Dear newfaith in Christ,

Thanks for asking. We discussed this topic in the past. Here is my own take. I suggest that you read Os Guinness's modern classic book "Calling".

(1) God CALLS every child of God to imitate his Son our savior Christ. Remember that we will have to spend eternity as Christ's playmates (or co-heirs in biblical term), we will be ever more like him. Our earthly journey is just the prelude to that wonderful future. Therefore we Christians are ALL called to serve the Lord full time no matter what our professions are.

(2) God LEADS us to a vocation or profession. It does not have to be full time gospel ministry. God gives us talents and gifts to serve Him in our vocation or profession. Some people suggest that we should flee as much as humanly possible to "resist" (or better, "test") God's leading to full time gospel ministry. But I have Moses and Jonah in mind when they say that too loudly.

(3) God DIRECTS us to serve Him in a particular setting for a period of time, using circumstances that he alone superintends. We are standing in God's grace all due to God's mercy and providence.

(4) Do not easily change your vocation or profession to full time gospel ministry unless ALL four of the following litmus tests are satisfied:

(a) You sense from God the ever stronger burden for both the countless lost souls and numerous shepherd-less sheep of God.
(b) You are a person of maturing godly character and you are led by the Holy Spirit to value the full time gospel ministry more and more and so much so that you are willing to sacrifice your professional vocation for the gospel's sake.
(c) You are given by God and amply demonstrate one or more of spiritual gifts from God (pastoring/shepherding/counseling, preaching/teaching/evangelizing, healing, etc) to serve the body of Christ, which is his church. Your local church's leaders can affirm your spiritual gifts and support your decision to go full time.
(d) You have the full support from your family.

If so, then you are welcome to the extremely difficult full time ministry for gospel's sake. It is going to be very tough, likely much tougher than your own professional vocation for which you receive about 20 years of training.

To test if you truly have the calling to go full time, I suggest that you, being new to faith, spend the next three to five years, if not eight to ten years, studying God's words diligently, disciplining yourself to be more and more Christlike, serving in a local church faithfully, and working hard to support your family and raise your children.

If you still feel the urge to go full time throughout these many years, then feel at peace to enroll into a bible seminary and test yourself further if you have the right spiritual stuff to be a full time minister. That is the road I have walked. But you may be special and you may get to do all these sooner.

God bless.