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I have often heard these words while doing a radio show on Yuwie Radio; "What are Your Qualifications" or "Are You a Real Pastor" so I would have to ask you,What do you consider "Qualified" or "Real" when it comes to being a Servant of God in a Pastoral Office? Some Would say that I must have a Doctorates Degree or a Masters of Theology or some other great Schooling to be Qualified, or Even a "Real" pastor. But if that is what makes one Qualified then out of the 12 Disciples latter to become the Apostles of the Church only one was Qualified, and my question to you would be, which one? What, You don't Know! Well then let me tell you. Luke would be the only disciple out of all 12 to be Qualified for Ministry of any sort because He was a "Trained" Doctor! That is if we were basing his qualification upon his Degree of Schooling. Notice their were plenty of trained men in the Sadducee's and Pharisees that Jesus could have called to be his 12, were their not? and yes one from that schooling would latter become a follower of Jesus, but this was a man who was set out to kill the church, not become part of it, until his encounter with Jesus! But Christ chose men who were rough around the edges, they had not been to their well established schools of religion.
Have I been to formal Bible School Training?
Yes, I have.
Two years at an open Bible College, One year in home studies through Rhema Training Center. Thats three years of "Formal Schooling"
I have completed over four years of an intense discipleship training that would well cover a masters degree course in theology!
so if you equated each year in the discipleship as a year of college, I have accumulated over seven years of schooling to that point. But still all of that alone does "Not" qualify a person for anything other than holding a piece of paper.
So what "experience" would I have that would qualify as a real pastor? first let me say I believe their is something called a pastors heart, that is having a heart to help people and minister to their needs no matter what (within reason of course) and not everyone is called to this ministry. I first felt God was calling me to ministry as a pastor when I was 22 years old, my wife and I would pray for people and see God meet their needs it excited me, and I began to have a heart to continually minister to others, it was about this same time that God began to open doors of opportunity to preach around Oregon in other churches as a Youth Evangelist speaking at Youth conferences and rallies. Then in 1994 we became part of Praise Chapel Portland! Our pastor welcomed us in and began to disciple us for ministry. In the 14 years we spent at praise chapel I had ministered as the head usher, head of the Sound board and Audio Video ministry, was allowed to preach behind my pastors pulpit, and was being trained to go out and pioneer a church. My wife and I left our home church for a small season to be Youth Pastors at Praise Chapel Sherwood, in Sherwood Oregon. We took a small group of Seven kids and by the time we had left we had over forty teens at one point serving God and growing in Relationship.
After three years in the youth ministry we felt a call to go out and Pastor a Church, so we went back to the Portland Church for redirection to make sure we were hearing from God. In March of 2003 we launched out to Pioneer a church in Eugene Oregon, We pastored in Eugene for three years. We started with just our family of five (5) and by the end of the first year and had up to 75 people in "Praise Chapels' New Creation Church" (the name we chose for the church) 60 of those people stayed with us for the whole three years we were in Eugene. Though we had seen a few come in go. Then God directed us to go to Albany Oregon to function as Associate Pastors so we tearfully said good buy to those in Eugene we had built relationships with and began our move to Albany Or. We have served as Associate Pastors hear in Albany from early 2005 to November of 2007 We watched as this small group has grown from 20 people when we first came, to over 100 when God, again began to speak to my wife and I, it was and is another season Closing and we feel drawn to Washington State. What will we do in Washington? Well Glad you asked, we are helping to minister to those in need. We have joined with North Star Church of God, the pastor is Pastor Ray Kirkland and we have known Pastor Ray for over 20 years. At first we will be just helping in the church where help is needed, and I will be going through yet another "Bible Training School" on DVD for probably the next year, getting the training needed to transfer my current License and Ordination over to the Church of God. I believe we can never Learn too much of God... the word says to "Study to show yourself approved, a workman of righteousness who needs not be ashamed."
so to wrap it all up Yes I have the schooling that some would require and I intend on taking more schooling, yet I do not consider schooling a qualification. I also have the experience of preaching behind the pulpit to all ages, I can relate to the young children because my house is full of little ones, I can minister to teens because I have teens and I have been a youth pastor and I can minister to the older generation because God has given me that ability to do so, and of course I can minister to those in my age group because I understand the struggles we face and the challenges we have in our lives they mostly are the same as the other guys. God has brought my wife and I from Homelessness to Riches back to living in a small home just making ends meet. God continues to bless us even when we dont deserve the blessing because He is God!
Qualified? You decide.... the only Qualification I need is Gods Call and Approval.... Though the schooling and Experience have helped Yes!
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| Posted: 5/8/2008 at 1:41:46 PM | Read 167 times | 0 comments | Leave Comment |
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