May 23, 2005

My Call to Ministry

My "call to ministry" came 11 years ago when I was 18 years old…or did it?

The way I always understood it, when you experience, a "call to ministry," you were referring to a belief that God’s will for you was to serve Him by becoming a staff member on a church. Generally it was understood that you could go in one of a few directions:

• Pastor – preaches every Sunday
• Music Minister – picks and leads (or sings) the songs on Sunday
• Youth Minister – plans youth trips and teaches the youth on Wednesday nights
• Children’s Minister – Manages the nursery staff and plans events for children.
• Education Minister – Picks teachers and curriculum for the adult Sunday School classes
• Administration Minister – Handles the critical day-to-day details of managing the business of the church.

There were rare occasions where churches had more full-time positions than this, but from my vantage point, those positions were so few and far between that I had to choose one from the list above.

A Pastor?

I considered being a pastor, but quickly dismissed that notion when I realized that I would have to prepare two (or three in some churches) sermons per week. I’ve finally embraced the conclusion that my public speaking doesn’t come naturally. This was painful and I struggled with it a while. I felt I must do this well or what hope did I have in being a pastor. However, it was freeing to finally admit that this wasn’t my gift.

A Music Minister?

I can’t sing. The music minister option is out.

A Youth Minister?

I was a youth minister in college. I think God blessed the work He did through me back then. I have a lot of respect for youth ministers and the passion they have for students and their mission. It’s just that the more I am honest with myself, I’m just not the youth minister type. I go to bed before 10pm for goodness sake.

A Children’s Minister?

Children’s minister? Hmmm. As you know from this site, I’m bonkers for my own kid. I love my niece and nephew, but working with other people’s kids is not what I aspire to do. That’s not to say that I don’t like kids. It’s just that the children who I have an established relationship with (the ones who I will get to see grow into adults, get their first job, get married, and have children of their own) are the ones who I am motivated to invest my life into. Maybe that’s strange, but I doubt it.

An Education or Administration Minister?

Maybe it’s a sign that I’m already feeling old and stodgy if Education minister and Administration minister positions seem like better fits for me, but I’m still not sure that those will really make my heart sing.

So where does that leave me?

So am I still called to ministry if I’m not doing one of the items on that list? There have been times when I have wondered if what I’ve been doing at Lifetime Guarantee for the past 5 years is really ministry? I sit behind a computer all day and have very few (too few) vocal conversations in my day.

Recently I was compiling a list of people who have told us that they have become a Christian through Lifetime.org. Since 2002 (when I added the gospel presentation "Get Life" section on our site), there have been 71 people who told us that they received a brand new life. 17 of those were from the outside the USA. "Dear God," I prayed, "You’ve really given me a ministry."

I get the privilege of writing to 6,500 people each week through our weekly e-Newsletter, and our site gets over a million hits per month. That’s so humbling. While we encourage people on our list to find a local church to connect with, there are no doubt many people who consider me (and my fellow Lifetime Guarantee staff) their pastors. If we were pastors, we’d have a whopper of a church wouldn’t we?

In the eleven years since I "surrendered to ministry" I’ve realized that there are many more ministry options out there than just the few I mentioned before. I still believe that the church is the greatest organization going, and praise God that He still works through so many creative and faithful people who see to it that His Bride flourishes.

I also praise Him that more people are realizing that those who draw salaries from churches are not the only ministers He uses. Every Christian is a minister. Every Believer is an advocate for God in this world. Every saint (if you’re a Christian, you are a saint, regardless of how much you sin) is a minister. Sometimes you minister with your words, sometimes you minister with an email, but always you minister with your life.

My call to ministry did not come when I was 18. It came when I was 10. That’s when I became a Christian. If I never draw a salary from a church, I am a minister.