Motives

I read the book of Phillipians before I went to bed tonight.

15It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.^[c] 18But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

Part of that jumped out at me. My motives for wanting to go into full time ministry before were not right. Yeah I wanted to "lead people to the Lord" but what I really wanted was to break into the Church industry. I figured like any other industry you gotta start somewhere. Somewhere seemed to be working with kids. Now I believe good things came from my work with kids, but why did I do it. To work my way up the corporate ladder in the Church industry. Sure I felt good about it. To make it worse, Church actually encourages would be leaders this way. Since Church is a business, you start at the bottom (whether you feel led to or not) and work your way up. Once you get the recognition of men, you can do the "real" stuff

My whole perspective has changed. I no longer want to work my way up the corporate ladder. I am not sure that my purpose in life anymore is even to switch industries.

Ministry is service. Service to what. Service to God and to your fellow people. Nothing about a corporate ladder in that.