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Called: Matt Chandler

by Matt Chandler July 26, 2021


My first foray into ministry was that this tiny Baptist church in La Marque, Texas. I hadn’t been a Christian long and they should not have hired me. It just went bad. I didn’t know the game of politics, I was stepping on landmines… I had no idea. I actually pulled from that year and a half to two years there that I should not be in ministry. It had actually quelled the fire towards ministry. So, I thought, “you know, I’m going to do? I’m going to become a lawyer and have an epic Sunday school class.” I knew I could teach the Bible and I loved teaching the Bible, but I didn’t know how I fitted in the church world.

I said to myself, “let’s go get a political science degree, go to law school, have a Sunday school class, and then live happily ever after.” So, I moved to Abilene, Texas and began to teach a little ecumenical Bible study. It kind of blew up. We weren’t planning on it blowing up, God just did some pretty spectacular things. Then at IHOP in Abilene, Texas, around 2:00 in the morning, a young college woman named Christie said, “when did you get called to ministry?” I said, “oh, I’m not called to ministry, I’m a political science major, not a Bible major. I’m not called to ministry.” And yet, there was something about that question that started to haunt me.

A about a week later, I was like, “dag gummit, I am called to ministry!” I still didn’t know what that was going to look like though. Honestly, I thought it would probably look like itinerant ministry where it would take some time for the Lord to refine what that calling is. From that moment, I went and changed my major to a Bachelor of Arts and Biblical Studies and moved my classes over to Logsdon Seminary. Now, here I am, Twenty something years later, happily serving Jesus Christ in vocational ministry. My name is Matt Chandler, and this is my called story.