What happened to
What happened to God equipping those willing to serve? When people want me to volunteer my time and I seem a bit hesitant I hear this often, but when it comes to being paid for ministry it seems that God equipping us is not enough a degree is required. It doesn't matter how much experience a person has or anything else. It is all about the degree.
To serve in the missions field one of the first questions asked it what is your degree in. I have tried to get my degree but that door keeps closing in my face Some of us God sent to college some of us God sent to the school of hard knocks. God sent me to the school of hard knocks and then put a love for teens and hurting women in my heart and sent me out into the world.
I have learned the value of my school of hard knocks education. This is why I am who I am and why teens are willing to talk to me and seek me out when they are in trouble or troubled. I can understand their hurts in a way that someone who has only read about it can not. I learned to allow God to heal me and I learned to rely on God because I didn't have a choice it was learn God's love or walk a dangerous path to numb the pain because I could not handle it on my own.
I after spending more then one heart wrenching night in the ER or psychiatric ward of the local hospital with one young women who was walking the path of numbing the pain in very dangerous ways, I thanked God for allowing me to be raped. This young women found hope when she had lost it all because she had someone there who understood. The words if God can do it for me he can do it for you stuck with her. She allowed me to pray for her over time she prayed with me. Now she is allowing God to heal her. She told me what it meant to her to have me there along side her. She said I was a gift from God showing her that she could get through it when she had given up all hope.
If God intended college for me the doors would not be closing and a way to make it happen would open up to me. My education comes from God equipping me. My calling to serve comes from God. I trust that the place I am to serve will open up and be reveled to me, it is just discouraging to realize how much emphasis is placed on a degree in the Christian world. If you don't have a degree you need not apply doesn't that limit God?
I have been told by a church there seems to be very few people out there willing to do what you want to do in this area,(Which is the area I want to do it in.)but we can not consider you for this position because you are not qualified. He also said not to be discouraged some one with a heart as strong as mine should find something. I thought to myself ummm okay?! I guess it is a good thing I was not applying for the job when I wrote him. I sent the email asking for suggestions where someone with my back round might start searching for a way to serve in his country.
I understand the value of the college degree that is why I want one. I guess the truth is I want the degree so I can feel legit, so I know the world sees me as qualified and values me. Not the best reasons in the world to want a degree. Mike Yaconelli in his book Messy Spirituality talks about being the pastor of a church but did not finish his schooling. He was not ordained. He was willing, he obeyed, and God qualified him, but this was always a sore spot for him. I think Mike was a good pastor because of this not in spite of it. He took what he learned in the school of hard knocks and applied it. He shared it openly with his parish and with the whole youth worker world.
I look at the life Mike Yaconelli lived and I have hope. If God can use Mike and open a place for him then he can do the same for me. I just think it is funny in a sad sort of way, how the culture of the world has encompassed the culture of the Christian world. If your church is willing to say to people it wants to volunteer their time God will equip you then why is it so important that every candidate that is looked at for any job other then janitor have a degree? Is it right?
To serve in the missions field one of the first questions asked it what is your degree in. I have tried to get my degree but that door keeps closing in my face Some of us God sent to college some of us God sent to the school of hard knocks. God sent me to the school of hard knocks and then put a love for teens and hurting women in my heart and sent me out into the world.
I have learned the value of my school of hard knocks education. This is why I am who I am and why teens are willing to talk to me and seek me out when they are in trouble or troubled. I can understand their hurts in a way that someone who has only read about it can not. I learned to allow God to heal me and I learned to rely on God because I didn't have a choice it was learn God's love or walk a dangerous path to numb the pain because I could not handle it on my own.
I after spending more then one heart wrenching night in the ER or psychiatric ward of the local hospital with one young women who was walking the path of numbing the pain in very dangerous ways, I thanked God for allowing me to be raped. This young women found hope when she had lost it all because she had someone there who understood. The words if God can do it for me he can do it for you stuck with her. She allowed me to pray for her over time she prayed with me. Now she is allowing God to heal her. She told me what it meant to her to have me there along side her. She said I was a gift from God showing her that she could get through it when she had given up all hope.
If God intended college for me the doors would not be closing and a way to make it happen would open up to me. My education comes from God equipping me. My calling to serve comes from God. I trust that the place I am to serve will open up and be reveled to me, it is just discouraging to realize how much emphasis is placed on a degree in the Christian world. If you don't have a degree you need not apply doesn't that limit God?
I have been told by a church there seems to be very few people out there willing to do what you want to do in this area,(Which is the area I want to do it in.)but we can not consider you for this position because you are not qualified. He also said not to be discouraged some one with a heart as strong as mine should find something. I thought to myself ummm okay?! I guess it is a good thing I was not applying for the job when I wrote him. I sent the email asking for suggestions where someone with my back round might start searching for a way to serve in his country.
I understand the value of the college degree that is why I want one. I guess the truth is I want the degree so I can feel legit, so I know the world sees me as qualified and values me. Not the best reasons in the world to want a degree. Mike Yaconelli in his book Messy Spirituality talks about being the pastor of a church but did not finish his schooling. He was not ordained. He was willing, he obeyed, and God qualified him, but this was always a sore spot for him. I think Mike was a good pastor because of this not in spite of it. He took what he learned in the school of hard knocks and applied it. He shared it openly with his parish and with the whole youth worker world.
I look at the life Mike Yaconelli lived and I have hope. If God can use Mike and open a place for him then he can do the same for me. I just think it is funny in a sad sort of way, how the culture of the world has encompassed the culture of the Christian world. If your church is willing to say to people it wants to volunteer their time God will equip you then why is it so important that every candidate that is looked at for any job other then janitor have a degree? Is it right?
posted by Chris | 11:23 AM
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