Ministry Minded

What a good day it was!

The day was arranged in order that people who are considering full time ministry could focus in on that notion and be educated in various ways as to the issues they should be considering.

The day ran as follows...

Arrive
Talk on what is Gospel Minstry
Small group discussion
Talk on Who should do Gospel ministry.
Lunch
Small group discussion
Q & A session with a forum
Talk on Why go into gospel ministry.

I have been considering the idea and this was my first steps along this path.

Every Christian should sooner, rather than later, decide whether or not the full time christian ministry is for them. When I use the phrase full time Christian ministry I refer to the formalised role which involves spending the working career engaged in formal chrisitan ministry and be paid for that. Church pastors for instance, fall into this category. The reason this distinction is important to make is that all christians involved in full time christian ministry. That is what being a Christian is about.

The decision that is made should in fact be to answer the questions "why not?". In other words, a christian should respond to the question by saying why they are not going into that career, rather than why they are.

To give you a feeling for the day...

There were about 160 people there. I was very impressed by the turn out, it shows you how important a day like this is, as well as how much on the fore front of the church members thinking this is. I did not expect there to be so many people there. I do however feel that it was marketed particularly well, the other thing is that it was for everyone, no matter where you are in your thinking on the subject.

The talk on Who was both the most important as well as the best...

It presented the issue in the form of four questions...
1. Do you see it as a noble task?
2. Do you have the gift of teaching?
3. Do you generally conform to the requirements for a pastor/teacher as laid out in Timothy and Titus.
4. Do you have the desire to do it?

If you can answer yes to the above questions then that is what you should be doing. You may not be able to answer the questions above at this stage, and if that be the case then possibly look at ways in which you can find out more about yourself in order that you can answer the four questions. Get involved teaching Sunday school is a good start or leading a bible study/youth group. They are not easy questions to answer.

My struggle with the above is that I do not want to let the financial/security issues cloud my judgment. Something that is not easy to achieve. It is very easy to stay on the one path, changing careers is always going to be stressful no matter which way you look at it.

The Christian life however, is about being brave, no matter how scared you may be. Test the truth has often been the call on this blog, and it should not be surprising that that is once again the required mantra.