It's more than 20 years since I first felt called to ministry. Until I finally 'gave in' it cropped up in a lot of ways. But I still resisted. I was too young; I was too inexperienced; I wasn't academic enough; I wasn't....[insert appropriate excuse here]. Looking back, the experiences, jobs, encounters, interests and general life I've had have all been training me for where I am now (and where I will go). It's pretty cool, but exceptionally humbling to realise God's been in it all along (though, quite why I should be surprised by that, I do not know!).
When I began the enquiry process, one thing which was a bit of a concern was how spot and I could afford it. We do not (despite the motorbike) have an extravagant lifestyle, but there's still bills to pay, transport costs and food to buy. It all mounts up. When we sat down to work it all out, we could manage on spot's salary, just. That was okay. Now, 2 years into training, things have been a lot better than we expected. God really does give what you need.
We are very lucky and we are very grateful. But I wonder if our circumstance had been different, if I'd have thought twice about full-time word and sacrament. What if our circumstances were different? I know from our experience God has been very generous to us, but it's a huge risk. And we don't have childcare or massive travelling costs to deal with.
I honestly don't know, as I've not had to deal with that. I am pretty sure there must be people in their late twenties, early thirties, with mortgages, children and spouses all to juggle, where going without their salary for up to 4 years while they study for a degree just isn't a realistic option. God may provide, but how is the question they have.
I know one of the topics discussed at this years assembly was the lack of people under 45 training for ministry. While the pool of people in that age group in the Kirk is comparatively small, I do think deep and real financial concerns are as much a barrier to those called to ministry as any feeling of a lack of experience.
What's to be done? I don't know. What I do know is I'd hate to think there are people out there who are called to ministry who just can't afford to do it.
It's the same with OLM not only financially but time wise too. I'm not sure how you could juggle the commitment to study, then placement then your contract with presbytery and work full time, thereby making it a huge consideration for people who are still young enough to need to wrk financially but feel called. I know I couldn't
ReplyDelete