Ministry is More Than a Job

Ministry Is More Than a Job

A few years back, one of my former students sent me a list of ministry questions for a class project. I don’t remember which class it was for, and I can’t tell you exactly how the questions were originally worded. All I have are the abbreviated versions I jotted down to guide my response.

Ministry is one of those callings that doesn’t get simpler with time. Experience helps, but the challenges keep coming, and the questions only deepen. That’s why I decided to share these with you. Whether you’re stepping into ministry, considering the call, or just needing some perspective for the road ahead, I hope these reflections help.

What would your response have been? Where do you agree with me, and where do you see it differently? I’d love to hear your perspective.

Jacob Jones Ministry Questions

1. What training does the ministry require?

You have to know the Bible (every word). Read it from cover to cover every year for life. An internship/mentorship with a senior pastor will give you an understanding of the nuances of pastoral life. It is helpful to have courses and practical training in the following areas:

• Theology and FWB distinctives

• Homiletics

• Pastoral Administration

• Shepherding/Counseling

• Apologetics

2. Are you in a particular branch of ministry, and what additional training is needed?

The above training is what I depended upon for the pastoral ministry for the few years that I served as pastor. For my current teaching ministry, I have taken additional teacher education courses. Ministry is lifelong learning.

3. What natural abilities?

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” (see II Tim 2)

4. Good job availability?

We have more churches than we have pastors. There is a need to figure out how to close some and consolidate when they are small and within a few miles of each other. We need a lot of associate pastors to help grow churches. We need new churches as well.

5. Chance for advancement?

Depends on what is meant by advancement. What God considers advancement, because you are faithful in the little things, may not look like advancement to the world.

There are lots of things to do to further the gospel at the same time as you pastor a local church. They might be considered advancements:

• There is local association and national association work

• There are camp ministries

• Evangelism/revivals

• Chaplaincies for hospitals, police, or fire departments.

• You can build an audience through radio or the internet.

6. Advantages/disadvantages?

Ministers who serve well are “Worthy of double honor (I Tim 5:17),” which sounds good. They are “Hated because they hated me” (Jesus in John 15:18) doesn’t sound so good. Matt 5:11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

7. Special advice?

• First and foremost, take care of your spiritual condition and your family

o Pray much

o Have a mentor/mature friend that you talk to regularly

o Have an accountability partner (you need a confessor)

o Understand your calling and gifts

o Be a godly man, handle your finances well, and be a lifelong learner

• Learn your craft well (with all the resources available, it is easy to get up a sermon and be dry in your heart or get the details and the actual meaning of the text wrong). So:

o Study the Bible itself and pray

o Read commentaries

o Read and listen to sermons

o Read widely

o Learn communication skills and the art of telling a story

• Learn how to run an organization as a servant

o Earn respect first as a good follower before you lead

o Take responsibility for getting jobs done as a youth worker (learn leadership)

o Learn how to lead a board meeting and work with people who are different than you and disagree with you

8. Current problems?

Ministry has always been the same. The devil is the same, lost are the same, and God is the same. I think of verses such as – “There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to men…” and “When sin did abound, grace did much more abound.” I also think about the passages in scripture that say, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” So, I have a perspective that we live in a time where ministers are falling away, and our members are being ravaged by the devil. But it is not hopeless. God’s grace is sufficient as always.

9. Why did I choose ministry?

God chose me. I can do no other.

Ministry is tough for a lot of reasons. For instance, no one knows what you actually do. They have no idea. You are not in their eyesight 24/7. The devil will try to use it against you to do things for the wrong reasons. It takes time to pray, study, visit, etc., and that doesn’t look like work to some people.

Spiritual growth of those you minister to can be a slow process until the roots grow. Then there are the unsaved (tares) that are part of your church. Everything in ministry is a prayer for wisdom.

Your own measures of success will probably be wrong (the Apostle Paul said as much about his own ministry). You will be hated, and most of it won’t be deserved. You will be loved, and again, most of it will not be deserved. Die daily.

God’s Speed.

Mark Gedeon