Faith-Based Schools: Bringing faith to the classroom

Discerning whether God has placed a call to full-time ministry in our lives is something a lot of believers struggle with, and solid answers to those tough questions can be hard to find. There’s not a simple litmus test that can answer them either. In finding answers, though, there’s one vital step that a lot of people forget about: ministry. A call to ministry can be acted on long before a career in ministry begins.

Let me start with this: Every believer is called to ministry. Consider Isaiah’s words: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’”(Isaiah 6:8, NRSV) God’s call was not directed at Isaiah—it was open for anyone to respond, and Isaiah rose to the challenge.

The word minister actually means “servant”—this service is usually focused on other people—and every believer is called to serve others in some way. Just as with Isaiah, the call is out there for anyone to answer. So the first big question to ask before pursuing a career in ministry is not whether or not you can do the job, but whether or not you’re already doing the job.

Ministry outside of professional ministry can take a lot of forms. It can be talking with a friend who’s going through a rough spot in life, or involving yourself in (or organizing) charity projects with the company, or sharing your faith with those who are open to hear it. Keeping with the servant definition, it is simply meeting people’s needs, spiritual and otherwise.

Just as standing in a garage does not make you a car, working as a minister does not magically make you someone who ministers. It still takes work and dedication—both of which could be applied to accomplish ministry in any other position. Full-time ministry is not the only way to minister, nor does it guarantee ministry.

There’s a widely-held notion that the title and position that go along with ministry will make ministry easier. This is not entirely true. First of all, there are a number of administrative things that go along with any ministry position, so even full-time ministers don’t get to spend all of their time in ministry. Second of all, working at a church does not always put you in a place where you’re in constant contact with people in need of ministry. Yes, it does force you to focus a good portion of your time on ministry, but it’s not any easier to find opportunities to minister than it is in any other workplace.

I don’t mean to propose that no one should go into professional ministry. There’s definitely a strong need for pastors, youth pastors, and missionaries in the world today, and those jobs can be entirely right for some people. But ministry is not the automatic choice for those with a strong faith. God has a place in any job, and that place is just as important in the office as it is in the church.

An old pastor friend of mine once told me, as I was asking these questions myself, that if I could do anything well besides ministry, I should do that. At the time, I thought that was a rather audacious thing to say; but now, I see that he was counteracting the notion that a call to ministry was more spiritual than a call to, say, web design. Now, having pursued both ministry and web design, I can say with some certainty that I’m called to the latter.

If you find you are already doing the job of ministry, you’ll soon find you’ll lean one of two directions. One is that you’ll enjoy and excel in your career, and naturally fit ministry into it. (Mind you, it might take a few jobs to settle into that career. There may even be some career changes along the way, but ministry should fit nicely into each of them.) The other is that you feel a strong, undeniable urge to minister that may even interfere with your career. That is the call to ministry, and it doesn’t call to everyone. If you feel this call and feel that professional ministry is what you were absolutely made for, talk to a pastor or spiritual advisor more about this decision.

You can’t talk about higher education long without the word “vocation” coming up. Students are supposed to pick a vocation, and school itself is sometimes referred to as vocational training. The word has become synonymous with career and occupation.

But the word vocation is actually a little more complex than that. It comes from the root word vocatio, meaning literally “a divine calling from God.” In simple terms, it isn’t what you pick—it’s what you were made for.

Many of us have picked up a calling on our lives to serve God professionally. But oftentimes, we try to fit that calling into preconceived notions, boxes that are a little more obvious than others. Ask most people what serving God professionally looks like, and you’ll inevitably get answers like pastor, youth pastor, and field missionary. And those are all great things; but not everybody was made to be a pastor, youth pastor, or field missionary.

Growing up in youth group, I heard several times that you don’t have to be the best speaker or leader to be a pastor. That may be true, but you still won’t be the best speaker or leader. Play to your strengths. If you’re a mediocre speaker but a great artist, doesn’t it make more sense to put that skill to effective use?

Hundreds of churches, charities, and missions organizations need graphic designers, businessmen, lawyers, writers, event planners, musicians, mechanics, teachers, and almost anything else you could aspire to be. And they need people who are good at those things, just like churches need people who are good at pastoring.

I spent some time working with a missionary organization, and when reaching out to high school and college students, our unofficial slogan was, “Anything but bartending.” I worked as a writer and web designer. Yes, we needed speakers and translators—but we needed teachers for missionary children growing up overseas. We needed mechanics to fix vehicles that went out of service. We needed businessmen and women to run our offices, and accountants to manage our finances, and web designers to give us an effective presence online. All of these people were just as crucial as our missionaries in the field. (Our other unofficial slogan was, “Saving the world… from the office!”)

Fields like medicine and law have vast outlets in the Christian world. Medical missions are a huge need in the world today, and medically trained individuals are needed like never before. Even a nurse’s training can help save hundreds of lives. Those with legal training can work with organizations and governments to help stop systemic injustices and put processes in place to protect those who can’t protect themselves.

An increasing number of churches are also in need of artists like graphic designers and video producers. Even if you can’t find employment in a church doing these jobs, having those skills will allow you to volunteer in your free time and meet those needs, even if you’re working elsewhere.

Now, even though I’m not working for a missionary organization any more, I work in the education industry, helping others find and respond to their vocations. It took me a while to give up on being a pastor, but I feel like, for now at least, I’ve found my vocation.