1.“The ministry needs the very best of men, and not those who cannot do anything else.”
2.“A trembling lip and a coward countenance in a minister show him to be unworthy of the office which he pretends to sustain.”
3.“Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called, unless there be to him some special call from God to devote himself to the ministry.”
4.“If you had been called to preach, there would have been some evidence and some sign of it.”
5.“What shall I say to young men who are about to enter the ministry that shall be more useful to them than this? Keep to the cross; keep to the cross!”
6.“[It] would have been a fearful thing for me to have occupied the watchman's place without having received the watchman's commission.”
7.“Men do not read the Bible, but they read us,- do let us give them a good version of the Scripture in our lives.”
8.“Cast as much reproach as you like on me, ye worldlings; the more honour shall there be to God, who worketh as he pleaseth, and with what instrument he chooseth, irrespective of man.”
9.“True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensible requisite; whatever 'call' a man may pretend to have, if he has not been called to holiness, he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”
10.Training. Closely related to qualifications is the element of Biblical training. Moses spent forty years in Midian. The prophets trained students in their schools. Elisha served Elijah. The disciples spent more than three years following the Lord. Paul spent time in Arabia and time with Barnabas. Timothy and Titus learned doctrine and ministry from their spiritual father, Paul.
11.“If a man be truly called of God to the ministry, I will defy him to withhold himself from it. A man who has really within him the inspiration of the holy ghost calling him to preach cannot help it. He must preach.”
12.“People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives… and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.” – Nate Saint, missionary martyr.
13.Church Confirmation. While the church does not generate the call to ministry, the church should recognize it. Historically, Baptist churches have officially recognized the call of God through ordination. Paul typically appointed, or ordained, elders in new churches (Acts 14:23). In 1 Timothy 4:14 he mentioned the ordination of Timothy into the ministry. He warned Timothy to exercise great care and caution in ordaining an elder (1 Tim. 5:22, “laying on hands”). Titus was to oversee the appointment of qualified elders in every city of Crete (Titus 1:5–9).