The church I attend helps support about half a dozen college students who are Bible majors or minors. This is primaily due to the encouragement of our current pulpit minister. My mom made the remark to me that had our current minister been around when I was a teenager I could have been persuaded to become a minister. It could have been a different route in life for me.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes in life, which probably would not have helped me to fulfill me becoming a minister (after all ministers are supposed to be perfect, right?). So now I labor in the secular field. I’ve preached occassionally. I am fulfilled when I do preach, but somehow I stress way too much in the days leading up to it. Therefore I don’t volunteer for it.
Still it makes me think about the road I could have taken and if I could have or would have stayed in the ministry.