Page 13 - Pastoral Ministries -Student Textbook

God’s call may come without any simplicity or easiness, without any material visions as others may allude to.
God’s call may come just with an alien idea suddenly dropping in the brain and may make no sense to the
recipient, When God’s call come upon one’s life; sometimes it may not make you feel like a good idea or
something you wanted to do in life.

One may not know the meaning of everything going on in one’s life. God’s call upon one’s life may also bring
some form of insecurity just as Paul and Moses experienced it, just to mention but a few (2Corinthians. 11:28;
Exodus 3. Insecurity may come from the realization of the burden of pastoral ministry itself.

Here are some latest statistics put together by Jared C. Wilson in his book entitled “The Pastor’s justification:”

80 percent believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families
90 percent feel they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands
80 percent of pastors feel unqualified and discouraged
90 percent of pastors say the ministry is completely different than what they thought it would be like before
they entered the ministry
50 percent feel unable to meet the demands of the job
70 percent say they have a lower self-image now than when they first started
70 percent do not have someone they consider a close friend
40 percent report serious conflicts with church members at least once a month
33 percent confess having engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church, while the un-
reported figures are alarming
50 percent of pastors feel so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other
way of making a living
50 percent of the pastors will actually retire as a minister, while feeling grossly underpaid

Subjective Criteria

There is indeed a subjective side to a call to the ministry. People do go into the ministry because they feel what
they consider to be God’s claim in their lives for pastoral ministry.

There is a danger to this feeling . . . the person who has this feeling wants so badly to be a pastor that he will
sacrifice almost anything in order to accomplish his goal, including the comfort and welfare of his family.

If the desire the man has is purely subjective, then disaster may be the result.

Objective Criteria

Questions to pose:

1) Am I fit for the ministry?

2) Do I really like people enough to give myself in service to them unselfishly?

• Am I comfortable with people or do they threaten me?
• Would I be able to relate meaningfully to people in all kinds of situations?
• Am I able to confront people lovingly?

3) Am I able to communicate well with people?
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