People Spots Online
Produced by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries

Are You Having Fun?

by James W. Moss, Sr.

In a few months I will be retiring from a job I have held since July 1, 1977. I have been Associate Conference Minister for the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God. Let me begin by saying, “I love my Lord. I also love His church.” I have been in ministry all of my life. I began my first pastorate in December of 1959 at the age of 18. I was a freshman in college. I have never held a full-time job outside of the church. (I have done some part-time things, including cleaning toilets at a motel, delivering flowers, shoveling manure, and driving a school bus.

I love the work that I believe God has called me too. I love getting up in the morning. I love working in the office. I love interacting with pastors. I love visiting churches. I love when I feel I have been able to help. I have fun with my work. Oh, believe me, there are a few things that a very difficult. But most of the time I can truly say I have fun with my work.

Let me say this: I’m beginning with a basic assumption that as a pastor of a Christian church you have been called of God to serve. As a young man, I heard an experienced pastor say, “If you can be content to do anything else other than ministry, you should.” He implied that if God had called and set you aside for ministry, you can’t really do anything else and be content. There should be a fire in your belly that won’t permit you to do anything else but serve the Lord as a minister of the gospel.

Two questions

There are two questions that I have been prone to ask of pastors. One is, “Are you having fun in your ministry?” Do you enjoy your work? Do you get excited about preparing next week’s sermon? Do you have positive feelings as you prepare to spend time with your people? Do you enjoy even some of the mundane administrative things that go with the job? I’m not naïve. I’ve been at this too long. There are some difficult moments. Yes, on occasion there may be some difficult weeks and even months in ministry.

But are you having fun? Do you love what you are doing?

A related question is, “Do you love your people?”

I have hammered this one. It has been mentioned in several People Spots articles. I bring it up in virtually every seminar I do for pastors. Do you love your people? That is not a rhetorical question that assumes a positive answer. In fact, I don’t always get a positive answer when that question is posed. Pastors can’t fool their people on this one. People will not allow their pastor to pastor them if the pastor does not love them.

Why are these two attached? Because it is fun to work with people you genuinely love. It is fun to be with them in worship. It is fun to be with them in study. It is fun to be with them in play.

Unfortunately, many Americans work at jobs they hate. Many do whatever they can to avoid work. They vacation to avoid work. They take long weekends to avoid work. They pretend to be sick to avoid work. They retire early to avoid work. They are trapped in their current work assignment because of salary and benefits. This is truly a tragedy.

Are you having fun yet? I enjoy watching the reaction of ministry people as they wrestle with answering that question.

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Read about Jim's seminars and books.

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August 17, 2005. Volume 8, Issue 13. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way with proper credit. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.

Are You Having Fun?

Two questions

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