When Sir Ernest Shackleton set out to find a crew for what turned out to be his ill-fated voyage to Antarctica in 1915, he placed an ad in the Times of London which read: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. Ernest Shackleton." Amazingly, more than 5,000 men applied.

The call to youth ministry—its own journey of adventure, risk and discovery—is likewise a calling unsuited to the faint of heart. Yet, despite the challenges, despite the likelihood of low honor and recognition, despite the small wages and occasional seasons of darkness and discouragement, we sign on, eager to see where God might lead us. And it's an amazing adventure!

How do we know if we're called to this journey? How do we discern God's calling? How do we know if we're called to ministry as servants of the servants? Who in his or he right mind would want to face the hassles and hazards of ministry without some fairly certain sense that this is the will of God?

The great theologian H. Richard Niebuhr wrote of four different calls that come to those set apart for pastoral ministry: (1) the call to be a Christian, (2) the secret call, (3) the providential call, and (4) the ecclesiastical call. First and foremost, we must understand that the call of God moves from the inside out. It's an adventure that begins in the heartland.

I. The Call to Be a Christian

Niebuhr reminds us of this basic fact: before we're called to serve God, we're called to be in relationship with God.

Jesus told His disciples, "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing" (John 15:5, The Message). It's significant in Mark 3:14 that Jesus "...appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach." Note the order: first, "that they might be with him," and then, second, "that he might send them out…"

II. The Secret Call

Ben Patterson writes, "There is always a sense of compulsion, at times even a sense of violence, about God's call." Jeremiah described it "…like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot" (Jer. 20:9). The Apostle Paul avowed, "…woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!" (1 Cor. 9:16). These are those deep inner nudges of God's secret call to ministry.