I Did Not Want to Be A Pastor

I did not want to become a pastor.

People always said when I was a kid, “You’re going to become a pastor just like your dad.”

​That annoyed me so much. How uncreative is that- just do exactly what your dad does. I wanted to be my own person. Have my own identity.

The first real job I wanted was to be an oceanographer. Then it expanded to wanting to do zoology. I even did the research to see how much they made and everything. Eventually, I wanted to become an animator. That was the big dream. I would draw and do voices. I had it all mapped out. I knew what shows I was going to make and what characters were going to be in it. Most of them were based on the stories I would tell my younger brother and sister. I would get lost in the stories as I would tell dramatically tell them. Most times I didn’t even know where the stories were going. I would just start and let my imagination take me wherever it wanted. Story time was a fantastic ride. I started telling the stories to our friend Stephanie and then on the school bus to my schoolmates. Everyone I told my stories to loved them. (In fact one kid in school even copied them. That was annoying.) I looked forward to getting older and making them into cartoons.

All the while, people kept saying, “You’re going to be like your dad when you grow up, a pastor.”
I saw how people treated my dad. I saw people getting angry at church and having an attitude. I saw the power struggle of church politics. I heard the stories, including the time when my dad’s tires were slashed during a church board meeting. I had no interest in that life.

I started working on a few of my cartoons. One was about my favorite Bible story, Samson. The other was “Chipmunk High”. I had characters drawn out. I had voices and dialogue recorded. For “Chipmunk High” I started animating the scenes. But as I worked on them I realized that this was much more work than I anticipated. (I didn’t realize at the time that there has only been one person who has ever done a complete animated movie by himself, and he died before it was released.) I was getting discouraged at the daunting task of making these cartoons.

During that time, at the age of 15, I was assigned in my church to preach one of the sermons for the youth week of prayer. I had preached a couple of times before, so I was willing to do it again. I had already prepared the entire sermon, but while I was riding in a subway train, going over the sermon in my head, a thought came to mind. I didn’t want to preach this sermon the way I have preached before. I didn’t want to preach this sermon normally. What if… what if I preached it the way I would tell stories to my younger brother and sister? What if I preached it with animated voices? I started to get excited as I began to rethink all the stories from my sermon in this style. It was like some eureka moment. This could work.

I preached the sermon and it went great. People were captivated, followed along, and laughed just like when I told stories on the school bus. My dad and others were surprised, because that was not what I did in practice. My dad was thrilled and was so encouraging.

My peers as well as older church members all said positive things. (Years later I heard that some people had some not so nice things to say, but their message never got to me. I’m so glad it didn’t.)

I was so excited. So I told God, “Fine, I will become a pastor. I can see myself using most of my talents for you this way.”

Later on that year when I actually gave my life to God, it became more evident of God’s calling in my life. I know it was kind of backwards- deciding to become a pastor and then giving my life to God, but that’s how God worked.

​How is God calling you in your life? Have you been denying your calling? Will you answer God’s call for you today?

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