Raising a ministry family has unique bumps, difficulties, pressures and expectations that a “normal” family doesn’t have. In some cases, they can even end up scaring us, ending our marriage, hurting our children, and leave us all feeling disillusioned with the church, ministry, and God.
How can we raise a family in a ministry context in a way that honors God, our families, our marriages and ourselves? How can we handle everything that comes along with being a pastor while appropriately balancing it with our family life?
We’re not really sure, but we were both raised as pastor’s kids our whole lives. In fact, both of our fathers are still serving in full-time pastoral ministry with our moms and now we’re following in their footsteps. Tim graduated from Bible college and seminary, has served as a paid youth pastor in five different churches and as a dedicated volunteer in two. Prior to our marriage, Dana also served as a church’s youth director and since then has served as a dedicated volunteer in Tim’s ministry while focusing on our children at home.
Having successfully made the transition from growing up in ministry families to serving in ministry ourselves, we’re now trying to reflect on everything we’ve learned and observed so far. Hopefully it will help us raise our own children to passionately love the Lord and serve Him full-time in whatever career and direction He takes them.
You’re welcome to join us as we think out-loud about these things here on MinistryFamily.com! We’d love to hear your input, your advice, and your own stories as we journey through this together and hopefully, for the sake of our mariages, families and our ministries, we can learn and grow together.
– Tim and Dana Schmoyer
