Recently
I met a former pastor who had left ministry many years ago to join the
corporate world. Later, with the experience gained through his marketplace
stint, he decided to set up his own business.
Someone
like him is likely to meet with a chorus of disapproval from those within the
church: “So worldly! Why give up on ministry to go into
the secular field? Now he’s getting even more ambitious, trying to build his
own empire.”
We
may not express ourselves exactly in those words – or say it in so many words.
But we often jump to conclusions without first checking out the circumstances that led to his making such
decisions or examining the validity of our
theology.
This
man felt as if he was a square peg in a round hole,
a total misfit in his job while he was serving as a pastor. Yet there were so
many well-meaning people around him wanting to make him become the person God
had not meant him to be.
Being
a gregarious and amicable guy, he was able to share his faith with so many
people through his marketplace and business contacts. Even pastors cannot reach such folks out there in the world.
The call to be “separate from the world” (2 Corinthians 6:17) does not require us to withdraw ourselves
physically from the marketplace to be in the company of believers. Otherwise how can we function as “salt” to slow down the
process of decay in the world? Rather, it is a call to see ourselves as a
chosen people who have been changed from within. We are in the world, but not of the world (1 Peter 2:9).
Martin Luther said,
"If a person was justified by faith in Christ, then . . . any work was
God's work, whether it was ploughing the field, milling the corn, sweeping the
house, or bringing up children." This, in effect, debunks the notion that
the clergy are “first-tier” while those in the marketplace are
“second-tier”, spiritually-speaking.
Paul, the greatest
apostle, sets us an example. He was a self-supported tentmaker who delivered
the Gospel without cost to the hearers. We can find no trace of a
secular-spiritual divide in his life.
Indeed, there
shouldn’t be an artificial divide between the laity and clergy as both are
actually “full-time” for God, not just the latter. Honest work, be it secular or spiritual, is
held in high esteem in God’s eyes.
We
should think again before we judge or condemn someone like this ‘ex-pastor
turned businessman’.
Not
all believers are called into “full-time” ministry. Some are meant to stay put
in the marketplace.
God
has a unique plan and calling for each of His children. It’s important to recognise
our own distinctive gifts, identity and calling and cease comparing ourselves
with others.
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