Jobs in ministry today used to be fairly defined. A person who sensed a call to vocational ministry could aspire to be a pastor, education minister, youth pastor, music minister, missionary, or a Christian schoolteacher. As time progressed and churches grew, new titles were added to the opportunity list, such as children’s minister, associate pastor, or in a large church, a person might become a pastor of administration.
Everything has changed. Now a person who senses a call to vocational ministry has a huge range of choices available.
Here’s a list of what was listed recently on ChurchStaffing.com:
1. Teaching Pastor
2. Innovative Pastor
3. Creative Arts Director
4. Technical Pastor
5. Assimilation Pastor
6. Family Minister
7. Executive Pastor
8. Discipleship Pastor
9. Director of Modern Worship and Arts
10. Creative media specialist
11. Programming and Production Director
12. Mission planning director
13. Multi-site campus pastor
14. Missions team leader
15. Community groups pastor
I think there are three primary reasons for the wide range of career jobs in ministry today:
1. The rise of Para church ministries
2. Churches trying to better match gifting and passion.
3. Changing needs of the church and culture.
Ministry jobs of the future will be more focused to people’s needs and people’s gifts and abilities, than tradition or seminary training. Ministers will have more of an opportunity to write their own job description. (This is especially good news to introverts, since there are now very successful career choices completely behind the scene. Look at the work of author and blogger Anne Jackson who is making a huge impact mostly from behind her computer.)
My advice to those just starting in ministry. Tear down the traditional career ladder model of ministry advancement. Decide what God has gifted you to do and how that matches the needs of the local church or the Kingdom. Then don’t look for the career choice, look for the assignment God has for you at the time.
Your career path may never look like what you thought it would, but it will probably better match the path God has for your life and the ministry he has for you to do.
Dear Blessed Pastor
Greetings in the Mighty name of Jesus.
We are running King of Glory Ministries of Pakistan .
Every Friday we have a Healing & Revivalmeeting.
We want to invite you to come & preach in our meetings.
We also invite you to have Crusade, Pastors Conference, women Conference, & Children meetings in Pakistan .
We believe that soon you will come to Pakistan & preach the Gospel.
We invite you to work with us in Pakistan .
Please accept our Invitation
King of Glory Ministries of Pakistan .
http://www.orgsites.com/ia/kgm
Thank you so much for your invitation. While there are no plans to come to Pakistan at the current time, I will certainly pray about this as an opportunity,
Great advice. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Brandon. I love it too when God raises up a risk-taker for the Kingdom.
Malcolm, that’s a great question. I actually asked this question several months back: https://ronedmondson.com/2008/08/identifying-potential-future-leaders.html and I agree we need to be asking.
I also wrote about discerning the call to ministry here: https://ronedmondson.com/2008/06/discerning-the-call-to-ministry-revised.html
Thanks for your comments. I see you are from Clarksville originally. Small world.
It seems to be that our abundance of opportunities is a bit misleading. The plethora of titles is particularly true for the larger church (800 or more in attendance). For the smaller church (less than 200) I think the real need is for leaders who can minister. In the large church it’s easier to specialize. In a smaller church you have to be able to lead. I’m not crazy about hiring “specialty” pastors or ministers right now. Today, I’m looking for those who can lead, regardless of area of concentration. So I guess my question would be “Has God called you to lead?”
Excellent article, Ron. These are exciting days to be involved in ministry. I think back to the passage in 1 Timothy 3 that mentions “desiring a good work.” I think it’s awesome when someone pursues their deepest passion for ministry and throws the inhibitions aside.