A "Christian Job" ??

[cosmicutopia]

I am 22 years old, and I am have to been trying to decide what my career is going to be (currently taking general studies). The problem is, with every career except in ministry, most all of your time is devoted to that job and not on God.. Here are some questions -

Are there only certain careers that God will be satisfied with?

Should the ideal job for a believer be in ministry (church)?

 

[farouk]

I am 22 years old, and I am have to been trying to decide what my career is going to be (currently taking general studies). The problem is, with every career except in ministry, most all of your time is devoted to that job and not on God.. Here are some questions -

Are there only certain careers that God will be satisfied with?

Should the ideal job for a believer be in ministry (church)?

c:

No, I don't think so.

Basically we earn our living.

We can't expect that only in Christian ministry can we earn our living properly.

 

[theLords]

I am 22 years old, and I am have to been trying to decide what my career is going to be (currently taking general studies). The problem is, with every career except in ministry, most all of your time is devoted to that job and not on God.. Here are some questions -

Are there only certain careers that God will be satisfied with?

Should the ideal job for a believer be in ministry (church)?

Paul preached the Gospel, but simultaneously earned a living as a tentmaker.

If one is called to do ministry work, one should obey that call; but too many people decide for themselves they want to do ministry work (even though they haven't been called by God) and then fall apart and almost lose (and sometimes entirely lose) their faith.

We are all ambassadors for Christ 24/7 we represent Him. In a secular job, at the grocery store, at a gas station, on vacation etc. We never stop being Christian.

We, (Christians) are told we are the light of the world, and that we shouldn't hide our light underneath a basket. The secular world needs Christians to be that light just as much as the Church body.

My advice, pray, pray, pray, and start to find what out what you like, what are you passionate about? What would you like to do for the rest of your life?

Tough questions, I know. I'm currently contemplating the same questions

 

[Igor]

Nope, we all need a way to support ourselves and possibly families as well. You don't really see much in the Bible about all of the early Christians living off of the ministry. Since they didn't starve to death, I have to assume most of them worked for a living.

When we speak of giving our time to God, we are not talking about 24 hours per day, 7 days a week without doing anything to make a living. We are talking about what priorities you put on your time you have available. If your job doesn't require you to work on Sunday, do you go to church on Sunday morning and worship God, or do you watch football? Or if you have a choice between two relatively equal jobs, but one requires you to work on Sunday and the other doesn't, do you chose the one that doesn't so you can go to church or do you secretly choose to work on Sunday so you will have an "excuse" not to go?

You do not have to quit your job, or only work in full time ministry for God to use you. I have known some who have worked in full time ministry for decades and testify that they have seen very little evidence of God's working through them. I've also known those who can only volunteer a few hours a month or year, but have been used by God in mighty and visible ways many times. God will use you where you are as long as you make Him your priority in life!

Besides, what if the only visible thing you do in your entire Christian life is to lead only one person to the Lord? But that person goes on to lead thousands to the Lord as a result? (It happens., It really does!) That means that those particular few minutes you gave to God and allowed Him to use you to lead one person to him, directly resulted in thousands of souls saved!

 

[farouk]

I guess being in Christian ministry should be only if your sense of vocation compels you to do it, even though other avenues would be more to your material advantage.

 

[Mike]

Ephesians 4
"<sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV1984-29268">11</sup> It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, <sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV1984-29269">12</sup> to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up <sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV1984-29270">13</sup> until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. "

Not everyone is called to preach. I believe the Bible has a lot to say about the higher standards a preacher is held to. If you don't have the feeling that you have been called to the ministry, I would suggest not forcing a round peg in a square whole. You can be used in almost any field. The harvest is plenty, the workers are few. Whatever a person does can be used for good or bad. And we should be very conscious of putting our full efforts into anything that we do. Every day should be an honest day's work. If you listen, pray and obey, you will find yourself reaping the harvest. He may put you in a place you'd never expected for a reason you might not know.

1 Thes 4
" <sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV1984-29599">11</sup> Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, <sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV1984-29600">12</sup> so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."

 

[Igor]

...We are all ambassadors for Christ 24/7 we represent Him. In a secular job, at the grocery store, at a gas station, on vacation etc. We never stop being Christian.

We, (Christians) are told we are the light of the world, and that we shouldn't hide our light underneath a basket. The secular world needs Christians to be that light just as much as the Church body...

100% agree!

 

[farouk]

...and even then, Paul, who was most definitely called to preach, did take a stipend, like so many of today's preachers do.

 

[WIP]

Are there only certain careers that God will be satisfied with?<O:p</O:p

Should the ideal job for a believer be in ministry (church)?

You don’t have to have a career in ministry to minister. No matter which path you take, you can use your career as an opportunity to further the gospel when you interact with your colleagues and other contacts.



<O:p</O:p

“Most all of your time is devoted to that job and not on God.â€

Think about this statement for a minute. It is probably correct for a great majority of people in the workplace. If you choose to go into the ministry simply because you think that’s what is best, how do you plan to minister to those who, “have devoted most all of their time to their job and not on God?â€
<O:p</O:p
Instead of trying to second guess God’s plan for you, listen to God if you want to please Him. If God is leading you into the ministry by all means follow but His plan could be to plant you in a secular career to spread the seeds of His gospel to those that may not hear it otherwise because they are too preoccupied to seek it out for themselves.