Dr. Thom Rainer has been obedient to various calls throughout his life, including the most recent one in 2006 to become president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources.

At age 12, he worked as a teller in his father’s bank. At 13 he moved to the consumer loan department. When he graduated near the top of his class, with a major in finance and a minor in statistics, he was already a banking veteran with a decade of experience.

His father, president of the small-town bank, was himself the son of a banker. “Not only did I see my destiny in the banking world,” says Thom, “in some ways I felt obligated, because there was a tradition I wanted to continue.”

When he turned 25, Thom had already leaped up the corporate ladder as vice president of corporate lending at SouthTrust. His career headed down a path of success and fulfillment. Life in the finance lane was moving fast.

But then God moved in a different direction. He got involved in a church and found a keen interest in his Sunday school class. He eventually became a deacon and a new goal sprouted in his ambitious heart: become one of the best in high finance and extend his Christian witness throughout the national marketplace. Banking and the Bible propelled his personal vision.

“But something started happening within my spirit,” Thom says. “I was beginning to get an uneasiness about my career, which was really strange because I always loved banking, had always loved working with corporations. And yet I found myself not getting the same fulfillment. I wanted to do things with the church all the time.”

While Thom rationalized that any Christian business person needed to be involved in church, he still found more joy in the church than in the financial world. Eventually he didn’t want to do banking or business any longer. For a few months he tried to deny this call toward vocational ministry. He led Bible studies at the bank, vainly hoping God would reciprocate by restoring his joy in banking. “I wanted him to take away this absurd idea that I was to be a pastor or preacher or some other weird creature.”

The final jolt

Shift number three jolted him once and for all. In 1982 some friends in the church asked him to pray for their five-year-old son, Brian, who needed open-heart surgery. He rejoiced with the parents when Brian’s operation was successful. A couple days later Thom decided to visit the boy while he recovered.

“When I got into the car, I had this keen awareness that Brian was going to die. I did not want to accept that, but now I know it was God speaking. I rushed to pediatric intensive care, and the moment I walked into his cubicle, he flatlined. The medical personnel pushed me and his parents out of the way and tried to revive him, but it was to no avail. Brian was dead at five years old.”

The boy’s parents held onto Thom’s shoulders. In the midst of panic, sobs, and bustling nurses, he sensed God speaking to him: “Thom, as you are caring for these my sheep, you will be a shepherd to many.”

That traumatic moment was the culmination of God’s pull on his life. Though Brian was in heaven, Thom knew his calling was to the sheep still on earth. He drove home and grieved in his wife’s arms. When his intense anguish and shock subsided, he told his wife, Nellie Jo, “Sit down. I have something else to tell you.”

She smiled and said, “God’s called you into ministry, hasn’t he?”

Thom submitted his resignation three days later. Within 30 days he left the bank, sold his house, enrolled in a seminary he knew little about and moved to Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1983 to 1988 and received his PhD.

His ensuing opportunities included four pastorates, a career as dean of the Billy Graham School at Southern Seminary, numerous speaking engagements around the world, research projects, and myriad book projects on church health and leadership. He now serves as president and CEO of Life-Way, a 7,000-employee organization and a pillar of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Do I have any regrets?” Thom asks. “The answer is very simple, very loud, very profound. No! To be in the will of God is the greatest joy of life.”

Advice for potential pastors

Thom offers four pieces of advice to those investigating their own call to ministry:

1. When God calls, immediately obey.  “You will never have any joy and you will have a restlessness that cannot be stilled until you obey. If a business person is sensing God’s calling, respond to that call. Do not delay.”

2. Get training.  “For some, it would be the path of seminary; for others, it would be some other type of training. But just as one is not prepared to go into a business role without training, one is not prepared to go into the ministry without some type of significant training.

"And whatever path you decide to take, whatever route you decide to go as you cross over from the world of business to the world of vocational ministry, I would definitely advise that you train.”

3. Be financially prepared.  “Many people who’ve gone from the business world to ministry are not aware that ministry is not the highest paying job in the world. Ministry, especially during the time of training, can be a struggle. One common reason that students drop out of seminary is that they were not financially prepared for the transition into the ministry world.”

4. Make certain your spouse is a part of the call.  “If they are not, your life will be miserable. I have never had to suffer that reality, but I have many acquaintances and friends who have, and for the most part, they have stayed in misery during their venture into vocational ministry, or in some cases, their marriages have failed. If the spouse is
not in this, I do not advise going forward into ministry.”

Thom derived so much benefit from his time in the marketplace that he advises all seminary students to secure some type of business training to learn budgeting/administration skills and basic people skills.

He likens churches to companies with sizeable budgets. Even small churches may deal with a quarter of a million dollars; large congregations can run tens of millions through their books every year. Unfortunately, many leaders don’t know how to read a financial statement, understand the implications of debt repayment, or grasp basic cash management principles. These shortcomings, Thom says, can easily be alleviated by business training.

All three of his sons were finance majors. Two of them felt called into vocational ministry. Thom urged them to spend time in the business world first to fully understand the administrative side of the church.

He also sees the wisdom of joining the business world to hone people skills. “Many students who go straight from college to seminary to their first church without any ‘real world’ experience do not know how to relate to people in their church.” These “innocent doves” have bypassed the encounters the business world offers—both the good and the bad—which can all be used for God’s glory.


Excerpted from Career Crossover: Leaving the Marketplace for Ministry, by Tom Harper (B&H, 2007).