Jump to content

Home

Thoughts about being an Ordained Minister


Dark Obi-Wan

Recommended Posts

This is something that requires a lot of prayer on your part, along with discussions with your own minister and family (especially if you have a spouse and children). What I would recommend is following a minister around for a week to see if that's the kind of life you're really called to do. Despite the fact that the job requires a high level of education, it does not pay well, especially the first couple of years out of the job, and with the economy down, the needs of the church have gone up tremendously, but giving is down substantially for a lot of ministries. You may be in a position where you have to have a second job to support you until you can move into full time ministry.

 

My brother-in-law is a pastor, and he loves it, but there are challenges that are unique to that position, including calls in the middle of the night for things people think are emergencies (but could have waited til the morning rather than 2am), counseling people through some great difficulties such as death, divorce, or some of the terrible things they've endured, and so on. It is not an easy job. My brother-in-law works very hard on his sermons and he spends a ton of time in and out of his office. My sister loves being a pastor's wife but it's basically an unpaid church position that she also works hard at. My nieces and nephew live in the church fishbowl--they're always on display and expected to be good kids. My sister and brother-in-law work very hard to protect them and raise them appropriately, but it doesn't eliminate completely the 'pastor's kids' expectation from the community. In spite of these challenges, however, they love what they're doing, and their church community is incredibly loving and supportive of them as well, and they feel very blessed to be where they're at.

 

I don't want to discourage you from doing that if that's what God has called you to do, but I did want you to know some of the expectations you might not have considered about the job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

My father is actually a non-denominational christian minister.

 

Marriage is one of the things he enjoys most about life. I have lost track of how many weddings he has presided over , but, he does seem to rather enjoy his line of work--he also is a musician and a DJ/MC. (I was his roadie :xp:).

 

Ehh, I'd be willing to answer questions to the best of my knowledge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...