Talking to parents about full time ministry – I
But you just know your Asian parents are going to be dead against it! You have this inkling feeling that what they really want for you is for you to be a wealthy and successful doctor, or business person… and your news will be like a knife to their heart!
Well, you’re not alone. At the recent Asian Challenge Conference held at Meroo, those who were in full time ministry, studying at Bible college, or in ministry apprenticeships were invited to come up onto the stage and indicate how their parents responded to them deciding to pursue full time ministry.
Here a graph of how many sets of parents fell into each category at the conference:
These are parents of ABCs and ARCs. As you can see, the parents responded in very different ways – from an excited "Praise the Lord!", to resignation, to obvious disappointment, and even to literally hitting the roof! And unfortunately, it wasn’t just non-Christian parents who hit the roof…
There is, of course, a good way and a bad way to break the news to your parents, and there’ll be more on that next time.
But for now, if you’re thinking about full time ministry and you’re troubled by the strong reaction of your parents – don’t think you’re alone. You are not alone. Be assured that others before you have gone on into full time ministry, even though their own parents have "hit the roof"!
[ PS: SCCCA English, in conjunction with Club 5, holds two Challenge nights each year for ABCs and ARCs who're thinking about full time ministry. These are great opportunities to talk about the particular issues that Chinese Christians face - such as parents! ]
Categories: Ministry
Great post.Looking forward to further installments on full time ministry.
hi andrew!
Thanks for that post. In the past I\’ve talked to many others about full-time-ministry issues+asian parents reactions in general…Of course, quite a few parents weren\’t so excited by the idea initially, but praise God, over time[sometimes over a LIFE time] some parents do soften their reactions towards it, and move along the continuum- away from "hit the roof" and towards "Praise the Lord". you can really see God working powerfully and it\’s always encouraging to know that God will always work his good purposes out…even if situation with parents\’ expectations (or other people\’s expectations) aren\’t so encouraging.
hannah