The Importance Of The Pastoral Ministry

Register to read the introduction… She was in charge of the food and clothing ministry which seemed to be almost a full-time task for her. Literally thousands of people in the church and the local community were ministered to by my mother, and I was a firsthand witness to many of those. I remember carrying sacks of groceries and clothes to homes all over the city and watching my mom pray and lead these needy people to the Lord. It was in my mother that I saw the hard and often unrecognized work of ministry, but again, it was in the confines of a large church that was committed in stocking the shelves and clothing racks. My mother never had to beg the church for food or clothes to give to the needy. The only time I saw the pastors involved with her ministry was in directing people to her, and looking back on it now, their lack of involvement tainted my view of what pastoral ministry truly is.
When I was seventeen I had the unique opportunity to go to England on a missions trip with my youth group. Bitter sweet tragedy struck when my sister called me from across seas and told me that she had the opportunity to personally lead my father to the Lord just before he had a stroke that had put him into a coma. I immediately came home to find him still in this unresponsive coma, and he passed away a few days later. I treated this life changing event as …show more content…
All of my life up to that point included my violin as my main strength and the main way I could relate to people. The band at that small church was made up of the Pastor's wife playing organ, another lady playing piano and her husband playing bass. The music was very traditional, and I never connected with the music or the congregation like I had in previous churches. Furthermore, ministry in the south is drastically different than the north. The people in the south are much more personal and inquisitive, for lack of better words. My first ministry experience was not what I thought it would be. Honest self reflection made me address this calling for the first time in my life and I finally realized that my main weakness was extreme introversion. Quite frankly, I am not a people person. I do not enjoy social events or gatherings and I would much rather be alone than with a crowd. That weakness within a very small, inquisitive and personal church in northern Georgia was not a good combination. When I forced myself to take the initiative in ministry opportunities it always came across as disingenuous. I wanted the spot light but did not want to mix with people. Apart from the stage, I was never told what ministry was really going to be like, and when I found it out the hard way, I had to face my calling head