New Ministers and Their Duties

The Church of Spiritual Illumination Ministry Course is an interesting course on the duties and expectations of a minister, not only at church services, but the life of a minister in general. However, it is difficult for a home study course to go into the depths that a number of courses offered by a university can give.

The course will wet your appetite to learn and study more of the true role of the church’s pastor, minister, administrator, or counselor for the spiritual well being of the church and its congregation.

I know that very few ministers, myself included, will become a counselor, or even administer a church as its pastor, but the course does give a few of the necessary tools that a minister will need in order to perform his/her job.
When a person becomes an ordained minister their whole outlook on life will change. The new minister must take on the mantle of being one of God's ministers, taking on the responsibility of helping those around them to find their spiritual path and to help them grow to their spiritual best in light of spiritual truth.

The Ministry course will show the new minister that the important things in life don’t stem from what they already know, but what they need to learn. Becoming a minister will force a person to step up to the challenge of helping others and take on the mantle of true leadership by accepting who they truly are. The new minister will often find that they have personal problems that can interfere with their new role as a minister. These things must be dealt with and put into their proper place (often not an easy thing to do).

Ministers cannot play favorites with people in the church or even with people they call their personal friends. They must learn that they have a responsibility to treat all people equally with love and respect. With that being said, a minister is only human and they do have their own way of looking at things and people and how they deal with them.

If a minister’s friend has a problem with another person, it might be advantageous for the minister to have a talk with their friend and try to help him/her work out their differences. It is not the job of the minister to take sides and interject his/her own prejudice into the situation, this can only make things worst.
The new ministers have to keep in mind that they are not only representing the Church, but God as well. This will challenge the new ministers to become their personal best, and then they can help others achieve their best by leading by example.

The Ministry Course talks about counseling a young couple who has asked the minister to conduct their marriage ceremony. As a minister it is often the duty of the minister to counsel the couple on what to expect of marriage, (marriage is a serious decision to make). The minister may even talk about the possibility of divorce and especially what can happen in the marriage after the children start to appear. And the minister may be able to give advice to the young couple on how to handle their inevitable disagreements, etc.

The minister may even be asked to conduct a funeral, how to counsel the surviving family member(s) and how to prepare to conduct the funeral.

As new ministers walks their path they must remember that they have a mission in life, and be prepared to administer that mission. The new ministers will never stop earning their title “Reverend” – for the day they stop acting as a minister is the day they should “turn in their collar”.

This is only a part of what the Ministry Course is all about.