As Maureen Olson tells it, she had little choice but to go into the ministry, the pull was so strong. IT DOESN’T take a saint to be a minister, Maureen said, but she’s come to see how not everyone is cut out for the job. Maureen cites three traits that make one unfit for the ministry. THE SECRET to being a good minister, teacher, nurse or any similar profession is to have the focus not on yourself, but on others.
“I couldn’t resist it any longer,” she said of what she terms as answering “the call.”
“You do it because you can’t help but do it.
“I wanted to connect people with God, and that’s all I could see myself doing.”
She got there, in part, by embracing silence — a skill she encourages more to learn.
“People are afraid of silence,” she said, perhaps because of what they’ll hear — questions of their life purpose, hurts, fears, their mortality.
Some soul-searching allowed Maureen to see she was ready to put her budding faith into action by enrolling in seminary.
“We are called to move forward,” she said of leaving her career as a theater manager.
“Life is a journey. We’re not to stay where we are. Each stop is a layover, not a destination.”
Seminary provided Maureen with valuable lessons, including self-discovery.
“I found out that what I thought I could be, and what God is creating me to be, were two different things,” she said. “I saw myself as a wife, mom and theater manager. Once God came into my life, I was constantly evolving.”
And now that she’s become a minister?
“I’m very happy,” she said, with a smile a mile wide.
1. Those who hunger for power. “It can go to their head and become quite dangerous for a congregation,” she said. Church leadership and management should be shared.
2. Those who seek a sense of appreciation and want to be seen as a savior. Maureen regards these people in need of “ego strokes,” and has little patience for those who use their position to garner gratitude.
3. Those who believe they can save everyone they meet. “They’ll take anyone and everyone off the street, believing they can get them off drugs, get them off drink, and turn their lives around. They want to be seen as the go-to person no matter what. It doesn’t work that way.”
Coupling your passions with your skills yields untold happiness. Income plays a small role in the sense of reward. Instead, measure your success in other kinds of currencies — kids taught to read, wounds healed, or souls saved.
All the ways to measure success
