1.1 Introduction
A ministry is a way to serve the church and community. The most well-known type of ministry is serving as a pastor, but there are many other ministry opportunities for people. In the New Testament church, leaders were required to demonstrate faithfulness at home before they were considered eligible for leadership. Too often many consider leadership to be so important that it is worth neglect of home life. This gets it backward. And it’s dangerous because it’s built on the assumption that “without me, God’s church cannot survive.” But God says, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). It is God’s church and all must give an account on the last day of how he/she steward their marriage, parenting, and family.
Many pastors struggle with expectations by church members of their spouses or children. Others struggle with finding time for their families. The dangerous practice of becoming all things to all people, and conforming to roles which are not real, can all have a devastating effect on their homes.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Pastors carry out the moral-religious education of children by praying together as a family , taking children to the Church to receive sacraments of Christian initiation, allowing them also to attend Sunday Masses/ Services and also allowing them to join church movements and others. In addition to this, they do this by taking children for courses at the Church and for other Church programmes for children. Most pastors love their callings. Most pastors enjoy most of what they do in ministry. And most pastors wouldn’t change their role if they could. Still, many pastors have ongoing challenges and struggles. Most of the world hears about the few pastors who make huge salaries. The reality is that the majority of pastors struggle financially. Most often, expectations of pastors can be unrealistic.
Pastors are often expected to attend multiple meetings, to visit countless congregants, to prepare sermons with excellence, to provide ongoing strategic leadership, to conduct weddings and funerals, and to be involved in the community. Many pastors do not know how or when to say no. And many are not good at delegating, or they really do not have anyone who can handle some of their responsibilities. Of a truth, the home is the means of communicating the essence of Christianity, of bringing meaning and purpose to life, then it follows that a well-ordered family is a powerful evangelistic agency. The minister's family is expected to stand as representatives of Jesus, keeping God’s law in an unbelieving community.
A well-ordered, well-disciplined family tells more in behalf of Christianity than all the sermons that can be preached anywhere. The greatest evidence of the power of Christianity that can be presented to the world is a well-ordered and well-disciplined family. The pastor or minister whose family is in chaos is extremely destructive to the life and health of the body they are ministering to and to the witness to the world. If the pastor is in a way is a builder of the body of Christ, and if in the building process he neglects the basic building blocks, then the structure of his church is sure to be faulty and the building itself weak. Thus the basis for building a strong church is the pastor’s own family. The serving ministers are expected to strike a balance between ministry and their homes for effectiveness.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Challenges of Ministerial Responsibilities and Its Effects on the Minister's Home.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the greatest challenge facing the church minister is that of managing the ministry and his family. Moral upbringing of a family is not a simple task and it is affected by a complex set of factors, not all of which can be controlled by the church. Homes (families) are under attack, especially ministers’ families. Many church ministers have given up their jobs to rely on the meager church allowance to look after their families. Some are too busy with church duties to cater for their children in desperate need of their parents’ attention and guidance. It is really disheartening that many have completely left their families’ providence to God’s mercy. One would wonder when these men spend quality time with their wives and children, between officiating the main services on Sunday, weekly services on Wednesday, then the weeklong fellowships, choir practices and private prayer sessions.
It is discovered that many ministers, as their ministries grow and along with them responsibilities to the church, seem to gradually replace their family responsibilities with the ministry demands. When they are not conducting a general service, they are away on church duty or helping the congregation with personal issues of family, finance and faith. The wives, like in the case of the lady with her two starving daughters, are left to cater to the families alone while at the same time portraying a positive image of their husband, the minister.
Many disgruntled spouses have decided not to be involved in any way in their spouses’ ministries, which should signify her resignation to their faults. This is a sign that on is yet to satisfactorily balance ministry with family responsibility. Many ministers make declaration of commitment to ministry.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Challenges of Ministerial Responsibilities and Its Effects on the Minister's Home. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To highlight the effects of ministerial challenges on Ministers homes in the area under review;
- To Expatiate on the balance between ministry and the home;
- To discuss the concept of ministry and enumerate ministerial challenges; and
- To recommend and suggest ways of balancing ministerial responsibilities and their homes.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What is ministry?
- What are the known ministerial challenges?
- What is the biblical perspective of minister’s homes?
- How can ministers strike a balance between ministry and their homes?
- What are the effects of ministerial challenges on ministers’ homes?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There are no significant factors affecting Minister's Home and their ministerial responsibilities
- H1: There are significant factors affecting Minister's Home and their ministerial responsibilities
1.7 Significance of Study
This research work will be of immense benefit to the following:
- Church leaders, council and administrators will be able to build and improve on the welfare of their ministers or pastors.
- Ministers at different levels of operations will be able to identify the effects of their ministerial responsibilities on their homes. This will enable them make amends where necessary.
- Upcoming and young ministers will be enlightened on the challenges of ministerial responsibilities. It will clear from their minds all the misconceptions and myths associated to the work of ministry.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Challenges of Ministerial Responsibilities and Its Effects on the Minister's Home using Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Nigeria as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
The following words are defined for the purpose of this study:
Ministry: It is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith, the prototype being the Great Commission.
Ministerial: Relating to a religious minister
Challenge: A test of somebody's abilities; a situation that tests someone's abilities in a stimulating way
Home: A home or domicile is a dwelling-place used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for an individual or family
Moral-Religious Education: It is the process of imparting religious and moral principles and values into an individual
