Ministerially Astute and Socially Retarded

I have had a great handicap in my life when it comes to engaging culture and connecting with people who do not follow Christ. That handicap is called ministry. I have spent the past 5 years of my life working in church ministry and going to school at a Bible college. These two things took up the majority of my time during the past 5 years, and I allowed them to make me, well… socially retarded, when it comes to connecting with lost people. It think its pathetic. Sure I could talk to you about leadership stuff, ministry stuff, worship stuff, etc., but that stuff means nothing when you’re talking to someone who has no interest in church or God. I think that it is so easy for those of us in ministry to get so caught up in our church world that we totally disconnect from the secular world. We become socially retarded.

I am in a transitional stage in my life right now. I resigned from my last church a couple months ago, and I am currently in the process of finding a new church to serve at. But during this transitional period, I am back in the secular job world. And I must say that it is quite refreshing. I get to work with people who get drunk on weekends, people who drop f-bombs in every other sentence, people who sleep with their girlfriends, etc. I get to work with the kind of people that most church people just sit back and gossip about. I get to work with the kind of people that Jesus Christ came to save. I get to engage culture and connect with the lost, and I get to be a light to these people, rather than a hypocrite that just runs from them and condemns them.

I still know with all my heart that ministry is what God has called me to and I am still in the process of finding a new church to serve at, so don’t think that I am dropping out of church ministry or anything like that. But I have finally realized how socially handicapped I was during the past 5 years and I intend to never reach that point again, even while working full time in church ministry. And I think there are a ton of pastors who need to step up and do the same. Engage culture, get out in your local community and connect with the lost.