I've been in ministry for over ten years now.
That's crazy. In some ways, it seems like it was just a couple of years ago, me being the "young pup", the "new guy", the "I graduated from bible college with a youth ministry degree, but I have no clue how to really minister in the real world" one. In other ways, I feel like Billy Graham - hanging around after years and years of doing what I love, seeing all of the things that have happened over the long period of time, and just asking God for a few more years of fruitfulness.
If I didn't leave my church last week, I would have celebrated my third anniversary as a worship minister in March. Before that, I was a youth minister - six and a half in Colorado, and a year and half in Dallas. I thought I was ready to make the "switch" from youth minister to adult minister four years ago. The associate minister at my church asked me to consider taking the position that was opening up that was in charge of the small group ministry and assimilation ministry (affectionately called "The Borg" ministry - "You will be assimilated.") I told him that I would take a couple of weeks to consider it. After three days, I told him I wasn't interested and that I wanted to still be youth minister. Although I really didn't tell him why, here were the top three reasons why at the time I decided I wasn't ready to leave youth ministry:
3. At the time, I still liked allnighters, week-long conferences and retreats. I look at them now and I thank God I don't have to do that anymore.
2. Adults scared me. The only adult contact I had in youth ministry was parents of teenagers. That was frightening. Well, I had some great adult leaders, but I figured they were "weird" like I was.
And the number one reason:
1. COUNSELING.
No matter what adult ministry position you end up taking, whether it be top dog (senior minister), loud dog (worship minister), mean dog (administrative minister), or whipped dog (Sunday School director), you will inevitably get looped into the counseling ministry of the church. Even if you end up avoiding having this task get put in your job description, there will always be a time when you're alone in the church office, trying to finish up something, and a lady will come in whose third husband is beating her and she doesn't know if she should leave him or not (To which I want to say, "Pack your bags, lady, get out of there now", but I know someone who said that, and an hour later her husband came back to the office with a gun. A big gun. Honestly. Of course, it was in Texas, where everyone has a gun, so...)
My rant is this: why do people seem to think that just because you're a minister, that makes you a good counselor? Believe me, it doesn't. I'm terrible at it. I never took a class in counseling (although I did have to take a class in psychology; unfortunately it was abnormal psychology, so I can only diagnose someone as a psychopath, I can't help them through it.), I don't have a counseling degree, but yet Mrs. Smith seems to believe that somehow my words of wisdom will make a difference in how she deals with her husband's "roving eye".
If I was the head of a denomination, one of the first things I would do would be to hire professional counselors for each church over 400 people. Or I would have each church partner with a Christian counselor in the area who would take on members of the congregation for a reduced fee; in return they would have some free advertising and more clients.
In the meantime, I have to go - Mrs. Smith just called and wanted to know if getting an ingrown toenail was a sign from God that she needs to cut down on her swearing.
No comments:
Post a Comment