Not an Office or Profession

In a previous blog I addressed women in ministry and how the role of priest or pastor was reserved for men in the history of the Church, but not because of patriarchal power, but the teleological role of fatherhood. It is a mode of service and responsibility that mirrors human fatherhood, which in history included all members of a clan or tribe and not just an immediate nuclear family. It does not preclude women from ecclesiastical leadership in other ways. It's a big complex issue and I don't want to rehash that here. But bottom line, priests or senior pastors are not offices to be held, but familial roles.

With that in mind, not everyone who feels called to the ministry is. It is not a chosen profession like being a cop or nurse or welder. It is a calling, but many people mistake the calling for career. These folks tend to treat their ministries like programs and business ventures, rather than being a parent overseeing the safety, security, and well-being of their spiritual kids. 

When I first entered the ministry in the Assemblies of God, I was on track for a career in law enforcement. I only answered the call because people recognized a servant's heart on my voluntarism in the church and commented that I ought to be a pastor. Since more than three people made note of this, I met with my senior pastor, who kind of advised against the ministry, focusing on its hardships and he wanted to make sure my motivation was not self-seeking. At the time, I really wanted to serve, so I abandoned police work to pursue a life as a pastor. I got my bachelors in religion and eventually my ordination. But as I learned more and people called me pastor and as I dreamed lofty and ambitious dreams of "my own" church, I got big-headed. The office of a pastor soon mattered more than the service. It became my career.

Well, over twenty years after becoming a minister, I am no longer ordained. Part of it is because I began to treat it as a career and office and not as a calling or responsibility. I lacked the necessary humility. The other part is that churches in the Assemblies of God and many similar denominations treat the ministry as a career. They often have pastoral search committees and interview boards that seem to have taken lead from the corporate world. It is hard not to feel like it's just a job people choose and are hired into.

Perhaps that's the problem; ministry as a job. The last church I pastored at was pilfered by the previous pastor. He and his wife had access to the church finances and books and managed to dwindle the church's bank account down for their own uses. Not only was this unethical and illegal, but the rationale was that it was his retirement package. It was seen as a right of a profession. 

In many ways, I am glad I am not in Protestant ministry any longer. It's too competitive, too business-minded, and too program oriented. And, I don't think it honors the familial calling so well.