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Going into ministry

Discussion in 'Free-For-All Archives' started by servant4him, Jun 17, 2003.

  1. servant4him

    servant4him New Member

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    I am planning on a future career of ministry.
    I continue to take this path.
    Though it may seem hard to believe, God has laid this path before. A sign was given to me, and I though I do not want to discuss it, I will tell you this sign is not physical. Are there any other people who have had a sign to enter ministry?
    All those who wish to become pastors or priests please post here!
     
  2. servant4him

    servant4him New Member

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    Oh, by the way, I am Lutheran.
    Please post denomination!

    --Brady--

    God bless all who believe!
     
  3. Dan Stiles

    Dan Stiles New Member

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    Brady,

    I'm surprised no one has posted to your thread yet. I am a pastor and thought I'd share a part of my "call" with you. God certainly made his will clear to me...

    I had been preaching some as a lay-speaker, filling-in for ill or otherwise absent pastors on Sundays, and even acting as a "circuit-rider" for a group of churches known as the "Bluebird Parish" (14 small churches without pastors and 18 preachers who rotated through the pulpits so that each church had a preacher every Sunday). The call to this point had been clearly to preach the Word, but not to pastoral ministry. Preaching and pastoring are two related but different things; pastoral ministry involves shepherding a congregation. I was looking at the difference and felt that God's call for me was to full-time pastoral ministry, but that meant changes and...

    One evening, as I stood in my room, I prayed aloud, "God, I don't care if you have to hit me upside the head with a two by four, I need to know; is this what you want me to do or not?"

    The next morning, as I entered my class room (I was teaching at the time), the telephone rang. The man on the other end of the line was a pastor I had met with twice - briefly - and who knew very little about me except that I was available to preach for him on short notice if he got ill or called away. I had given him my card but he had lost it in his desk, yet somehow it showed up that morning even before he looked for it. He had recieved a call that morning from his District Superintendant and my name came to mind. He ask me if I would be willing to talk with his District Superintendant about pastoring Ebenezer Church. I had no idea who his District Superintendant was, nor where "Ebenezer" was, nor anything else for that matter... so I said "yes."

    I asked one evening, and God answered that next morning. No question in my mind.

    BTW, I'm an ordained Evangelical Methodist elder (not United Methodist) with a solid Baptist (IFB, SB, ABC) background which includes preaching, music ministry, and some missionary activities. And no, that's not a contradiction.

    God bless you and make you certain.
     
  4. USN2Pulpit

    USN2Pulpit New Member

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    I had been praying about it for months, then while away on a military op to northern Japan, I prayed that my wife would somehow understand this call upon my life and that God would equip her, too. Having never discussed the issue with her because of my own fear of the call, my wife placed an international call the following day to me, expressing a powerful move of the Holy Spirit in her life to our family.

    She told me that she felt certain that I was to surrender myself to God for His ministry, and that she was to be my helper.

    Let me say again that we had never discussed this in any manner beforehand. When I told her of my own convictions on the matter, she was left speechless, and I praised God for preparing my wife.

    You see, I didn't ask for a sign...just that God would prepare my wife if I was truly to be in the ministry. He delivered so much more than I asked for.

    Oh yeah, I'm southern Baptist.

    [ July 07, 2003, 01:16 PM: Message edited by: USN2Pulpit ]
     
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