love4jesus said:
I have questions for the women pastors here
Were you ready when God called you to be a minister? I am sure being a pastor is not an easy job. It must be stressful. Did your bible teachers in College, prepare you for what may be expected? How do you prepare a message? I think it must be hard to write a message that reaches out to everyone. Everyone has different needs. Did you have to remember the bible? I see my pastor speak and he seems to remember one scripture after another.
Thanks
I am sorry for all these questions. I want to be a pastor one day, as I mentioned before
I figure that I can learn from my sisters who are in the ministry as ministers.
I know I'm not a female pastor, but a guy. So I don't really know if my posting here is in the right place or not. However, I am very much encouraged that there are those among my sisters in Christ who are following where God is leading them.
love4Jesus, I can see from the posts that you have given us so far on this thread that you do seem to have a desire and I would also state a calling for ministry (specifically to youth, as you mentioned before). I say go for it, if that is truly what God has put on your heart. Which, judging from what's here before us, I would say that does seem to be the case.
You are correct in that pastoring is a very difficult task, and there are challenges that others could only possibly dream of. But at the same time as these challenges, there are also great joys as well.
To answer your questions (in my case), there was some preparation for what to expect, but not a lot, unfortunately. There was a lot of great academic learning, and learning how to interpret and apply Scripture, and how to think critically... and there was some stuff on the specific pastoral duties. But to be honest, the majority of the learning that I have done has been over the past 5 months since I started ministry "officially". It was definitely a worthwhile experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to go into this type of ministry, but be prepared to do a lot of the learning on the job.
As for message preparation, it's not necessarily about meeting everybody's needs in every sermon. Sometimes, you are fortunate and God provides that for you. But most of the time, God places the burden of something to say or preach on, and it may only reach one person in the congregation. But that sometimes is the entire point. If only one person is affected by the words that God speaks through you, then that is the ultimate of importance.
As far as what I do for message prep... that sort of depends on where I am preaching from. If I am preaching an independant sermon, there is a lot more work involved. It's much easier doing a series, as then you know more or less where you are taking it, and what you are covering. For instance, I just finished a series titles "A Search for True Heroes", and I told the stories of a different character from the Bible each week, and I asked what could be learned from that part of the story. I would like to go through one of the books one time, like through one of the letters of Paul, or one of the Gospels. That would be a lot of fun. But anyway, I am digressing.
After finding the text, I study it and ask a lot of questions of it... (this process is called exegesis) What is going on here? Who is involved in this passage? What is the context around and behind this passage? How would the original audience have understood it? I write down these questions and the answers, and I use commentaries and at least 3 versions of the Bible, for comparison of the text. Then I shift focus, once I feel I have a firm enough grasp of the passage and what it is saying, and I begin asking the hermeneutical questions... What can we learn from this passage today? How can this be applied in the lives of someone in my culture? (namely, how can I apply it in my own life, and how can it be applied in the church as a corporate group?) Then I look for different illustrations, stories, etc. that can be used along with this passage, and I write the actual sermon.
Because the church that I was in had a love for powerpoint, I would then make notes of the sermon in powerpoint and send that off to the powerpoint lady, by Friday at the latest. And meanwhile, I am going through the sermon, editing the minor points and the flow, and usually experiencing something that has to do with the message of the sermon... and then I preach it. In all, I would say this takes me about 20 hours worth of work, just for sermon prep alone.
But that's just me. What about everyone else?
. LOL! ..well, i don't know any on CF...but I can sure share with you that in Guam we have a great many women who would like to become YOUth Pastors. So, far I only know of one who is lisenced. It's a cool thing.
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