What I am discovering as I walk this path is the procedure
for finding a position in ministry is much the same as looking for employment
in any other profession: you work your network to make connections; you search
online job listings to see if there are positions that fit who you are; and you
build relationships with people and organizations that specialize in helping
place people in ministries.
In this process, I find what seems to matter when looking for a job in ministry are the same
things which matter to the world. People
talk about the quality of your résumé, they critique your personal photo, they
pick apart your appearance and the impression it makes, and they give you lots
of tips on how to sell yourself.
One organization I have connected with sends me a weekly
email that gives advice to both employees and employers on how to best present
yourself in ways which will either make someone want to hire you, or entice
someone to come and work for you. In the
last issue it discussed four things an employer needs to be sure their next
hire possesses. Given the fact I am out
of work and looking for a job I thought ought to read it and be sure I knew the
four qualities my next employer might want me have before they hired me.
The first thing on the list was, according to this article, your next employee needed
to have is a personal brand that would build the influence of your church or
organization. This would be measured by
their use of social media and the broad scope of influence they could bring
based upon their network. Of course, the
first question that came to mind was, “Uh-oh, I wonder what my personal brand
would be and what it would say about my ability to widen the influence of an
organization?”
To be honest, I did not spend much time pondering this because another question entered my mind. “What would be the personal brand of the people God has used to weave His story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration?”
Think about it. Moses
would be branded a Hebrew (when being a Hebrew wasn’t cool), a murderer, and one,
according to the book of Acts, who seemed to possess a savior complex. Abraham would be branded a man who would
throw his wife under the bus to save his own neck. Jacob was a usurper and deceiver. Joseph was seen as arrogant. He was such an irritation his brothers got
rid of him. Elijah was a runner and hid in a cave. Samson would be branded as a man who was too
interested in women for his own good. David
would be branded a boy who's greatness was overlooked by those who knew him best. He would also be an adulterer
and a murder. Gideon was a coward who
had to put a fleece before God before he would believe. Rahab was a harlot.
Unless we think it somehow the kind of people God would use
to write His story had shifted with the donning of the New Covenant, Mary was
a branded a nobody from nowhere. Her
son, Jesus, was branded a glutton and drunkard, a friend of sinners, a
blasphemer, and worthy of crucifixion.
Those who followed him were no better; they were men who had not been
chosen to follow the Rabbis of their day.
They were fishermen, tax collectors who were despised by their people,
and probably tradesmen who did not hold positions of great influence. Paul, the disciple with the best personal
brand, struggled to be accepted by the church because of his reputation for
imprisoning and putting to death followers of the Way. His brand was that of a Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews
and persecutor of the church. Put that on your
resume and try to get a job in ministry.
In fact, I cannot help but wonder if any of the people who
God used to weave His great story would stand a chance of getting a position in
ministry with how important personal branding has apparently become to the
organization we call the church.
Given the dichotomy between what the organizational church
seems to be looking for and who God seems to be intent on using, one finds
himself in a personal dilemma of what brand he is going to present to the
world. I assure you, my experience thus
far in the process tells me that this is a real crossroads that every man and
woman who seeks to fulfill their calling in ministry will come to.
I cannot say what is right for everyone, but my sense is the
manifestation of the Kingdom of God, by its very nature, turns the kingdom of
this world on its head. When we seek to
build the Kingdom of God by mimicking the world, in the process we destroy the
very thing we hope to make known.
Given this fact, I desire my personal brand to be that of a
man who is foolish and weak, a man who is not looking to secure my authority
and position, but one who seeks to serve.
I do not want people to see in me strength, but dependence on God, for
everything. I do not want to be seen as
one who has the answers, but as one who is willing to wait for the Father to
reveal His will, and then as a man who trust Him enough to follow Him.
This brand may not be what organizations are looking for,
but it is a risk which I am compelled to take.
As I have been working this process, I have come to realize that I am
not actually looking for a job at all. What
I am looking for is a life. This life is
to be lived out in community. This
community will be centered on Jesus Christ, and it will manifest the Kingdom of
God in ways an organization that mimics the world simply cannot.
For this I am more than willing to be branded something
other than what is valued by the world, and seemingly by most Christian organizations. This may seem like foolishness, given the
need to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. Believe me, I know this pressure is real, but
as I read God’s story it seems to be the only way to actually join Him in the
story He is continuing to write. It is
in only in this story we can truly discover the reality of the Kingdom, and be
empowered to live the life we have been promised.
I am not saying this is an easy brand to take on. If we are going to be humble we will usually have
to experience humiliation. If God’s
power is going to be demonstrated in our weakness, we will by necessity need to
be viewed as weak. If we are going to
submit to the will of the Father, we will have to lay our will down. If we are going to be last, we are going to
have to allow others to be first. In order to be
a servant we will have to take a submissive posture to others.
If these realities are making you feel a little
uncomfortable, that’s good, because it means I am not alone. The values of the Kingdom pushes against the
values the world has been instilling in us from the day we were born. They have been so engrained
in us that even the community we make up as followers of Christ, which is supposed
to embody the Kingdom of God in this world, often seems to mimic the world more
than it manifest the Kingdom.
If we were honest with ourselves, this is because we do not trust
God will really show up in power in the midst of our weakness, humility,
submission, and yielding to His leading.
Because we do not trust, we position ourselves to be seen as strong, smart,
worthy, self-sufficient, and filled with greatness. In the process we step out of the story of
God, and imprison ourselves in a much smaller story that will eventually suck
the life out of us.
As I said earlier, I am not looking for a job, but a life. I pray God will give me the ability to trust Him enough to step into His story, even if it is not the first thing on the list of what headhunters suggest ministries need to look for in the people they hire.
As I said earlier, I am not looking for a job, but a life. I pray God will give me the ability to trust Him enough to step into His story, even if it is not the first thing on the list of what headhunters suggest ministries need to look for in the people they hire.
He said that whoever wanted to be great would have to be a servant (Matt. 20: 26).
He said whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matt. 16:25)
The apostle Paul said that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, that he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27).
According to Paul, Jesus was equal to God, and then he emptied himself and made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant (Phil. 2:6-11).
Jesus was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty we would become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. (2 Cor. 4:7)
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