“Pastor, I want to be full-time.” I had no idea what he wanted when he set the appointment with me, but I certainly was not expecting this.
“Full-time what?” I asked.
“I don’t know, just full-time, like you, I guess.” He was relatively new in church and probably had no clue what I actually did on a daily basis.
“So you want to minister.” I was trying to make ministry, not full-time, the point.
“Yeah, like you and Jun and Ferdie.”
“What exactly do you want to do in ministry?”
“I don’t know, anything full-time, I guess.” Anything but stay in school, I thought to myself.
“How long until you graduate?”
“I’m tired of school, I want to go full-time now.” As the conversation went on, I discovered he was struggling in a couple of classes, thus the urgency to be a full-time minister.
I tried to explain to my friend that there was no calling to be “full-time” mentioned anywhere in the Bible, but that every Christian was to represent Christ “full-time” no matter where their paycheck came from—whether they were a student, a teacher, a factory worker, or the factory owner. I am pretty sure he did not understand what I was saying. Like many, he assumed that if one really loves God wholeheartedly, then that means “full-time ministry” is the best career path.
I have met many people who are “in the ministry” or on the church payroll who don’t seem to actually minister to people very often or very effectively. Isn’t it more important to minister to people no matter where we work, than to be “in the ministry”? It is quite common to meet missionaries who do little mission work, but they are full-time missionaries living on the mission field with mission support simply because they felt “called to be missionaries.” I think having a mission from God and actually doing mission work is much more important than “being a missionary.”
For the Apostle Paul, ministering God’s Word and ministering to people were more important than being in the ministry. There were times he made tents for a living, but still ministered to people, and there were times he did ministry for a living while he ministered to people. For Paul, the big issue was not whether he paid his bills through the tithes and offerings or the proceeds from tent sales; the big issue was doing ministry.
David was certainly called by God, yet he was never in the “full-time ministry.” In his day, full-timers included priests, Levites, and prophets. David was none of these. He was a shepherd, a musician, a soldier, and eventually ended up in politics, but he was never a priest, a Levite, or a prophet. God called him and used him mightily, throughout his “secular” careers.
Joseph was also called and used by God, but was never “in the ministry.” He was in jail, but not in the ministry. He was a houseboy for a rich family, but not a full-time minister. He held a high cabinet position in a pagan government, but he was not paid through “love offerings.” He was used by God to save his family and his people, but it took them many years to recognize that God was indeed working through Joseph. I suppose there are many people like Joseph today who are quietly going about their daily jobs, and sometime in the future we will all realize that God planted them there for our good and for the good of our nation. What they are doing now seems quite ordinary, but since God is in it, one day we will see the big picture and realize God was actually working through the mundane to accomplish something extraordinary, using the secular to do something spiritual.
Daniel was an excellent student and an advisor to a ruler, but not a full-time minister. He certainly represented God in everything he did and said, but he was not officially “working for the ministry.” He served God by serving an ungodly government leader. Because of the way Daniel did his job, God got glory and the nation was transformed. It took many years, but that is often how God does things. He is generally more patient than we are.
May God give us more people like Paul, David, Joseph, and Daniel—people who serve and represent God full-time no matter where they work, people who are more concerned with actually doing ministry than with having a ministry calling card, people who have ministry in them even if they are not officially in the ministry.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Jesus Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23,24
