HR class merging with Spiritual Formation! :O)

Another reflective post for my HR class...more to do with business, but it helped to articulate something of my views on ministry.


"My parents pastor a small, non-denominational church. Given, a church is not technically a "business," but there are many similarities. About ten years ago, we were at a convention in Nashville, TN--my brother and I attended the youth program there. I clearly recall the speaker (a pastor's kid talking to a group of pastor's kids) saying to us, with passion and certainty, that as pastor's kids we had an obligation to take up and carry on the ministry of our parents.

Ick! Now don't misunderstand me. It's a great calling...and as it turns out, I may have interests leaning slightly in that direction. But to lay it on a bunch of kids as their "obligation"? That stinks. Nothing would sink or sap a church of its life more quickly than having leadership in place only for the sake of familial obligation. And the same is true of any business. Unless, of course, it thrives on disinterest and begrudging participation--I say that tongue in cheek."