Ministry: Working In The Church

Before I go anywhere with this idea, I want to preface it first by saying I love the church.  I love it’s history, I love it’s leaders, I love the people that collectively make up the most powerful organization in the history of the world; that being said, I also want to say that sometimes even though I am in love with the church, it’s not always the easiest thing to understand or to work in.

I had no desire to work in the church, but God called me out.  I was perfectly happy working in environmental engineering, volunteering my time working in the youth department at the local church.  But I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and God used somebody from the inside to lure me in and the rest is history.  Youth pastor job, Bible College, seminary, another youth pastor job, and then a couple of other odds and ends in the ministry world including a year as an interim Associate Pastor and here I am.

The church has been good to me.  It’s allowed me to be creative, to grow in my understanding of people, to learn more about Jesus, to grow in my understanding of other religions, to help people in need and to call others into ministry.  The church has been good to me because it has offered me so much that I would never have gotten somewhere else.

The tough thing about the church is that it rarely offers security.  In fact, if you are on a path for ministry and security is what you want, you probably want to get out now and go into environmental engineering. Even for the saints that have toughed it out and done well to grow a ministry, stayed above reproach and have laid down deep roots in that ministry community, the employment part of ministry is sometimes a touch and go dynamic.  Economic downturns, building campaigns, political arguments, theological disagreements, injury accidents, these are just a few of the items that I have seen with people I know in ministry (including myself) that caused a sudden shift in whether the church chooses to retain their services or not.  Unfortunately, it does happen and the older I get, the more I see or hear about it.  And even though I have found ways to stay in ministry, some of my friends have instead chosen to move on; which breaks my heart.  These are good people who knew ministry much better then I; but they needed to feed their families.

I do believe in the Sovereignty of God; things happen that we don’t understand and yet He remains in control.  I find I have to come back to that attribute of God often because some things are beyond me.  Maybe that’s why I’m such an optimist when it comes to what I still see in His Church.  As a leader, I must understand this idea, because if not, there’s a good chance I will be calling you up soon to see if you need any life insurance or if you would like to sell your house.

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