SARAH WRITES: I have a great job. I have been working there for over a year and I love it. But I recently noticed that I am in a great place to go out and minister to my community. I am 18, able-bodied, have experience in many areas and (outside of work) I have no big obligations. My job is distracting and taxing, but although I have money saved up, the “funds” would help my ministry opportunities. Should I quit my job to solely focus on ministry? Or just try to do both at once?
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I’m just going to say: PRAY!! No other teens can give you the advice that God can, so ask him for advice! That said, I will say you should just evaluate the situation. If this job is taking away from the life God has for you, ditch it! No job is worth detracting from what God tells you to do. Also, God may have a ministry in this job for you to pursue. He may have a person there that needs to hear the gospel or words of encouragement from you. So just pray pray pray. That is the best advice I can give you.
Good thoughts, Nathan 🙂
Thank you Haylie.
This is pretty much everything that I want to say. 🙂
Pray, stay in the Word, and walk through this with your church. This is a huge choice to make, so I can’t tell you exactly what to do. Still, I think having a job makes for a lot of opportunities to share Jesus in a very natural way. Your work relationships might be more effective than this other ministry. I’d suggest reading Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, it will help you no mater what you decide. I really hope this helps!
Just to put a spin on things, remember that your job can be a ministry too. Unless ALL your coworkers are saved (or you work alone in your basement or something lol) then there’s always opportunities for ministry within your job. So just remember that when making this decision. =)
Good perspective!!!!
Thanks! =)
Right! And when you do good work, you’re doing a *good work* (in the Ephesians 3 sense)
Another thing we have to think of is the long term ministry God has for us. It would be a shame to invest all your savings here when He really had those funds in mind for something in the future like the ministry of starting a family or something you can’t even imagine yet. Remember that Jesus told the story of counting the costs before starting a project (Luke 14). Maybe you have what you need maybe you don’t, I have no idea.
I’d say the best course of actions is to first pray, then go to scripture, then go to wise men and women you trust who know your situation best and would tell you what you don’t want to hear if it is necessary. Maybe combining your resources with that of someone else in a similar position would be a win win. It might be good to look around for something like that if you can’t see it right off the bat.
I don’t mean to make this a DONT DO THIS post but that’s my take on things and I’ve been very thankful for similar wisdom poured into my life through the years. God bless! praying for wisdom for you. – James 1:5
Obviously pray and seek counsel from Godly men in and women in your community but don’t forget that your current job is not JUST a job. It is also a ministry opportunity the Lord has given you. If everyone went into full time ministry, who would be available to share the gospel with those unsaved folks doing day to day life? All of us, myself included, need to remember that everything we do everyday is a ministry if we keep The Lord’s perspective!
I can’t really say any more than what has already been said, all the advice I can give you is to seek God, pray for wisdom and guidance, dig into His word, and seek wise counsel of people you trust. And in His timing I’m sure the Lord will guide you to what you need to do. Hope this helps!
Hi Sarah. So I think everyone else has pretty much said it all. Prayer is very important for making any kind of decision, so always go to God first in prayer and the reading of his Word. Seek wise counsel from your elders and parents, as well. But also like @GuitarwithArms:disqus said, your job can be your ministry, too. Sometimes it is easy to think that a person who is working with some kind of Christian organization or ministry is maybe doing better ministry than another person who just has a common place job. But God calls ALL of his children to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19) wherever they are in life, whether that be at a normal job where you are surrounded by non-believers or working with an organization such as Samaritans Purse or CEF or something else and whether that be in America or in another country. God calls us to be a missionary where ever we are in life. Now this is not to try to convince you to stay at your job, but rather to remember that your job can be a mission field too.
I also have a heart for ministry, but for my first job when I was 18 I worked at a restaurant in which most of my coworkers were not believers, but God was really able to use me there to be a witness. For example, one public-schooled non-Christian high school girl came from a broken home, didn’t always have very loyal or close friends, was not always likeable, and was often times a rather lazy coworker, yet I saw in her someone who needed to be loved and cared for genuinely and so I sought to love her and listen to her and care about her in the best way I could, being willing to be her friend even though she was very worldly in her life style. Because of my willingness to be her friend, that opened up doors for me to share the gospel a little with her and led to some really cool conversations. she never became a believer during our time working together, but I pray that my witness has made an eternal impact on her life and that I may have sewn seeds in her heart. Besides her, I had some really interesting and good conversations with a few other of the guys I worked with and although they have not yet excepted the gospel I know that God placed me in there life for a reason and I am praying that one day each one of them would be saved. So that is just a couple examples of God using my first job as a ministry platform.
Now I am working for my church, doing kitchen ministry part time and that is primarily ministering to believers and gives a very different atmosphere and type of ministry, but I do not consider either one of those jobs to be higher up in ministry. God has used and is using each one for his glory.
So like I said, I am not trying to say that you should stay with your job because God does call some people to do direct ministry in which they must drop their job and if that is what God is calling you to do than go and do exactly that. But I also don’t want you to think that you can’t make an impact for the gospel in the situation that you are in or that it is a lesser ministry than some other ministry.
Sorry this is so lengthy, but I hope you find it some what helpful. 😉
I think that question is one that only the Lord can answer, because He knows you and all the circumstances best.
I did 6 months full time with YWAM. It was a great experience and was well worth the time and the money. Since then, and before YWAM, I have my own evangelism ministry that I don’t get paid for, nobody gets to know too much about it because I don’t advertise. Whenever I speak to the souls of the world I always am alert for an open door to minister Jesus love to them. I purpose myself to speak to the lost. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to be a free agent for Jesus. Just today I spoke to four people about Jesus (3 men and a woman) and am having tea at the lady’s home…she is 92yrs of age I hope to bring her to Jesus not too far away. I find great joy in sharing Christ’s love by message, kindness and action to the unsaved world. I have found that quite the bit of ministries is scripturally unecessary and my suggestion is make sure that your ministry is not a waste of your life. If you read the words of Jesus, and the apostle Paul you will find what is necessary to fulfill “God’s” call, instead of people and organisations call. Pray and fast, live before Jesus as an open book and He will guide you in the right path. 🙂 Step out in faith and life in Jesus is exciting!! I bring to you Proverbs 3: 5-6. Trust Jesus.
That all depends on how you define ministry. If you’re not already ministering to others from exactly where you’re at, then that’s something you need to look at before anything else. Showing others the gospel and the love of Christ through our everyday actions is an integral part of being a Christian.
That being said, I think God calls us to minister through our passions. For me, that includes working with children. I absolutely love it, and I’m good at it, and I can use that skill to change a child’s life. I can’t imagine spending my life in any other way. God has given you a specific set of skills in a specific set of circumstances with a specific love for something. Whether it’s in your current job, or in the other opportunities for ministry that you’re looking at, or in another thing entirely, find the thing that makes you excited and passionate. Find the spot where you change that corner of the world. Then do it to the best of your ability and trust God to work through you and keep opening doors for you. Because that’s how we find our calling.
I hope this helps. I feel very preachy right now, but I promise that that was not my intent! 😉 Whatever you end up doing, keep God in the center of it and He will use you to minister.
yes pursuing ministry is something that would glorify God but i believe that as adam and eve he wants us to be fruitful and multiply and from what i know (correct me if I’m wrong) you can’t have kids if you become a priest and if you can doesn’t the bible say we should provide for our families so i think it all comes down to personal view and understanding of the bible and also you have to be sure that thats what God wants you to do with your life