paid ministersA correspondent inquires: "I am curious as to your opinion of the 'paid minister.' As you are aware, many argue against church buildings and paid ministers. As a paid minister this idea naturally is a bit disturbing to me. However, I wish to do what pleases God."
ministry is more than careerA gracEmail reader is considering leaving church ministry as a career but he feels paralyzed by the fear of making a wrong choice. . . . Would it be right for him to take some time away from work to seek God's guidance and settle his mind concerning it?
finding one's ministryA gracEmail reader says: "I understand that every Christian has some kind of ministry. How can I discern what mine is supposed to be? I want to make sure I am listening to God, and not just to my own desires."
questioning his ministryA preaching brother says that he "entered the ministry" a few years after his conversion .... Years later, he "left the ministry," exhausted and feeling ... unworthy.... "Did I correctly hear God's call originally?" he asks. "Did I do wrong by leaving?"
preachers and patternsA gracEmailsubscriber in Australia writes: "There's a movement ... that claims that preaching and teaching to Christians ... is to be done by the elders, and that any paid full-time evangelist ought to be evangelizing the lost. These folk say the idea of a located pulpit minister was a second century invention of men."
women pastorsA subscriber in the Southwest U.S. asks whether biblically a church should ordain women as pastors (or elders).