You’ve been called to ministry, but first you need more education. So how do you pay for it? You may have already piled up debt from your undergraduate study. Accruing more debt is unappealing. After all, we all know that preachers don’t make a lot of money.

What’s a seminarian to do? This is a question I personally wrestled with. I knew God had called me to ministry, and while I didn’t have the finances to fund it, I went anyway. These are the lessons I learned.

The Importance of Prayer. “Pray that God will provide” may seem trite but it’s true, and is the basis for all that follows. Bathe your needs in prayer. Have others pray for you—your family, friends, and home church. Sometimes God puts us in a place of total dependence—exactly where he wants us to be.

“Is your life’s passion to invest in people to see their lives change by the power of Jesus Christ?” It’s the question all theological students need to ask themselves, according to Erwin McManus, author of Soul Cravings and lead pastor of Mosaic in Los Angeles, a church known around the world for its spiritual creativity and cosmopolitan diversity. By honestly answering this question, you open yourself up to where God is really interested in using you—and it may not be in full-time vocational ministry. That’s because ministry must be fueled by passion; here McManus shares why:

How do you define calling?
I look at it like this: If you have a passion and gifting for something, you should consider going down that path. If you have a passion without a gifting, you may not have a clear sense of what you’re supposed to be doing. And if you have the gifting but not the passion, God may still be working on your heart.

What if you don’t have a clear sense?
Psalm 37:4 (NLT) says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” My suggestion is to fall in love with God and make him the focus of your life—and your passions will be the best compass for your calling.

Passions can be a way in which God directs a seminarian’s path?
Certainly, but I think a lot of people go to seminary because they have a passion for learning rather than a passion for people. Many pastors confuse the gift of teaching with a passion for studying Scripture; really it’s about investing Scripture in people’s lives for the result of life change.

Several years ago, I sensed God calling me into full-time ministry—but I had no idea what that ministry would look like. Leaving the Army National Guard and my civilian marketing career for seminary was extremely unsettling. So I waited for God’s direction. And waited. And waited some more.

What followed were six challenging years of uncertainty. While I waited for God to direct me in the area of ministry, I chose to serve faithfully in the careers in which he had already placed me. Then it happened: just as God had clearly moved me into the transition, he plainly prompted me to enter seminary and pursue the military chaplaincy.

This time of transition taught me that waiting is an action verb. At the time, I’d have preferred to skip those years of uncertainty. But the process of discernment—or the call of uncertainty—was a key lesson that built my faith.

Humility: Understanding Myself through God’s Perspective
I was an action-oriented, goal-driven, fast-paced, brash, impetuous corporate climber. In fact, I’m still most of those things, but this transition taught me to slow down my life. During the wait, God refocused my attention.

While I tended to focus on what I was supposed to do, God taught me to concentrate on who I am. This meant I had to recognize and accept my strengths and weaknesses in neither a prideful nor a deprecating manner—holding all my personality, skills, and talents loosely and in gratitude before God. This character-building process was far more effective than any “next-step task.”