Is She Up for This? Questions for a Potential Pastor's Wife

 
 This article was written by a senior pastor to men going into the ministry as pastors. Although it was primarily written from a man's perspective, it asks questions that every potential pastor's wife should perhaps ask herself. As well, it is a topic that every husband and wife looking to go into ministry should have a conversation about. 
 
Before you pursue the office of pastor, you know that you need to be ready. But have you asked whether your wife is ready?
 
Formally, I don't believe there should be extra expectations placed on a pastor's wife. There is no office of "pastor's wife" in the Bible. But practically, being married to a pastor is a tough role. Does your wife have what it takes? Is she up for it?
 
Those are the questions I want to help you ask in this article. It is critical for you to ask such questions. Men preparing for the ministry can easily become blindly ambitious, even idolatrous, without realizing it. When that happens, we risk turning our wives into means to making much of ourselves. If they get in the way of our goals, we run them over. It's therefore critical, as I say, to stop, loosen our grip on the ministry goals, and give real honest thought to our wives.
 
It has taken me a long time to realize how vulnerable our wives are to us. They take our name. They live with the consequences of our decisions. And they just might have to crawl under the pew-at least in my case-when we use poor grammar in a sermon...I just want to keep some people from trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole...
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Article written by Bob Johnson, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Roseville, Michigan.