Called to Pastor or called to BE a Pastor?

OK guys, I have been thinking about something and wanted to post for opinion concerning the call.

11 years ago I gave up the last church where I was pastor. No scandal, no sin, no theft, no bad feelings in any way. I just knew that God was moving me in another direction and it was time for someone new to take over there.

For those of you who don’t know me well, most of my ministry has been as an interim pastor, not as a regular pastor. I have been a regular pastor twice, for a total of less than 4 years. Since I gave up that church I have served as an interim a couple of times and have also preached as a fill in, done some revival meetings and preached at other assorted opportunities, but I have not served as a regular pastor. My ministry has also always been bivocational. Early in my ministry I had hoped that someday God would lead me into a full time ministry position and I would quit my secular job, but now I see that God has been able to use me in ways he could never use a full time minister.

Since that time people I know, or people I have just met often come to me with questions and problems, usually predicated by the question, “Aren’t you a pastor?” or something like that. My usual response is something along the lines of, “I am a minister and have been a pastor but I am not pastor of a church right now.”

I am fine with that, but thinking of my call and my ministry, I believed when I was called that I was called to pastor, I still believe that. When one church where I was a member since then asked me about becoming a deacon I explained that I could not be a deacon because I was already ordained and was a pastor.

And here is the central thought I am trying to express and would appreciate hearing your ideas. I am not, at this time, working as a pastor. I have in the past and I hope to do so again in the future, but I am not actively looking for anything, I am just waiting on the Lord. But being a pastor is not simply something I do or don’t do, it is what and who I am.

People still come to me quite often with questions and problems. While I do not have a church I try to give them the time and consideration I would have given members of any church where I did serve. Often I will direct them back to their own churches if they have one, but sometimes they just need to talk to someone outside their current church. I quite often get theological questions about things they have heard in services and while I am careful to not be critical of their current pastor I do try to explain both sides of our common theological disagreements.

All of our counselling and training tells us that you should not get your identity from your career, to do so is to set yourself up for failure because every job comes to an end at some point. Yet being a pastor is more than a career or job, it is a calling. It is a calling that does not go away because you move from one church or one position to another. It is not a job that we can turn off at 5 when we go home and pick up again the next morning. It affects every conversation, every interaction, and every moment of our lives. It is much more than what we do, it is what we are.

So I would summarize thusly: Being a pastor is not something I was called to DO, it is something I was called to BE and something that I am, regardless of my current position within the church I am a member of.

So what do you think? I would like to hear what other pastors or former pastors think on this subject.

 

Honestly? I have to define what a Pastor is here? Not just on BaptistBoard in general, but in this particular forum set up specifically for pastors?

Ok, here goes.

By “Pastor” I mean the overseer or elder charged with the administration of a local Christian Church.

I mean the same word transliterated episkopos in Greek, translated bishop or overseer in the KJV. It appears in Acts, I Timothy, Titus, Philippians, and I Peter.

I mean the noun defined by Webster as: a spiritual overseer; especially a clergyman serving a local church or parish.

I am using the word Pastor as a noun, not as a verb or action. “To Pastor” could be an infinitive verb using his noun but to use the word pastor as a verb would be incorrect grammar, although I do understand what you mean CTB.

I would say that while we are all called to minister to each other in different ways, not every Christian is called to be a pastor.

Thank you exscentric, I don’t think you missed any training, just recognized your different gifts. Everyone is not good at the one on one.

 

Yes, and I certainly would not put myself above someone else simply because our gifts were different. All part of the same body.

Teaching is certainly part of being a pastor and I Ti 3:2 describes the pastor (bishop) as apt to teach among other things. In Romans 12 there is a specific difference between prophesy, teaching, and exhortation as each are listed as different gifts. Yet good preaching often involves all three to some degree.

I have always treasured the one on one opportunity to connect with another believer and help them in some way. Often when I get caught up in the secular world and my secular job someone will come up to me and share some kind of need and all of sudden it’s like a switch flips in my head and I think, “Oh yea, that is why I am really here.”

That is what I am trying to say about BEING a pastor not just doing a pastor’s job. Being ready always, not only to give reason of our hope, but to minister to those around us and allow God to use us to meet their needs. That does not go away just because you change your office.

 

Good question PNS, even if a bit off topic.

In my case I knew my call was authentic when I saw what I felt in my heart confirmed in others. Others being other Christians who’s opinions I trusted and respected.

The defining moment . . . had to be a conversation I had with an older pastor who was my pastor for a time and a mentor for decades. I told him what I had been feeling and how God had been moving me and that I felt called to ministry, and he looked at me like I as an idiot and said, “Yea, I’ve known that for months, I see the call and change on you every day.”

As far as a career choice, I have never been able to make ministry a career, so that never came into the picture. I was working a secular job when I was called, and I still am. At the time I thought, hoped even, that I would someday quit my “day job” and be able to work in a full time ministry position. But that is not how God has worked. What he has enabled me to do, as a bi-vocational pastor, is to minister to churches and in places where no full-time minister could. I have the freedom to preach for nothing and have many times. I have the ability to come in and help churches that are in distress and sometimes have no resources. It has been a wild ride so far.

I understand the trap of a career choice someone could make. Someone who is a good student and a good public speaker might look at ministry as a good way to make some money. But for me that was never part of it.