The First Post
November 22, 2007
I recently posted this text as a comment to a blog asking for advice to give to a young person who feels called to ministry, and I thought it was the best way to start here:
I have been involved in conversations about musicians who feel a similar calling, and would like to share what I’ve learned.
Everyone has a desire to feel important. This taken to extremes can become a problem. First extreme is pride and arrogance and there’s plenty of resources on that topic. The other extreme isn’t given enough thought. Paralyzed is the best word I can think of.
For example, a young person may feel a calling to go into full time ministry, and after years of pursuing a ministry job, finds himself at the bottom, Assistant to the Associate Pastor of a 50 member church at $10 per week. That person may get a sense of failure or question whether God has really called them to a full time ministry. This lack of “importance” than causes them to give up and stop pursuing ministry all together.
That’s why it’s important to remember the story of Joseph and add up how many YEARS Joseph was in slavery and/or prison. There were decades between when he had his dreams and when those dreams were fulfilled. Would that mean he was a failure, or God wasn’t with him? No Way! So if you feel like you are missing your calling, you need to step back and try to get a different perspective on where you are going.
To the musician I would say, if you are called to be a worship leader and can’t find a church who will pay you for it, then you have no excuse for taking your acoustic guitar and a couple of friends to a park or beach and start worshiping God.
If you’re called to start a church and can’t get more than 2 people to meet with you every week, then that’s where you need to be working.
Your priority needs to be Character (your relationship with God is your first ministry priority), Community (who you serve with is more important than how you serve), and Competency (when you’ve got character and community, then you can spend your remaining effort at getting better at what you do).
