Each year the secretary of the Theological Education Committee puts the following announcement in The Messenger: "The Theological Education Committee invites men who feel called to the ministry of the Word in the Free Reformed Churches of North America to contact the Secretary of the Committee before... [a certain date]. Applicants should be in possession of a B.A. degree or equivalent and should obtain a written testimony from their consistory."

What is the idea behind such an "admission exam for the ministry"? It is the conviction that the office of the minister of the Word in the church of our Lord is of such a significance that not just anyone who desires this office can be admitted . Although various other federations of churches do not have such an "admission exam," they do share this same conviction and therefore various Theological Seminaries do require some references and psychological testing before they can be admitted as students, or before they can be recommended to the churches to receive a call.

For some reason we as churches do not require psychological testing, although several of our ministers did undergo such testing prior to their seminary training. I for one did and am much in favour of some appropriate psychological tests. Various questions need to be considered. Does he have abilities to handle personal relationships? Can he handle stress? Does he perhaps have temperamental problems and what kind? To be sure, some men with serious problems of that nature have been very useful ministers--for example, the depressive David Brainerd. But the Bible does lay down some very firm guide-lines. Paul insists in Titus 1:7, for instance, that those who are short-tempered may not be considered for the special office.

As churches we, however, do put the emphasis on testing the applicants with regard to three other areas, although they are not unrelated to the psychological aspects.

1. We test the applicant with regard to his knowledge of the fear of the Lord. After all, he who desires to spiritually guide others, needs to fear and know the Lord. He should be genuinely converted. He should be able to tell what God has done for his soul. He should be full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (Acts 6:3-5).

2. We test the applicant with reference to his feeling called to the ministry. After all, in order to be able to enter the comprehensive ministry of the Word, one needs to have the conviction that the Lord is calling him to and setting him apart for this ministry. Otherwise, he shall not be able to fulfill this calling. Apart from this call to the ministry, the ministry will be a burden for him, too heavy to carry, and there will be no joy in the ministry.

According to Spurgeon, "the first sign of the heavenly call is an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work." For a call to be true, "there must be an irresistible, overwhelming craving and raging thirst for telling to others what God has done to our own souls." Those must be considered for the ministry who have been active in bringing outsiders to church, distributing Gospel tracts, volunteering for mundane and menial tasks for the cause of the Gospel, generating interest in Bible-study and evangelism.

At the same time, there must be the awareness that the presence of the desire, however, great, is not in itself an infallible sign of a call to the ministry. The desire itself must be scrutinized. What are your deepest motives? Are they zeal for the honour of God, love to Jesus Christ and the desire for souls to be saved?

The call to the ministry includes the awareness that the Lord calls someone to be the shepherd of His flock, that the Lord calls him to watch for souls, to shepherd in the name of the Lord. The important thing at this point is that he has a concern for people who are on their way to eternity and who in this brief life must learn to know the God of grace.

Indeed, we realize that a young man who desires to serve the Lord in the special office of the ministry of the Word will not know the depth of these things. Nevertheless, he does need to have some sense of it. He does need to know true communion with the Lord and a desire to be taught in this more and more by the Lord and so teach and guide others. The deepest motive to which the Lord pointed in the life of His disciple Simon Peter who had wanted to keep Him from going the way of the cross and who had denied Him three times, was the motive of love. From John 21 it seems that Simon Peter initially dared to speak of this love only in a weak form. Nevertheless, it was on the basis of this personal and heart-felt love, that the Lord made Peter a servant of His and of His Church for the glory of the Lord in saving sinners.

This root of love is crucial for the special service of the Lord, for the first time and always again.

3. We examine the applicants with reference to their ability to study and to be able to apply that study in an edifying way to the ministry. It may well be that some one loves to study theology with all its attractive aspects. Nevertheless, being an academic theologian as such is not the most important thing for a pastor and teacher of a congregation of our Lord. Love for theology does not yet make someone fit for shepherding the flock of the Lord. Mind you, I do not mean to say that a bright theologian cannot be a fine shepherd of souls. On the contrary, but love for the study of theology as an 'academic discipline' is not the most important thing for the minister of the Word.

Moreover, where God calls, He will also confer the necessary gifts. They are surely needed for the ministry. A minister needs the gift of leadership. He needs qualities such as initiative, courage and wisdom. He needs counselling gifts. He must be sympathetic and sensitive, kind and approachable to those with needs--personal, marital, social and professional. He must be firm in his convictions and yet open to the unique needs of others. Moreover, he needs to be able to keep private matters confidential, able to rebuke without arousing resentment, and not convey condemnation which drives to despair.

It is obvious that the members of the Theological Education Committee are not able to make a proper evaluation merely on the basis of the testimony of the applicant. It may be that the members of the Theological Education Committee get the impression that the applicant thinks too readily that he is meant to be a minister of the Gospel, that he has not seriously considered all the aspects that are involved in and required for the ministry, and that he too lightly believes that all these things will turn out all right, whereas he does not give evidence of having a good basis for this anticipation.

It is important to realize also that usually every young men who personally learns to know grace and sees their need of Jesus Christ, there comes a period in which their heart is filled with a desire to serve the Lord and to speak with others about "the only Name given under heaven whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). To be sure, that is a blessing, but some too easily conclude from that conviction and desire that they have to enter the ministry of the Word in the sense of the special office. In fact, some of them who on the basis of that desire applied for the study for the ministry, later realized that this desire was of a temporary nature.

You see, it may well be that a young man desires the ministry of the Word because it appeals to him to stand on the pulpit and preach. It appeals to him to have others look up to him as a minister. However, he does not seem to realize that the whole ministry of the Word involves a denying of oneself for the sake of the Lord and His Church. It may also be that in the ministry he "pulls" the pulpit to the front and "shoves" all the other labours to the background. However, he does not seem to realize that preaching and preparing in his study is only part of the ministerial labours. There is much more to be done. He is not aware that a great deal of all the other labours are no less important, because it is much more direct and personal than preaching from the pulpit. Such an applicant runs the danger that if he ever enters the ministry, he will become very disappointed and disillusioned. He will be in danger of being extremely one-sided in his labours, while neglecting the other part of the calling.

Before the applicant meets with the Theological Education Committee, he is required to speak with his local consistory with regard to the aspects mentioned above. Then the consistory supplies the Committee with a written testimony. It is on the basis of that written testimony and the examination of the applicant himself, that the Theological Education Committee decides whether or not to admit the applicant to prepare himself for the ministry of the Word in the Free Reformed Churches of North America.

This decision is tentative insofar that particularly the first year the applicant is "on probation." If the student turns out to be disappointing and does not meet the spelled out expectations, then he cannot continue to be a student for the ministry in our churches.

Sometimes the comment is made that this approach is much too cumbersome and that the Theological Education Committee should accept many more applicants on probation and later on a final selection be made. To be sure, I understand such a point of view. At the same time we must be realistic and consider that it will be extremely painful to dismiss a student after three years of preparing himself for the ministry, for reasons that were already clear at the time of the admission exam. We believe that our calling as churches does not only include the final step, but all those that lead up to it. We feel called to closely look at the issues mentioned above. If it is clear that the Lord is sending the applicant to us, he is accepted and we pray to the Lord to guide him and us, and fill him and us with all knowledge, grace and truth, until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we doubt that the Lord is sending him to us for the ministry, he is not accepted in order to spare the flock, but we do commend him and us to the Lord, to remember him in mercy and guide Him by His Word and Spirit in his daily calling.