Comments on: Is ministry a …?

By: 4alarm

4alarm — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:31:10 +0000

i think this is true of any service kind of job in which your work is intensely important to others, is emotionally entangling and can pop up at all hours. teaching was like that. i imagine that social workers and certain types of medical professionals do too.

i think that ministry and elected officials have it worse, though, because not only do you have the sublimation of the self to deal with, but it’s also much much harder to do when you serve professionally folks with whom you interact socially. i didn’t have that problem so much with the sixth graders, though we had a saying at the time that teach for america breeds marathoners and alcoholics. ;)

it is really stressful, and you have to be the sort of person who thrives on the deep sense of internal satisfaction you get from doing whatever flavor of important work you choose because a lot of that life sucks. i guess that’s what a calling is, after all: an activity that feeds you spiritually so well that you are willing to put up with the shitty stuff.

i suppose it is a bit like a disability in the sense that there are inescapable limitations on your life but that balances with other parts of your life that are enhanced and enrich your life in often indescribable ways.

the comparison is tricky though, given that you choose church work and you can choose to leave.

maybe it’s more like an addiction?

By: Ruth

Ruth — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:08:42 +0000

I wonder if this is the difference between a calling and a job in general. I’ve known people in other fields who were clearly “called” to their work (is it sacrilegious to write that about something other than ministry?) who expressed nearly identical thoughts to what you’ve written. I guess the question is whether you can last in ministry at all without that calling.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:30:16 +0000

You call it your calling.

By: mskitty

mskitty — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:26:23 +0000

Church life is indeed intense and overpowering and can run your life. It’s a dangerous business and we don’t realize just how dangerous until we’re swimming in it. It’s deep water with lots of rocks. And it’s also exciting and challenging and even fun. There are many days when I say to myself in wonderment, despite the awful moments, “And they PAY me to do this work!” I love ministry, it is my life, and I was born to do this.