A good career choice?

I was having my blood taken today by a very friendly and chatty nurse who asked me a question that I am often posed, “why did you become a minister?" For some reason she, like many people I come across are taken aback by the frankness and honesty of my response which is always, “God told me to.” If they dare to enquire further (as my tattoo artist did once) they will be treated with a full rundown of what I experience in the period leading up to me deciding to leave industry and spend four years of study and training to become a minister. I was thinking about that on the drive home from the doctor’s surgery, why else would someone become a minister if not called by God, and not only that, having that called affirmed by the church. 

This is starting to become another “rabbit hole” as I sit here wondering how many ministers throughout the world are practicing and leading congregations not because God told them to do it - whatever one’s experience of that is - but for some other reason. I picture a spotty young oik sitting in front of the school careers adviser and after having rejected the idea of becoming a plumber, or joining the army, plumps for “church minister” as they think it might be a good job. Does that really happen, do people become ministers or vicars because they think it might be a good career choice? I am not naïve enough to think that they wouldn’t, I hope that you dear reader are not either. 

In my short “career” as a minister I saw more than my fair share of cronyism and nepotism, with the addition of followers crooning over the offspring of celebrated speakers and ministers in such extremes that it made sick to my stomach. It is something one experiences quite a lot in the business world, yet it is shameful that it permeates the church as well, all part of the human condition I suppose. It smacks of the 18th and 19th century where among the aristocracy the first son inherited the estate, the second son was sent to serve in the army, and the third son sent to serve God. Interesting that God doesn’t get the first fruits, a reflection on how the arrogance of the aristocracy felt they were above all things. The church has warranted a fair amount of criticism over the centuries and continues to do so to this day. Even the stratospheric changes catalysed by the action of Martin Luther has not resulted in a church that is led solely by men and women of faith, but often those with a different agenda. Most members of the clergy are there because God called them, but some are not, and that’s one of the reasons why the mud thrown by non-believers sometimes sticks. 

Ministers, vicars, or priests, should only be those called by God and affirmed by the church. If there is any other reason they are looking to join the ministry, then they should join the army, take up plumbing, indeed anything else as their presence devalues the spirituality of the church.  

 

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