Proclaimer Blog
Review: am I called?
It's not often you come across a book and think to yourself, 'You know, I'm glad that's been written'. However, Am I Called by Dave Harvey is that kind of book. It's a book about that most difficult of subjects – the call to Christian ministry.
Here's what I like about it:
- the focus is right. It starts with God, the caller and salvation, the calling (in fact, the only way that word is used in the New Testament).
- The context is right. The second chapter is about the context in which ministry takes place, i.e. the local church. This is a much needed and much neglected emphasis.
- The balance is right. Taking the pastorals as the basis, Dave assesses ministry the way the Apostle assesses it.
- The priority is right. "There are a lot of things a pastor should be able to do, but there's clearly one thing he must be able to do to hold the office. He must be able to preach."
It's not a long book so it's digestible and accessible. I've got one or two minor gripes which are worth mentioning:
- the last chapter redeems the book from being very you-centred. Up to that point it seems to have been about self assessment. Dave redeems this by saying it's about local church assessment, but I wanted this clear chapter to come much earlier in the book to avoid it being a kind of "how do you score?" kind of approach. The middle chapters are all good in terms of content, but they are about "you"
- the author (unless I missed it) never really grapples with what Paul means by 'sets his heart upon' in 1 Tim 3.1. This is a key idea, I feel, getting to root of what a call is
- which leads to the other minor criticism. The call language is problematic, we all need to realise that. It's not immediately biblical (as Dave points out it is reserved for salvation in the New Testament). So it does need some exploration and explanation.
However, these are minor niggles in what is otherwise an excellent book to give to prospective young men or even to those already in ministry. I was reading it on a train travelling to Wales with Mr RC Lucas. He looked at it and said "that's a much needed book if it's any good. Is it?"
Yes.