You know that feeling when your heart is broken and there is nothing you can do to mend it? That is the state I have been in for a while. This post is different from my others, it has nothing to due with my readings. This is my heart overflowing with no outlet for my thoughts or emotions to fall upon. So, I am putting it in a post.
What is my heart broken over? The fact that ministry has become a career and not a lifestyle to so many pastors and non-profit organizations. I am an educated person, I hold two degrees from Kuyper College (Youth Ministry, Bible/Theology); however. I am working a ten dollar an hour job just so I can be a part of ministry. For me, ministry is my life, it bleeds out of me. Yet, I am looked down upon by the church because I don't view a program or a sermon as the heart beat of a ministry. I understand there needs to be teaching and programming, but the emphasis is misplaced if that is at the core. Did Christ ever just give a sermon and call it a night? No, he lived with, walked with his people everyday.
It saddens me wen I see churches seeking people who only want to climb up the political church ladder. Their eyes are set on climbing ministry by ministry through the church. I am saddened because this shows no passion for the ministry they are involved in, it shows their desires are not to do ministry, but to build a career. I desire deeply to work in a youth group, my heart has been molded for a single purpose, living each day walking along side of teens. I have not obtained this goal because of the career chasers, the ladder climber's. Apparently there is no room for a Youth Pastor who has only one interest, which is to be allowed to live out his life doing what he was made to do, being a YOUTH PASTOR.
For me, doing God's work, is my lifestyle, as it should be as a pastor. But too often pastors and other ministry workers get sidetracked by career, money, time, control, etc. They lose focus of why they ever entered ministry. We our in ministry to be Christ to others. The only way to do that is to do what Christ did, in terms of ministry, and live as much like him as we can. One other area where I have seen churches falling is in the leaderships desire to meet the needs of the poor and outcasts. Churches shun these people or they cut a check each month to help the cause. Christ deliberately focused on these people. The Gospel of Matthew says that Jesus came for the poor, outcast, women, children all those who are cut off from society. Why are we as the church not opening our heart, doors, ministries to these people? Instead each week the leadership caters to their upper-middle class members. I am calling out the leaders, pastors, directors, etc. to stop your career, pick up the cross and reset your lifestyle to that of Christ so the church can truly do God's work and be a saving grace.
My heart is burdened for the lost, the youth which are the two set of people the church ignores the most. God made me to be a pastor, it is not my career, it is my lifestyle, the core of who I am. I do it for no pay (I would like to have it support my family), but it is ingrained in me so deeply I can't not be involved. Why can't a person with two degrees, formal training, eight years experience be a youth pastor for a church or work with the poor? Because I am different, my ethos does not align with the church, at my core is the desire to be in relationships, which all else in ministry stems from. My heart is broken.
Apologies for the rant and random nature of this post. I promise all future posts will be thought out and backed up like they have been, this has been an outlet for a one-time overflow of my heart. Thanks for listening.
In His Name,
-David Mann
