Review: Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know for Sure and What to Do about It

Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know for Sure and What to Do about It by Jason K. Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Allen has given us a most outstanding, engaging, practical and useful book, especially if you feel called to full time paid ministry in Christ's service, and yet you feel a little bit unsure of taking the big leap. The book was pregnant with wise nuggets of truth and character piercing propositions/questions/thoughts that assisted in my evaluation and discerning of where I stood in reality.

And yet for a book that I feel is almost invaluable, it is truly a pity that I cannot give it the 6 stars (yep more than 5 stars!) it so truly deserves. But if perhaps you would find the read so much more enjoyable if your theological position (like Allen) is that of a partial Cessationist ("the office of apostle and prophet as reserved for the first century, ceasing to exist with the death of the apostles and the completion of the New Testament," p21), and an extreme Complementarian ("the office and function of the pastor/elder are biblically reserved for qualified men," p37).

For those who are curious, I too hold a partial Cessationist and a partial Complementarian view. However I found that I had to keep reminding myself to look above my horror (at Allen's lack of Eccumenicalism) and try to savour and digest the larger message he was attempting to convey. That was indeed quite a challenge and I so very much wished Allen did not alienate so many readers from the get go - in very first two chapters!

In my opinion, these are secondary theological issues, but after reading how Allen was inspired by Spurgeon's unwavering stance in the downgrade controversy (Chapter 9), I understood that he too was a man who stood by and would defend his convictions strongly - which necessitated that he did what he did - Allen would not have been at peace with himself if he did not pen down what he believed in. And for that, I respect his decision - an author who advocated complete inclusion of everyone and anyone would come up with a useless piece of literature with impotent advice. Nevertheless, I still affirm that the book would be of immense value even if you hold a Continuationist (that the office of the Apostle/Prophet, miracles and speaking of tongues have not ceased) or an Egalitarian (that women can take on any office, even the senior pastor role) position.

A title more theologically neutral - yet equally Scripturally faithful and perhaps even more inspirational- I would recommend would be Edmund Clowney's Called to the Ministry; these two titles would be great companions both distinct and overlapping fields of discussion. A quick search on amazon pulled up a handful of books on this same topic; I'll update this review again in future when I have evaluated a couple of the counterparts to find out the most useful.

I received this book from the Moody Publishers Newsroom program for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.

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