{"id":157,"date":"2011-04-21T07:49:22","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T11:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/?p=157"},"modified":"2011-04-27T04:40:03","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T08:40:03","slug":"whats-up-with-the-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2011\/04\/whats-up-with-the-title.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s Up With The Title?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well it’s a Jonah reference. Obviously.<\/p>\n

But it’s more than that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>C.S. Lewis identified himself as “The Most Reluctant Convert,” which is an idea I could relate to, except that I was never really converted (of if I was, it happened before I could talk) My father was a pastor, and during my early childhood he was a rather zealous one.<\/p>\n

I don’t remember not being a Christian.<\/p>\n

Still I’ve had my intellectual struggles with the concept of Christianity. “Seriously, you want me to believe Someone is watching me from the sky?… Prove it.”<\/p>\n

So I get what he’s saying. But I’m not so much a reluctant convert<\/em>, as a reluctant minister.<\/p>\n

I’ve done the research. Actually I love the research. If you keep reading, you’ll get to see me geek out about things like historical proofs of the resurrection. I’m down with being a Christian and an intellectual –\u00a0Just so long as we define “Christian” as … y’know: “Guy who believes in Jesus, but does something else for a living.”<\/p>\n

It’s the ministry thing I’m reluctant about. I’ve seen where that road leads. And I don’t mean “share your faith with your friends” ministry. I mean “give the sermon this Easter” ministry. “Be a pastor” ministry. “Do what your dad did” ministry.<\/p>\n

I’m not cool with that. It makes me really uncomfortable, because after growing up with it. I had no delusions about the pastor being the all merciful holy-man of the community. I saw the politics, the game playing, the emotional exhaustion, the low pay. I wanted no part of it.<\/p>\n

But here I am.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because I’m afraid of whales.<\/p>\n

I believe that God called me personally into vocational ministry and I’m not so dumb as to suppose that that was a suggestion on His part. I know better. I’ve been to Sunday School. And I believe that far from an empty threat, God’s call is a promise.<\/p>\n

He is God and I am not.<\/p>\n

What looks like a bad idea to me may actually be what\u00a0I was created for, so I will follow it — but not because I want to and not because I’m holy.<\/p>\n

Simply because I know better than to do otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0God’s first call on my life to vocational ministry happened in 2003 when I was a high school student. I followed the call to become small group leader and a Sunday school teacher. And an intern, a camp counselor, then a youth pastor where I\u00a0 gave the sermon on Easter.<\/p>\n

Last year, God called me to leave the beach and follow him to a reach strange people called “mid-westerners” where I’d be the Director of a Campus Ministry at a Major University.<\/p>\n

And again I followed without hesitation (and for the same reason).<\/p>\n

And even though it wasn’t easy to leave my family and friends and church and beaches and ethnic food …<\/p>\n

ven though it wasn’t easy, these last\u00a0six months have been some of the best in my entire life. God knew what He was doing the entire time.<\/p>\n

So, these are the\u00a0ramblings of a reluctant minister. My stories. My thoughts. An opportunity for you to peer behind the curtain of a critically flawed mobyaphobic 20-something pastor, while he changes the world for Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well it’s a Jonah reference. Obviously. But it’s more than that. C.S. Lewis identified himself as “The Most Reluctant Convert,” which is an idea I could relate to, except that I was never really converted (of if I was, it happened before I could talk) My father was a pastor, and during my early childhood…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16,15,18,17],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration-2","tag-about-the-author","tag-blogging","tag-fear-of-whales","tag-title"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's Up With The Title? - A Fear of Whales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2011\/04\/whats-up-with-the-title.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's Up With The Title? - A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well it’s a Jonah reference. 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