Where did the idea of being "called to preach" come from? The church loves to use the idiom called to preach. It's the idea that (for the purposes of this question) God calls some people to preach or pastor and He doesn't call others. A person might say "...I felt God's call to preach"

I'm not talking about the general call to salvation or that God gives certain gifts to some and not others, but about the specific colloquialism of "...called from God to be/not be a pastor."

Where did this idea come from? 1 Timothy labels it a desire, not a calling.


  1 Timothy 3:1 KJV This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.


Most every other translation says aspire, not calling. Are these thing synonymous? When did it start being referred to as a calling and not a desire?



Why I ask: A "calling" from God is a highly debated thing, whereas a "desire" is something everyone knows the definition of. Some young believers may be becoming dissuaded from their desire to lead in their local church because they've been incorrectly convinced that they need some fantastical "clouds-parting-in-the-sky" experience from God.
In Latin the word vocare meaning &quot;to call&quot; gave us the English Word &quot;vocation.&quot;  A vocation is synonymous with a career (Remember vocational guidance?) in many people's minds, and it betrays the roots why someone feels &quot;called to ministry&quot;  Both Protestants and Catholics would use these terms interchangeably.
Bibically, there is much precedence for this. Because of the terminology, I'm going to use KJV liberally:

1 Corinthians 7:20 20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.
2 Timothy 1 8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Likewise, Paul often introduces himself as &quot;called&quot;

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
1 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

That said, you are entirely correct in saying that such a &quot;calling&quot; is something to which one can &quot;earnestly aspire.&quot;
It is because &quot;calling&quot; has had both senses that it came to be seen as a cooperative effort between God and Man - a gift that one would want to manifest.  In practice, many churches use the terminology of &quot;discerning a call to ministry&quot; because of the confusion.