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I have been a minister for nearly twenty years, starting out as youth minister and Christian educator. I became a pastor in 1994 at a small congregation in the heart of the city. The church was in decline, and at the core was confusion about the church's mission. Returning to the Great Commission, I suggested that the church's mission was still to make disciples for Christ, and that this mission could be fulfilled by embracing their downtown location. Of course, the neighborhoods within walking distance of the church were not the middle class, white and calm suburban neighbors the church wanted to embrace; they were poor, ethnically diverse and somewhat scary neighborhoods. I preached my conviction that the church needed to do ministry in the location God had planted it; the congregation got tired of hearing it. When talk began of moving the congregation out to the suburbs, I decided to leave. I felt a bit betrayed by the congregation, since they had told me when they hired me that they wanted the church to stay downtown, and that they wanted to do thriving ministry there.

The congregation has some other problems as well. They don't seem to want their religion to interfere with their plans too much; they like being comfortable, and they put their trust in lay-leaders who seem to be building their own influence within the group. They also tend to scare away new members if those people want to see change in the church.

In the meantime, my marriage failed. I don't want to start a huge debate about that subject, but suffice it to say that people in the church seized upon this as the "real" reason for my departure. In the meantime, I have been working at another job for the last four years because I didn't want to move away from my children. Now they're grown, and I feel I can move away without damage to them. I'll be much more careful this time as I search for a new congregation to serve...I'm looking for a congregation that cares about ministry.

I don't think I was along for the ride; I think the congregation and I wanted to follow two different maps.

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In the post-modern religious world, the meaning of church has certainly changed from its original meaning. Today we have political churches and religious organizations, where activist ministers and ministries are busy at work using the church to further their own political agendas. Some have gone so far as to jeopardize their organization's 501C3 tax-exemption status. However, what is even sadder is that much of what they do is reportedly done in the name of Jesus Christ! We know that our ways are not God's ways!

We also have the American Capitalist Churches or Mega-Buck Church ministries as I call them. In these churches the emphasis is always on raising money. At these churches the prosperity gospel is 'the Gospel' that is being preached. In these churches the ministry is used to garner wealth usually for the pastor and his minions. I have always admired Rev. Billy Graham for keeping his salary in line with those with those to whom he preached. If Reverend Graham had used the same logic as some of these mega-buck ministers of today, he would have been the wealthiest of all American preachers. Instead he kept his salary in line with the members of his congregation.

We also have the program churches that are rapidly expanding along the landscape. The goal of these these churches seems to be to provide enough activities and programs to meet the human needs of their members. The only thing that they fail to do is to sufficiently help to meet the spiritual needs of God's flock, the most important need. Don't misunderstand me, the programs at the program churches are meaningful. However, as a Presbyterians pastor friend of mine experienced at the church where she pastored, her members and board approved of her as long as she focused on programs (works) and extracurricular activities for the church. However, only 5 to 10 minute homilies were allowed each Sunday morning for the sermon.

Paul instructed the Elders at Miletus in Acts 20:28, to,"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."

We must (as we are being requested to do here in this blog), look first at ourselves. We must do some self-actualization ministers and ask ourselves, what is my motive for being in the ministry? We must do this before we can help the flock. Next, in order to be placed over the flock, we must have been ordained to do so by the Holy Ghost; we should not just hire ourselves out to the highest bidder or to provide an income for our families.

Finally we must take the oversight over the flock where the Holy Ghost has placed us. Then we must feed that flock, keeping in mind that the church does not belong to the pastor, the board or the members. The church was purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.

Ministers who are saved and who have been called and ordained by God to pastor churches differ greatly from ministers who simply chose ministry as a vocation; and we have too many of the latter. Too many pastors, like many in the flock, pastor or join churches for a variety of reasons. A pastor friend of mine was shocked when he entered Seminary to find that his professors did not even believe in the Ressurection.

Whatever your motive, Paul even acknowledged in Philippians, the first chapter, that preachers would preach for various reasons. He even added that there would be some intrinsic value to their preaching, Philippians 1:18 "Whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice".

As for me, I am not looking for employment, I am already employed by God' I am simply waiting to be re-appointed by the Holy Spirit!

Rev. C. Solomon

Peace & Grace,

P.S. I wasn't aware that this blog existed when this topic was raised, so I am 4 months late in responding.