A growing number of mature men within our churches are wrestling with the kind of life-changing agendas that some might even describe as a mid-life crisis. I speak of servants of the Lord who are wrestling with the implications of what it means to leave a “career” in order to follow a “call” to full-time gospel ministry. For these men, Dr. Michael Milton has written a timely book, anchored in Scripture, which will be both instructional and motivational.

Milton begins by establishing the fact that the gospel ministry, as vocation, is well established in Scripture. It is a concept carrying implications that are critical to one’s call to gospel service. The Apostle Paul writes of how God “called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, and that I might preach Him among the heathen” (Galatians 1:15,16). To Christians living in Rome he writes of being “called to be an apostle” (Romans 1:1). God’s servant had a deep conviction of being divinely appointed to his vocational task. He had not taken the initiative in mapping the strategy for his life. He had been set apart by God to this office of apostle.

When we examine church history we find that when the Protestant Reformation spread throughout Europe, it did much to confirm gospel ministry as vocation. The Reformers did criticize both monasticism and the Roman Catholic concept of priesthood, but they never questioned the principle that every Christian community should have a general overseer—a pastor/teacher. Rather, they taught that the sovereign King of the Church continues to call into gospel ministry those whom He wills to call.

Milton reminds us that increasingly those whom God is calling to gospel ministry tend to be men in their mid-life years. Further, he asserts the Church ought to celebrate this fact. The Holy Spirit is taking numerous events, impressions, and impulses and unmistakably fashioning these experiences into His divine commission. Whether gradual or sudden, God is giving a clear indication that He is increasingly calling mid-life men into this gospel ministry.

After emphasizing both the nature and necessity of such a call, Milton defends the preeminence of preaching in one’s call to gospel ministry. Preaching, he rightly asserts, is “the very center of our ministry and therefore the study of preaching is central to our ministry.” And the purpose of preaching, he asserts, must go beyond mere instruction. Biblical preaching brings “transformation to the human condition by calling for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and offering redemption in Him.”

Finally, for this one who is leaving a career to follow a call, Milton describes a number of beneficial barometers that will be of great help in seeking to find a seminary where a strong foundation for such a sacred vocation can be laid.

First, he asserts that the seminary seedbed should be “faithful to the message God has called you to proclaim.” For this to be true, it is essential that the seminary be led by godly, highly student-driven instructors. On the road to ministry, no criterion is more important in choosing a seminary. “Your concept of God, of the church, of your role in the ministry is to a great degree, derived from the vision and commitment of the faculty under whom you train.”

But in searching for that ideal seminary, it is also important to look for something that Milton describes as a school’s commitment to “praxis and academic excellence.” This is important because the characteristics that are to be evident in the life of this one who is leaving a career to follow a call must relate every bit as much to who he is as it does to the spiritual gifts he is to exercise.

When Milton advises, “Choose a school that combines academic excellence with a commitment to ‘praxis’” he is saying that the environment of a theological seminary must not only contribute to one’s intellectual development, but of equal importance, the environment must be conducive to one’s spiritual nurture and pastoral skills. He is saying that along with mastering the tools for biblical research, the seminarian must be prepared to live out biblical principles with creativity, enthusiasm, and maturity.

In summary, the mature, mid-life man, leaving a career to follow a call will find this little book packed with helpful, biblically-based principles to guide him in making life-changing and God-honoring decisions.

- Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator