Getting into Ministry

[therebelprophet]

I have known since I was very young that I was called into the ministry. It has been reiterated again and again and at the same time, it has been put off again and again. Now I am at a crossroads. A few weeks ago I was terminated from the fourth job in as many years for the same old stuff. I feel like a square peg in a round hole everywhere I try to work; I just don't fit in. So how do I go about getting into the ministry? I am already praying about this often and fervently, pleading with the Lord in the Spirit. Today I am going to meet with a local pastor whom I trust and who has a similar background. I used to be just eaten up with anxiety over getting to teach what I knew. I was very impatient to get out there and knock some people over the head and tell them all about how wrong they were about God. Now I know better. I am the least qualified, the least eloquent. I need to be refined in SO many ways...why would He ever choose me? And that's what we hear from everywhere, but I now see it and believe it. Before, my attitude was, "Well why WOULDN'T he choose me?? Doesn't He know who I am?!" Boy was I an arrogant child.

The world runs on money and I need to make some money to provide for my family. So far I've done a poor job of it. We've survived...but my wife has had to take up a lot of the slack. I am most myself when I am fully immersed in God. I am reminded of a passage that I read about one of the OT prophets: "(even when he was following God) he knew no peace, yet dedication to divine purpose brought him closer to reality than could the contentment that comes from tired surrender to difficulty." I need to be "closer to reality". But how do I get there from here?

 

[Razare]

He chose you because here is the alternative. When I became a Christian, within 6 months I thought I could pastor. Learned all the theology in the first couple years, and I thought I could teach it myself. I certainly had the "natural ability" to do so.

The issue is natural ability is not what God is after in pastoring. The reason being, what passes as natural ability is really just things like pride and other strongholds that limit our ability to actually minister correctly, they do not enhance it.

The spirit by which words are spoken, are just as important as those words that are spoken. You can preach decent theology by the spirit of the devil, but when you do it, the seed gets corrupted in the delivery, because people pick up on the spirit you speak by, as much as what you're saying.

God can't bless that type of pastoring.

The world runs on money and I need to make some money to provide for my family. So far I've done a poor job of it. We've survived...but my wife has had to take up a lot of the slack. I am most myself when I am fully immersed in God. I am reminded of a passage that I read about one of the OT prophets: "(even when he was following God) he knew no peace, yet dedication to divine purpose brought him closer to reality than could the contentment that comes from tired surrender to difficulty." I need to be "closer to reality". But how do I get there from here?

A lot of pastors make the mistake of thinking they must be full-time ministry in the beginning. Scripture never really says this. Even Paul held a job when he traveled to places.

What you don't do, is hold a job first before your ministry. You need a part-time job, or a flexible schedule job that comes secondary to your ministry.

And then as God blesses your ministry and it can support you full time, and warrants your full time attention, then you give it full time attention.

My pastor holds a full time job, 40+ hours a week, runs a Bible study and gives a Sunday sermon. Once in a great while, he will even miss the Sunday sermon because of work, but he just has someone else preach. We're a church of 30. We're not big enough to support him, and it would really be a sin for him to try doing that because it wouldn't be God's best for us or him... at this point in his ministry. When our church grows, yes, he does plan on going full time, when we have hundreds of members. But when you get a church that large, you got people wanting to speak with you daily, and things to manage so it makes sense.

God wants you actively working, if you're dinking around all day because you don't have a job, that's not God's will. And if you believe you have to be ministering all day to serve God, then get a job where you can minister to others and get paid. There are plenty of jobs like that. My pastor's children minister about Jesus in the manufacturing place they work. At my job, I get to tell them about healing. But if you had a job where you met a lot of people in a capacity that allowed for ministry, it could be a good opportunity to serve God and get paid.

That's just my 2 cents. But I did learn this bit of advice from pastors, so you're getting good advice not from experience I have, but from others who told me about this.

 

[therebelprophet]

I am currently looking for full-time work and also talking to a couple of local pastors about this and seeing where that leads. If nothing else maybe I can be a weekend warrior? We shall see what God will do.

 

[GoldenKingGaze]

I think you should do what my pastors and fellows do, before Bible college, do workshops in the gifts of the Spirit, so you learn how to hear from God for yourself, for service, and to gain scripture insight.
Then look at healing.
Also be able to be soft at heart to repent and forgive regularly.
Become just and merciful.
Begin to produce the fruit of the Spirit.
Worship from your heart at home as well as at church.
Read the Bible for promises and holiness not laws.
Then you have substance in yourself and something to give away, good news. And you should be able also to endure attacks.
Live it, teach it, or preach it or evangelize depend on what God wants.

 

[hislegacy]

I am currently looking for full-time work and also talking to a couple of local pastors about this and seeing where that leads. If nothing else maybe I can be a weekend warrior? We shall see what God will do.

Good Start.

Keep these in order, they are by importance

1. A minister of the Gospel is first an foremost a believer in the Lordship of Jesus Christ - this relationship is the foundation, walls and roof of everything he is and does. If you are not daily in prayer and study for yourself, you will not succeed.

2. A minister of the Gospel puts his wife and children before his ministry. God designed the family long before He did serving others. He will NEVER ask you do do something in ministry that will make your wife abandoned.

3. Study, pray read - become a workman of thew Word. And not just the Word you are comfortable with,but the whole Word. Prove the Word before you prove your understanding of what you think the Word says.

4. Become a faithful servant. Want to impress a pastor? Volunteer your time fulfilling a need the church has, not a spot in the pulpit. Be that weekend warrior! Clean bathrooms, Help those in the church. The very best leaders are those who are the very best servants.

5. Be faithful in your giving - tithe and give offerings, even if it is only 1 a week.

6. Submit yourself to a mentor - meet on a regular basis with an elder in the church. Don't talk, listen, learn.

7. Be the first to fulfill a need. One day it might just be to lead a class or preach a sermon.

Building a ministry is like raising a family - it takes years of consistency.