Why ministry is more than a job

Over the years I have been involved in youth ministry on and off, in more than one denomination. If you do youth work it's hard to avoid Youth Specialites and one of its founders, the late Mike Yaconelli. As part of an article: What I Wish I Knew When I Started Youth Ministry, Mike made a major distinction between ministry as a job, and ministry as a call:

• Youth Ministry The Job is about wider. Youth Ministry The Call is about deeper.
• Youth Ministry The Job is about more. Youth Ministry The Call is about one.
• Youth Ministry The Job is about program. Youth Ministry The Call is about relationship.
• Youth Ministry The Job is about being in your office. Youth Ministry The Call is being wherever young people hang out.
• Youth Ministry The Job is about young peoples' souls. Youth Ministry The Call is about your soul.

I could easily paraphrase that to fit any other sort of ministry that I have been involved with, such as detention ministry.

Treating ministry as a job is a way of getting some distance, of lowering the risk, of trying to fit ministry into the rest of your life. Mike's point is that making ministry a job does just the opposite -- it will deaden your own spiritual life and make you ineffective as a minister. He has a lot of good points to make here, two in particular are: don't impersonate yourself, and the closer you get to Jesus, the less you know. Read the whole thing.