rewarding aspect of working with teenagers.  As they are growing in their faith and learning to make decisions on their own you get the privilege of seeing God a work and the teenager wrestle with it.  Several students, both young men and women, have expressed a leaning toward missions or children/youth ministry and even the occasional pastoral calling that surfaces early.

When a student comes to me for advise when discerning a call to ministry it is never an easy conversation.  It is hard to say with certitude what God may or may not be doing in another person’s heart.  Therefore I always try to push that student to good resources and to continue exploring what God is saying.

I recently ran across a great resource that I will be using for this very purpose.

Dr. Hershal York, a preaching professor from my alma mater, Southern Seminary, posted a great blog about how graduating from Seminary doesn’t qualify you for ministry (despite that being a primary indicator for hiring churches). Check out his article here, “Why seminary can never qualify anyone for ministry“.

At the end of this article is a free PDF workbook written by Molher, Whitney, and Dumas titled, The Call to Ministry.  It is self-described as:

This is a different sort of book. Or workbook. Or journal. Whatever it is, this resource from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is meant to help you discern whether or not God has called you to ministry. And it’s meant for you to use and devour. You’ll notice pages with blank space; those pages are for you to respond to questions, react to the quotations and reflect on the Scripture references you’ll find throughout. So, open your Bible, get out your pen and discover whether God has called you to this most noble and weighty task.

I downloaded it and will continue to pass this out to those considering full time vocational ministry.

I would upload the PDF here and make it available to all of humanity, but I feel I would be subverting Southern’s goodwill gesture to prospective students and the seminary’s offer to provide the highest quality conservative ministry training available.

So I will leave you with a link.  Check out www.sbts.edu/the-call-to-ministry-journal. If you are willing to give them your email address, they are willing to give you this 128 page invaluable resource, that quite possibly could be a determining factor in understanding God’s call on your life.