The Divine Crash

So here I am, sitting in my office and I wondering about this myth of full-time ministry.  I was always taught that ministry is doing things in the name of Jesus or working with those whom Jesus worked with.  Can I do that in a church?  Is that even possible inside the walls of a church?  During my seminary career I heard others saying, and said myself, “I can’t wait to get into full-time ministry.”  So now that I am here I am wondering is that actually what it means to be a pastor, or to be in full-time ministry?  Don’t get me wrong I love what I am doing but sometimes I wonder…. My office is nice but is it ministry?  If ministry is working with those whom Jesus worked with is the church even the right setting?  In most churches the people in there already pretend to be perfect and that they don’t need a savior.  Yet outside of the church is where people who will tell you they need a savior actually are.  So does real ministry exist outside of the church walls?  Or is real ministry convincing the people in the church they need a savior too? How do I balance those two objectives? How do you balance those objectives?

I think part of this is I am reading a book called Jesus Freaks by Sara Miles and she is talking about her work outside the church and how it is the work of Jesus and I am reading John Wesley’s journal and how the sermons he gave got him kicked out of a church and he was forced to preach in the open air to anyone who would walk by?

So where does real ministry take place? Can it be done inside a church or does ministry take place outside the walls of the church?

Is full-time ministry done by a pastor or by the laity who are not in the church full-time?

Thoughts?

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Church Thoughts by RevBT