Q&A: Challenges & Benefits of being in full-time Ministry


A young woman from my beloved Westside Christian Church sent me two questions for a school project.  I'm sharing them here.  If you're not in the full-time ministry it might give you a tiny glimpse into what we do and how we think.  If you are in full-time ministry please post your additional thoughts in the comments section.


1. What are the hardest challenges about being in full-time ministry?

You can go in many different directions with this question.

Personally, being in full-time ministry requires a tremendous amount of love for people that you don’t know all that well to begin with.  You have to put yourself out there and love people.  You don’t know if that love will be returned.  Sometimes, that love gets taken advantage of and people you thought you could trust become your enemies.  So much of your “job” is to build relationships with people, so when those relationships get broken it hurts from a career side and personally.

Some people don’t think you have a “real” job!  They don’t understand much of what you do during the week so they assume that your job is really, really easy or that you don’t really even do that much.  That can hurt your pride.

Some people take advantage of you.  They assume that you are there only to listen to them.  They assume that you aren’t a “normal” person but that you have a patience and love that never stop giving.  Full-time pastors are people too!

Within the job their are some pretty impossible goals.  You want everyone to be a part of your church.  You wonder why some people don’t want to be or why they would leave your church.  Your “job” has many different facets and goals.  For instance, you want everyone to accept Jesus as their Savior so that they will go to Heaven.  However, you have absolutely no power to make them do that.  It hurts you when you see people making terrible decisions.  You have to stick around and take care of their family when they do dumb things.

As a full-time pastor you see a lot of pain and feel very inadequate to help.

2. What are the greatest benefits about being in full-time ministry?

Almost every day that I lay my head down to my pillow I feel a sense of Godly satisfaction.  I know what I’m doing matters.  Whether I spent the entire day trying to understand two sentences of the Bible to teach that Sunday to “whomever decides to show up at church” or whether I preside at a funeral or wedding, I know that I’m doing something that God approves of and has made me to be able to do.

You get to see a lot of beauty.  You get to see people work on good things like their marriage, their parenting, or forgiving someone who has hurt them.  Many times you get to be the person that someone calls when they feel that they don’t have anyone else.  Because you are a pastor, many people instantly trust you.  They share things with you that they don’t share with anyone else.  You get to help carry their burden or even get to witness God heal their life.

You get to see people grow.  You get to share in some of life’s greatest moments like funerals, weddings, births, baptisms, moving, starting a new career, etc.

You get to teach the word of God which I believe has the power to change the world into a place full of love and joy.  You get to share the hope of suffering no more in Heaven as people are dying of cancer.  You get to share the hope of a good marriage to two people who are hopeless lost and projecting their frustration at that on their spouse.  You get to see God’s word and God’s people heal the heart of a person who was raised by mean parents.

You get to work alongside God every single day.

This is my short list and should satisfy your teacher’s expectations, I hope!


Tim

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