There are three basic scenerios that exist today in reference to a career and a ministry:

• (1): People who are in ministry full-time as their profession and their main source of income.
• (2): People who work part-time for a profession and spend part-time in ministry with either profession or ministry or both ministry and profession as their source of income.
• (3): People who have a career that is full-time as their source of income, but do ministry work in their spare time and weekends away from their career.

In today's church, there exists a paradigm that to be a "true minister of the Gospel", one must be a twenty-four hour, seven day a week paid employee of a church or a parachurch organization. This thinking is definately not true. Unfortunately in many churches, one's spiritual state is measured in the real of annointing by how much time one gives up of their life to the work of the "ministry" or the "renewal". One well-known "revival training manual" expressed that to be an true disciple, one had to attend every service when the church doors were opened. This legalistic thinking drives people to a state of burnout instead of the partaking of God's rest that the renewal was intended to bring. It is interesting to observe that many churches that center themselves on being a church of grace destined to eliminate legalism end up in the long run instilling re-legalisms back on God's people when things start to get out of their control. It is their quest for control (and not necessarily God's control) that causes many leaders to jump the gun when things start to backfire and re-legalize every activity. If people start to miss church, then many leaders start to create a theology that ends up making the one present when the church doors are opened more spiritual than the one who missed a Sunday because of family needs, sickness, etc. The temple of the Holy Spirit is not made of whether someone is there everytime the doors to the church are opened. Instead, the temple of the Holy Spirit is made when people offer up themselves as living sacrifices unti God and come before him in repentance and allow God to fill them up with the Holy Spirit. By allowing God to fill them with the Holy Spirit, then the process of driving out the spiritual totems, taboos, transgressions, temptations, and tattos inside of them and around them.

In fact, if we look at Acts 18:2-3 we see the following:

"2There he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. They had been expelled from Italy as a result of Claudius Caesar's order to deport all Jews from Rome.3Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was."

Paul had a profession, he was a tentmaker. Paul, when he was not in ministry and not doing this on a full-time basis as his source of income was going out and making tents to earn a income for living and survival. Even though many Christians today view the ministry as a full-time profession, many of the first spreaders of the Gospel earned part or all of their income through many different vocations. In fact, this mentality of having a full time career and doing ministry in the after career hours was the norm in the times the Apostle Paul lived in. Even Jesus Christ was trained as a carpenter by profession and worked in that profession until the last three years of his life before Jesus went into full time ministry. In fact, we had a physician, a tax collector, a politician, and many fishermen who became disciples of Jesus.

In many urban and rural areas today, the concept of multiple occupations is practiced. Many churches in the urban and rural areas can not support their pastors financially to allow a pastor to devote his full time to the pastorate. Therefore, many pastors of these urban and rural churches work second and third jobs along with pastoral duties to make ends meet. Just because these pastors do not devote their entire day to the things of the "ministry" does not make them an inferior minister when compared to full-time pastors. In fact, many of these pastors who work at multiple occupations are equally, and in some cases, more annointed than many full-time pastors who preach behind many of the pulpits in the church today. As it is not necessary for the congregation to be in the church every time the doors are open to receive God's annointing, it is not necessary for all pastors to work at a church every day to be called to the place of ministry. The time is not the issue, the heart and the motives are the issue of obedience with God.

Please Click here for part three of this article.