A Modern take on “Minister”
What do you imagine when you hear the term “minister?” Does a specific person come to mind? An outfit? An experience? I’m actually curious so please share if you’d like.
Every time I tell someone I’m a minister, I feel the need to quickly explain. The title “minister” comes with a lot of preconceived notions… I believe the term “minister” often calls to mind a leader in a christian denomination of some sort, and that person is likely acting within a church of some sort. While that might sit well for some who have had positive experiences with ministers, it can also bring up ideas and feelings of dogma and religious authority that can be triggering for others.
I do not consider myself christian, am not a leader in a christian denomination of any sort, and I also am not acting within a church.
So why call myself a minister? Why Rev?
Well to start… I am technically ordained as an Interfaith/Interspiritual Minister so it’s officially my title. And as I shared in my video last month, I don’t totally resonate with the noun definition of “Minister” but I definitely resonate with the action/verb of the term…
A classmate was gifted this shirt by her partner after ordination. :)
Noun: “a member of the clergy; a person authorized to conduct religious worship.” Yes this is technically true but doesn’t feel like how I would define myself.
Verb: “to attend to the needs of someone” or “to give service, care, or attend to the wants or necessities of another.” That is what I do.
And I still feel connected to the definition I shared while I was in seminary (in a 2021 blog post explaining Interfaith/Interspiritual Ministry):
“Minister: Being spiritually of service… One of our deans shared with us our first weekend that “our job description as ministers is to love.” And that can show up in so many forms… I believe at its foundation, a minister’s role is to help others to feel seen, heard, valued, held, loved and connected.”
I don’t want you to be triggered by my title
That said, I truly don’t want the title Rev or Minister to trigger or turn anyone off. So, I have been playing around with different terms that don’t include Minister to see if one fits:
Spiritual Guide & Counselor
Intuitive Guide & Counselor
Transition Doula & Ritualist
Intuitive Spiritual Guide & Support
I am all of these things. But they don’t quite feel complete and. And “minister still feels like an umbrella that can hold all of the things. But I need to be specific about who I AM as a minister and that I’m not a “traditional” understanding of a minister.
Who am I a minister to?
The titles that I share most readily when explaining what I do are Interspiritual* Minister (which I explain means I believe all of the faiths are talking about the same general truth and I’m here for everyone), or even more frequently I say I’m a Minister for the Spiritual but not Religious: the “nones,” the “un-churched.” A spiritual support for those that feel curious about or drawn to something beyond understanding but don’t have a spiritual home, or they that have been harmed by or don’t feel aligned with their previous church or religious institution, but still feel connected spiritually, or want to.
The Modern Way of Ministry
As I’ve worked through the confusion and struggle of calling myself a Minister, I’ve wondered if part of what I’m doing (and other not-so-traditional ministers as well) is reclaiming the term. What if how I’m showing up as a minister - as a spiritual support person to help you on your own journey but not putting ANY pressure or expectation on you or what your journey or spiritual beliefs and understanding will look like - what if that is what ministry will become?
So, perhaps what I am is a “Modern Minister.” Modern is defined as “characteristic of present and recent time; contemporary; not antiquated or obsolete.” Kind of cool to imagine that this is the path forward for ministry. The founder of my seminary once shared that she thought Interspirituality* would be the religion of the 21st Millenia (I hope that’s true).
What matters to me is that I support the people I’m meant to support – that I’m available to you when you need me. So whether you call me a Modern Minister, Interspiritual Minister, Minister for the Spiritual but not Religious, Your Minister, Spiritual/Intuitive Guide, Intuitive Coach, Friend, Rev Dev or just Devin, I am here to support you on your journey.
Part of this discernment process has been sorting out what I would call myself on Instagram (ridiculous but true). I have begun sharing more spiritual content on Instagram (videos and musings and I even did an impromptu Fall Blessing earlier this week) and it has felt important that my account reflect who I actually am. I am now @revdev_modernminister. If you haven’t followed me yet, please join me there - I’d love to stay in touch with you.
Thanks for following along on my journey, and I truly hope you feel supported here in the container of The Connected Way™ and safe with me as a minister.
Rev. Dev (or whatever you want to call me)
The Connected Way™
*A quick refresher from that 2021 blog post I shared defining my understanding of “Interfaith/Interspiritual Minister”
“Interspiritual: The belief that all faiths at their very foundation are basically the same thing. Each faith is its own path, but in the end, they all lead to the same place – connection to source and the unity and oneness of all. It’s basically the idea that each religion is like a different language talking about the same thing. And largely, the distinction of the faiths is based in the narratives and human influence and understanding of the faith. In my last post, I shared this quote from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: “The history of religions is the history of their egos and not of their soul.” The ego of the religion is what we see. But, the soul of the faith is what we experience. And I believe the soul of all the religions is inherently the same or at least leading to the same thing.
The term Interspiritual was coined when leaders from different faiths came together to share their own experiences and deepened their own relationships with divinity, source, etc. by learning about each other’s mystical and spiritual experiences. As such, much of Interspiritual belief is based on spiritual experiences, not necessarily concepts or teachings.”