Is this my vocation?

[.Iona.]

No matter what I do in my life, I will always have this feelign that i am not doing what I am meant to be doing. When I really think about things, it's working with the Church that always comes to me. The idea of becoming ordained and spending every waking moment working with people for Christ makes me smile. And it feels right.

The only problem is that I have never really attended a church for long, so to be able to apply, or even ask whether this is right for me will take a while. And I feel that I really need to do this now, I need to become involved in church life.

What would be the best way of finding out? I don't want to go into ordinand training and find out that God wasn't calling me to do this. I ahve prayed lots about it and it does feel right.

Has anyone else felt like this? Was it your calling?

 

[lovingod02]

You mentioned "And I feel that I really need to do this now, I need to become involved in church life." I would encourage you to start right there and start now. Get involved with a local body of Christ and dig in, get involved, spend time with people there, share your life with them, become vulnerable, because the Lord will grow you through that and show you what He has for you there. Serving the Lord always means serving others.

I think we can learn a lot about ourselves and certainly whether the Lord truly wants us to be serving full time as a ministry worker in a “church”. I would also encourage you to seek the Lord always and ask for His help to stay focus on Him and Him only, because you are working with people and people are always going to be people. We tend to be pretty messed up. I am very thankful for the blood of Christ

 

[canadiantrip]

Don't be deceived that serving God is just about "Church Work" or "Church Ministry".

Some have kingly anointing and some are priestly.

You need to pray and fast and consistently seek God about this. There's no short cut.

 

[.Iona.]

I do pray about it all the time. I just feel that ministry is where I am being directed - I don't want to rush into it unless I am positive that this is what God intends for me.

 

[Aibrean]

Need you ask? I think you already know the answer.

 

[we are called]

where God guides, he provides: Does your church offer a lay-minister program? It might be something to start with, if you're not able to commit to a full-time education program. Before that, offer to help with the Sunday School, or the youth group, or something like that where you get to hone your skills and discover if this is what's right for you.

The people of my church (Minister included) keep telling me I should be a minister. But I have a family that needs providing for first. So I'm starting with the lay-minister course, and if I find that that doesn't fulfill me spiritually, I might seek higher education and go from there. here, I'd have to spend 3 years in university not less than 4 hours from home in order to be ordained, which is just not possible with a 2 year old and another baby due at Christmas.

Pray, ask, learn, pray, pray, and then, just because you'll need to, pray some more. let God show you the path. I hope you can fulfill your destiny.

 

[GodisEnough]

lol! Aibrean is right...it sounds like you know the answer. I was in the same boat as you, and I shared this with my pastor over coffee a few years ago. His response was simply "interesting..." and he would say no more.

Two years later I've stepped out in faith and am back in school studying my eyes out (yeah, it feels like that around midnight usually) to devote my life to full time ministry. I gotta say I haven't been more excited about any other "professional endeavor" --ever. I spent the last 2 years praying and becoming more and more involved in ministries both in the local church and in para church orgs.

All that said, pray.l..fast and pray some more. And if you're not already involved in a ministry (small group, Sunday School, Youth Group, etc.), get there! And DEFINITELY share this with your pastor.

Oh, and we are called...I have 3 kids and a full time job as a software developer...online classes rock!

 

[J Rock]

I have never once made a mistake when following God's lead - there were detours to be sure but God always got me to where he wanted me to be.

 

[LinkH]

Start simple. The Bible commands us to use our gifts to minister one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Find opportunities to use your gifts to minister to others. If you are gifted in teaching, then teach. There are plenty of opportunities in lots of churches to teach in home meetings or other venues. If you are good at ministering to people while praying with them, then find an opportunity to do that, a prayer minister, and 'altar counselor' type ministry, or something in a home group.

In the Bible, we see that the apostles appointed elders FROM WITHIN THE LOCAL CHURCH, and commanded them to pastor. We don't see a system of people wanting to pursue 'minister' as a vocation, their going to school, and then taking it over as a full-time job. If you think the Lord may want you to work 'full-time' then be faithful as a minister of whatever gifts you have within the congregation and let the Lord promote you as you mature to a role of more spiritual responsibility.

 

[heron]

Are you still on the forum?

Scripturally, when God called people, the success didn't drop from the sky with the calling. People prepared, trained, built arks, ran from lunatic emperors, and worked their butts off (can I say butt?) to accomplish their dreams and callings.

So if you're inclined in a direction, take the advice above and just start trying. Exploring. Researching various training plans. Serving in small ways.

If you go through life just taking jobs to make money, then you will always have discontentment bugging you... feeling like someone else is controlling your destiny. Make some plans for yourself.

If you find out it's not a good path, then take another. Nothing is wasted, really. Skills gained end up applying elsewhere.