this is something that i have been wondering about for quite a while. and i hope to get some feedback from you the reader. i am wondering if it is possible if God might call someone to the ministry for a season? i have talked to a few people with mixed views on the idea.
andy stanley wrote in his last book "communicating for a change" that he was not to sure if he was ever called to the ministry. but one day in his youth went to his father charles and asked if someone could just volunteer for a life in the ministry. so from that day forward andy volunteered to the ministry.
i have been in full time pastoral ministry for three years now in the form of a youth pastor. i love my job. i like doing God's work but am not quite positive that i will be a pastor the rest of my life. but if i felt the call back in the summer of 2000 after my freshman year of college, would i be doing a disservice to God and his call. that is why i am wondering if the call is possible for a season in life.
i do know that i will never walk away from church or my relationship with Christ. but if one day i decide not to be a pastor then am i walking away from Christ by leaving the ministry. would love to hear your thoughts.
6 comments:
i can't think of anyone in the Bible who was called for a season, go and prove me wrong.
Well that all depends on what you mean by season and what you mean by ministry. I have been a pastor for 2+ years and am having second thoughts about pastoral ministry but not ministry in and of itself. Is going to film school and making movies ministry? Is joining World Hope and doing humanitarian work a key part of the gospel? I think it is. It depends on how wide your view of "called to ministry" is. Most of our professors in college were called into ministry and look at all they have done with their lives. Some might say they have walked away from their calling because they are not in the church. I like to wave the BS flag in front of such people. I think ministry in a local church is key and vital to the global church but I can't believe it is the only calling out there.
justin, this is the response i was hoping for. as much as i agree with what brooks wrote as well. however "pastoral" roles were not really even established by this time.
i guess sometimes i feel so disconnected with the world. jenny who works in a hospital comes home and tells me stories and i feel that her "ministry" is just as or even more vital then pastoral ministry.
not that i am planning to ever leave church ministry but i guess i am trying to have a better understanding of "the call."
thanks guys
Justin, you're a show-off. :) But you've got good stuff. (Especially the BS Flag part)
Nate-
I have to totally agree with Justin on this point, and would maybe even take it a step farther and say that for any of us to think that we don't have a ministry of some sort is naive, and would be falling way short of what it means to follow Christ. I have a minister to those people that are in my sphere of influence. I have a responsibility to minister not only at church, but to my wife, my family, my in-laws, my friends, my co-workers, patients, etc. I think I could go on for a while, but basically, I wonder if we in the Christian world don't have an entirely too narrow view of what Ministry is. Ministry isn't necesarrily always in a church. Minstry takes place on the street, in homes, at the grocery store, at the movie theater. Ministry should happen everywhere we go.
thanks jt, that is a very good point, that really to this place in the conversation we havent addressed. why is it that we have seperations for calling between pastors and laity?
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