How Do You Know If It’s Your Calling?

How do you know if you’ve been called to do something? Here are five ways to help you know if God’s calling you to pursue something.

Aaron Buer

Digital giving apps and tools

Recently, a former student in our high school ministry reached out to me to ask whether he should pursue a career in student ministry.

What a huge decision!

How do you respond in a helpful way to a question like that?  

Maybe you’re the one asking the question, “Is God calling me into that?” or “Away from this?”  

How do you discern whether or not God is calling you?

How do you help others–co-workers, people you lead, your kids–discern these questions?

These are big and important questions that affect the trajectory of lives.  

I recently read A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald, and he provides a simple synopsis of how a calling could be confirmed.

a-resilient-life-1


What follows is MacDonald’s categories and ideas, combined with my own spin, and a few personal stories.

I hope it’s helpful.

Heaven Speaks

Biblically speaking, a calling always begins with God.

Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul’s callings all began with God communicating a specific purpose for their life.  

Now, you probably haven’t experienced any burning bushes or blinding lights, but perhaps you have a sense, a God-given passion, or you’re experiencing a nudge.

nudge


Or, maybe it’s something more like what Eric Liddle describes in Chariots of Fire. “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”

You know that God is pleased when you do that thing.    

Overt or subtle, a calling always involves God speaking direction or purpose into your life.

Confirmation

MacDonald argues that a calling is almost always confirmed by others in the church.

As I look back on my life, I can see a pattern of confirmation concerning my calling to preach.  

preach
  • When I was in high school, though I knew next to nothing about teaching the Scriptures, when I invited my fellow students to attend a weekly Bible study led by me, they showed up, sometimes in large numbers.  
  • During my senior year, my youth pastor and dad urged me to choose a college specializing in ministry training. They saw a ministry future in me.
  • After preaching my first sermon in a weekend service as a youth pastor, a leading member of the congregation said, “You’re going to be a good preacher someday,” which was simultaneously encouraging and humbling. Someday?!? So, today wasn’t that good then?
  • Although I never requested the role, leadership in my current church invited me to preach in our weekend services.

These are examples of confirmation.

I’m not sharing these examples to brag. I’m sharing them to illustrate that a calling comes with confirmation.

If you are wrestling with whether you are being called into something, these are some great questions to ask:

  1. Has this desire been with me for as long as I can remember, or is it new?  
  2. Am I seeking this role, or am I being invited into it?  
  3. Are you receiving positive feedback from unsolicited sources?

Gifting

As a young Jesus follower, I struggled to understand the difference between a guilt trip and a calling.

Every time our church had an emphasis week on missions, I struggled with the thought, “If I don’t become a missionary to the jungles of Papua New Guinea, then I’m not a real Christian!”

And, every time my college hosted our annual missions conference, I would almost change my major.  

I’m not saying that missions isn’t important. And, I’m not saying that no one is called into missions.

Some of us might even be running from a call to missions right now and need to obey our calling!

What I am saying is I’m personally not called to missions. I’m not gifted in it.  

Here’s the deal: a calling is almost always paired with gifting.

gifting

There are outlier examples, but usually, gifting is a clear indicator of a calling.

In other words, God probably won’t call you to be a worship pastor if you don’t have musical abilities.  

You might be saying, “Well duh,” but there was a time in my life where that wasn’t so obvious.

In my mid-20s, I almost moved halfway across the country to become a worship pastor.

Here’s the thing: at that time, I loved leading worship and I loved music, but I’m a hack musician.

I can play the guitar and my singing voice is decent, but I need a Capo and can’t even sing harmony.

I know, I know. I’ve heard all the, “Well, just try this and you’ll be able to sing harmony.” Look, not this guy. I just can’t hear it.  

My point is, I’m not gifted to lead worship.

I have some basic skills and enjoy it. It’s not my life’s calling.

I was privileged to lead worship in our student ministries for over a decade, but I don’t do it anymore.

Why? Because it’s not my calling.

The time came a few years ago for me to shift my focus toward preaching and leave worship leading to those who the Spirit truly gifts to do that work.  

If you’re wondering if you’re called to something, ask yourself questions like this: 

  • Am I gifted in this area?
  • Does this come very naturally to me?  
  • Do I find this easier to do than most people?

Concerning preaching, people often say to me, “You make it look easy” or “How do you memorize a 40-minute sermon?”

The answers have nothing to do with my awesomeness.

The answers have everything to do with the gifting of the Spirit.

Results

MacDonald’s last category is results.

Another word that could be used here is fruit.

Of course, some might argue this point. “Hey, Jeremiah was called and the people didn’t exactly repent.”

I get it.

What I’m saying is that usually, a calling that is empowered by the Spirit of God leads to fruit.

fruit

Your calling should positively impact your church, workplace, or family.

If your calling is to lead, the organization should get stronger and better.

If your calling is to reach the lost, people should be coming to faith.

If your calling is to preach, you should be hearing stories of God’s movement in the hearts of your congregation.  

Before I wrap up, let me add one more way to clarify whether or not you are being called into something.

I’ll call this the Jonah Effect.

The Jonah Effect

In my experience, when God calls you to a specific purpose, it is not an optional assignment.

It is a matter of obedience.

Jonah disobeyed his calling to bring God’s message to the people of Nineveh when he sailed in the opposite direction.

sail

I believe I am called to preach.

I’ll be honest; I find preaching to be incredibly difficult and draining.

I pour hours and hours into study and preparation so I can deliver three heartfelt and clear messages during our weekend services.

By Sunday afternoon, I am exhausted on a level that is hard to describe.

If you’re a preacher, you might understand the psychological and emotional drain.  

I find it incredibly hard and draining work, but I know, deep in my bones, that I have to do this work.

To run from it would be to disobey God.

My point is this: You know you are called when you understand deep down you have to do this.  

If I don’t, I know someday in the future, I will stand before God and He will say something like, “I called you. I confirmed it. I gifted you for it. You saw the impact of it, and yet you ran from it.”

I believe I would be held accountable.

Wrap Up

I hope this is helpful for you.

I pray that it helps you discern whether God is calling you or someone close to you toward a specific role or task.

Discover how our Groups tool can help you organize and manage one-on-one meetings effectively.

Explore Groups Tool

Looking for an easy-to-use software to help manage your church?

We'd love to show you what we built!

Join 10,000+ happy churches using Breeze ChMS™.

Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
David P.
loves Breeze
St. Pauls United Methodist Church

Breeze has been incredible. Their customer service, commitment to innovation, and their product are top-notch. I love the features, the ease of use and the mobile applications.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Karen M.
loves Breeze
Hillcrest Church

All of our database needs have been more than met, it's easier to use than the last database we had, and the price is amazing - what a value this has been to our church! All of our staff can use this software and they do regularly. We use it to track…literally anything a church could possibly need to track regarding it's attenders.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Chris K.
loves Breeze
Crossroads United Methodist Church

Breeze has been a great asset to our church and congregation. Especially from an administrative standpoint, it has been the most adaptable and easiest church database I have ever used. The features from blast emails to giving on-line, and texting have been one of our greatest assets. Thank you!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ed R.
loves Breeze
Church Admin

We switched from a major, web-based ChMS to Breeze and our decision is confirmed every day. We are a medium size church and we use Breeze for contributions, member management, event checkin and a few other applications custom to our church. I had trouble getting any staff to use our previous ChMS but almost all staff are using Breeze. The product is very well designed, extremely easy to learn and use and customer service is incredible.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ellen G.
loves Breeze
Grace Church

Breeze has opened the communication highway for our congregation and staff, with very little training. Because members can update their own records and search easily for other members - and map their locations, send emails and text right from Breeze, they love it and our data is more real-time accurate. Our ministries are stronger, because they can trust the data in Breeze, which is easily accessed anywhere, anytime.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Steve H.
loves Breeze
First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey

Breeze is the first ChMS my volunteers have actually embraced. That's because it's so easy to use. The software is very flexible and gives us the opportunity to make decisions based on actual data we've collected and not just hunches or stories we believe to be true.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Allicia B.
loves Breeze
Ellel Ministries Canada

I cannot say enough about Breeze. Their customer service is so friendly, you feel like you have friends and family helping you get started, they're prompt to reply and will do whatever they can to help you get things sorted out. It's been so easy to learn, our staff is loving it and best of all even our staff who are not computer savvy find it a breeze (pun intended). We are just thrilled by our choice.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Kevin D.
loves Breeze
Central Baptist Church

From the start of our process looking for an online solution, Breeze has exceeded all our expectations. Fast data import, fast and friendly customer support, and we can’t say enough about how much we like the program itself. Very well designed and user friendly. On a scale of 1-10, Breeze gets a 15 from us!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!

Rated 4.9 stars – 700+ reviews