Most Important Characteristics of a Pastor

[RevCowboy]

Well, there have been a number of interesting comments in the other thread about the ordination of the homosexual pastor in my National Church:doh::mad:...

One thought that I took out of that thread is the idea that pastors should be above reproach. I think that all Christians should be above reproach.

However, my wondering is about the expectations that people have for pastors. Since I am getting ever closer to finishing my internship/vicarage and then seminary (especially after being aimed in this direction for at least 8 years of school), its a question that is on my mind.

What are the most important characteristics of your pastor/ being a pastor. Not being a heretic is obvious, but some folks might like their pastors because he cares about them and visits etc.... Others may like theirs because he is a good preacher, or a good teacher. Still others perhaps because he is a good worship leader or administrator.

So what do you say are the most important characteristics of being a pastor and not in general, but for you.

[LilLamb219]

For me, the pastor must really have a good grasp of the proper distinctions between Law and Gospel.

[cerette]

Naturally he needs to live up to the Biblical standards of a pastor (which include only teaching true doctrine) but based on some personal experince I would say that other than that the pastor needs to clearly understand and be aware of, and respect what his role really is, and what it isn't.

I have known a few pastors who act as if they are really running their own personal little ministries rather than serving a Lutheran congregation, and others who have forced their personal opinion about matters that are "non-church issues" down my throat.

[filosofer]

There is only one Biblical expectation regarding ability/talent/giftedness, and that is "apt to teach". Everything else relates to the character of the pastor.

[RevCowboy]

For me, the pastor must really have a good grasp of the proper distinctions between Law and Gospel.

Unfortunately I think for a lot of pastors (regardless of denomination) don't have this notion at the forefront of all they do whether it be preaching, teaching, visiting, council meetings, etc...

Naturally he needs to live up to the Biblical standards of a pastor (which include only teaching true doctrine) but based on some personal experince I would say that other than that the pastor needs to clearly understand and be aware of, and respect what his role really is, and what it isn't.

I have known a few pastors who act as if they are really running their own personal little ministries rather than serving a Lutheran congregation, and others who have forced their personal opinion about matters that are "non-church issues" down my throat.


Indeed there are too many Lone Wolf, Herr Pastor, Worship at my feet kind of pastors out there.

So when do you (inspecific you) decide that your pastor is not teaching true doctrine? And how do you determine who is right?

In my brief experience this year I have encountered a number of lay people who have strange understandings of scripture and no matter how many sermons they hear, or how many bible studies they attend still hear what they want. And I am sure that if I stayed around long enough some would start telling me that my understanding of scripture is wrong. Now I don't want to sound like a snob, but that is a little hard to take when you are the one who has been to seminary, been colloquized, ordained, called, etc... (not that I have been all those things yet) and joe schmoe lay person has only recently developed an interest in faith, church and scripture.


There is only one Biblical expectation regarding ability/talent/giftedness, and that is "apt to teach". Everything else relates to the character of the pastor.


I think most of us here know the biblical expectations... but I was getting at more personal preference. Like, is it more important that your pastor knows your name or preaches good sermons or does lots of visits etc...

[MarkRohfrietsch]

RevC,

For me, Confessional and orthodox are foremost.

Pray a lot.

Knowing what gifts the Lord has given you, and how to use them for the benefit of His Church is also very important.

Even more important is knowing what gifts He didn't give you. This is where most good Christian Pastors screw up the most.

Pray some more.

Help your Congregation to know and understand who you are as both a Pastor and a person. Remain steadfast to your doctrine. Do not allow anyone to take advantage of you, or walk all over you. If it happens once, you are beat. Friendships within your Congregation are great, but beware of favoritism.

If you are married, remember that part of your call is to put the congregation before family and self.

Even after your Vicarage, keep in touch with other wise, experienced Pastors, they most likely have faced and dealt with the situations you will be facing. Benefit from their experience, and learn from their errors.

Pray continuously.

Blessings,

Mark

[DaRev]

In my brief experience this year I have encountered a number of lay people who have strange understandings of scripture and no matter how many sermons they hear, or how many bible studies they attend still hear what they want. And I am sure that if I stayed around long enough some would start telling me that my understanding of scripture is wrong. Now I don't want to sound like a snob, but that is a little hard to take when you are the one who has been to seminary, been colloquized, ordained, called, etc... (not that I have been all those things yet) and joe schmoe lay person has only recently developed an interest in faith, church and scripture.

Welcome to the ministry, my friend. :)

[RevCowboy]

Welcome to the ministry, my friend. :)

Thanks.... I think...;)

In some ways its nice to hear that I am not the only one frustrated by things like this. There seems to be some assumption out there among lay and clergy a like that the only time pastors have ever cracked a bible was in intro to NT. Those of my classmates who are second career seem to feel this way the most. They are all surprised by the amount they didn't know, yet at the same time are convinced that every other lay person out there still has been reading their bible so much that they know more than a seminary grad.

To me this just articulates the difference between spending time in personal devotion and study over having the chance to sit at the feet of professors, have access to good theological libraries, being told who to read, having to write papers, tests, exams, learn the original languages. I mean I knew my bible very well before going to school, it was important in my family to read it, but the difference once I arrived at school was astounding.

I guess its impossible to express this experience unless either you go to seminary, of have a good group of folks willing to do lots of biblical study with you.

Sorry for ranting. Now back to the original scheduled program.

[RevCowboy]

RevC,

For me, Confessional and orthodox are foremost.

Pray a lot.

Knowing what gifts the Lord has given you, and how to use them for the benefit of His Church is also very important.

Even more important is knowing what gifts He didn't give you. This is where most good Christian Pastors screw up the most.

Pray some more.

Help your Congregation to know and understand who you are as both a Pastor and a person. Remain steadfast to your doctrine. Do not allow anyone to take advantage of you, or walk all over you. If it happens once, you are beat. Friendships within your Congregation are great, but beware of favoritism.

If you are married, remember that part of your call is to put the congregation before family and self.

Even after your Vicarage, keep in touch with other wise, experienced Pastors, they most likely have faced and dealt with the situations you will be facing. Benefit from their experience, and learn from their errors.

Pray continuously.

Blessings,

Mark

Ever considered seminary? You seem to get better than a lot of pastors I know!

One of my friends was recently consecrated as a diaconal minister and her father, a pastor, preached at the service. He said when he was going to seminary Rev. Dr. Joseph Sittler was a prof at his school and when they got the chance, he and few other senior students approaching graduation asked Dr. Sittler what advice he would give them before going out into the world. And Dr. Sittler said:

"In the midst of evil and dullness, and dull is what evil claims the Church to be... Build the Church. You have been given people of clay, breathe life into the them."

That quote really caught me and has since become one of my favourites. It seems to capture for me the task of ministry so well. What you said Mark equally reminds of this task of ministry.

[WildStrawberry]

Ever considered seminary? You seem to get better than a lot of pastors I know!

Correct me if I'm wrong but...I thought Mark IS a Pastor. In Canada, IIRC.

*G*

I have to shout "AMEN" to all of the above posts. *G*

Kae

[Edial]

...
So what do you say are the most important characteristics of being a pastor and not in general, but for you.

OK.

Must defend the sheep.
The spiritual dangers the sheep face are false teachings that can cripple them. The sheep MUST know that salvation is through Jesus Christ and no other. A good pastor must not waver on that. All truth must be firm.

Must love the sheep.
Loving is a skill that eludes many. It cannot be taught neither learned in schools. It comes from within and then penetrates the listener's heart.

Must know the sheep.
Jesus said He knows His sheep by name. Wow. That is really caring. A good pastor should also know each congregant by face and name, especially the new people ... (I recently realized I would not make a good pastor - I'm terrible at names. :):))

Must look forwards to going to Heaven.
Jesus Christ was looking forwards to Heaven. The sheep must also know where their pastor's heart is.

Must pray for the sheep.
When someone shares his troubles, many pastors start giving advice. Advice is good, but prayer is better - it asks God for help and wisdom. (I am an advice giver - I better stick to Bible studies. :))

Must share his life with church.
Christ laid His life for His sheep. Good pastor should dedicate his life to serving the church.

Must be kind.
Kindness is probably one of the most lasting effects it leaves on people

Thanks, :)
Ed

[DaRev]

Thanks.... I think...;)

In some ways its nice to hear that I am not the only one frustrated by things like this. There seems to be some assumption out there among lay and clergy a like that the only time pastors have ever cracked a bible was in intro to NT. Those of my classmates who are second career seem to feel this way the most. They are all surprised by the amount they didn't know, yet at the same time are convinced that every other lay person out there still has been reading their bible so much that they know more than a seminary grad.

To me this just articulates the difference between spending time in personal devotion and study over having the chance to sit at the feet of professors, have access to good theological libraries, being told who to read, having to write papers, tests, exams, learn the original languages. I mean I knew my bible very well before going to school, it was important in my family to read it, but the difference once I arrived at school was astounding.

I guess its impossible to express this experience unless either you go to seminary, of have a good group of folks willing to do lots of biblical study with you.

Sorry for ranting. Now back to the original scheduled program.

One of the greatest things I learned at seminary was how much I didn't know. It was quite humbling.

[RevCowboy]

Correct me if I'm wrong but...I thought Mark IS a Pastor. In Canada, IIRC.

*G*

I have to shout "AMEN" to all of the above posts. *G*

Kae

I think Mark is a funeral director... but I could be wrong:blush:

[MarkRohfrietsch]

I think Mark is a funeral director... but I could be wrong:blush:

Yes, Mark is a Funeral Director, but not practicing.

I work for a company that develops, manufactures, and markets products used in livestock feed and feed production. Hay and feed preservatives, probiotics and such.

I am an elder in a Lutheran Church Canada congregation. I have never received the call to the Ministry, but have certainly been called to serve the Lord in many other ways.

Mark

[cerette]

Unfortunately I think for a lot of pastors (regardless of denomination) don't have this notion at the forefront of all they do whether it be preaching, teaching, visiting, council meetings, etc...




Indeed there are too many Lone Wolf, Herr Pastor, Worship at my feet kind of pastors out there.

So when do you (inspecific you) decide that your pastor is not teaching true doctrine? And how do you determine who is right?

In my brief experience this year I have encountered a number of lay people who have strange understandings of scripture and no matter how many sermons they hear, or how many bible studies they attend still hear what they want. And I am sure that if I stayed around long enough some would start telling me that my understanding of scripture is wrong. Now I don't want to sound like a snob, but that is a little hard to take when you are the one who has been to seminary, been colloquized, ordained, called, etc... (not that I have been all those things yet) and joe schmoe lay person has only recently developed an interest in faith, church and scripture.



I think most of us here know the biblical expectations... but I was getting at more personal preference. Like, is it more important that your pastor knows your name or preaches good sermons or does lots of visits etc...

First I wanna ask how you people MQ when replying? Whe I click on the MQ nothing happens!!

Anyway, I understand what you are saying, and I have great respect for pastors and totally accept the fact that most of them know way more than I do. But the other side of the coin is that some pastors/people think that pastors know it all or know more simply because they are pastors. This isn't true. So...there may very well be cases of Joe Schmoe knowing more than Pastor.

How to determine who is right.. well... what I have learned from personal discussions and studies with friends, is that if you don't start by agreeing on the view of Scripture and/or the Lutheran Confessions, there will be problems later on. Let's say I claim infant baptism is valid, and my friend says it isn't... then I show her the Biblical grounds for saying it is indeed valid... but she says "Oh but I don't take the Bible literally like that"... So my suggestion is to start by explaining how you view the Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions... hopefully the others will agree with your view, and if you have disagreements along the way you can go back and see what the Bible says and what we as Lutherans confess to be true. :thumbsup:

[DaRev]

First I wanna ask how you people MQ when replying? Whe I click on the MQ nothing happens!!

When you click on the MQ there's a little green dot that turns red. You click MQ on the posts that you want to quote, and on the last one also click QUOTE and all of the posts that you've clicked MQ on will be quoted.

[cerette]

When you click on the MQ there's a little green dot that turns red. You click MQ on the posts that you want to quote, and on the last one also click QUOTE and all of the posts that you've clicked MQ on will be quoted.

Thank you! I would have never figured that out.

Another thing as a reply to the original question in this thread, is that I find it very important that a pastor doesn't love the church organization so much, that he stays in it and refuses to leave it even if he should...(he stays in a church organization eventhough it becomes heretic because he loves the organization so much).

[BigNorsk]

The biblical qualification of apt to teach is most important. Based on what you say RevCowboy about the lack of knowledge, it sounds almost to me like the pastors who have preceeded you were not qualified to be such.

By that I mean, let's go for instance to a school. Let's say we check the 5th grade and we find the children cannot read nor write. Do we assume it is the fault of the students or do we assume it is the fault of the teachers? I'm thinking the pretty universal conclusion would be the teachers.

Now we move to the church and we find the sheep know little and we blame it on the sheep.

Hmmm. Why is that?

You have taken years and years of courses in a variety of subjects. How many courses have you taken on how to transmit what you have learned to your flock? I'm thinking almost none.

We end up, as a body, I think disobeying God. For we have many with great knowledge, but they are generally not apt to teach. Some have the ability on their own, they figure it out but most don't.

So it seems to me we largely have a group of very educated theologians, who are lay teachers. That is they are left to do home study on how to teach. There is of course mentoring that takes place, but many slip through without really being helped.

We work a bit more on sermons and how to do them. But our style of sermon is not a lecture on understanding a doctrine.

And so we go, for several hundred years now we have had pastors complaining the people know nothing, and the people complaining the pastor speaks in a foreign language or in ways they don't understand, and there seems to be little effort to change it.

Maybe you would bless your congregations with doing exactly that. Laying out a system using your Sunday School, Confirmation, adult classes and such to teach them the faith. Not just kind of talk and hope they absorb it in some sort of order by osmosis or something.

It can be frustrating especially at first because people will wonder why you bother. But what you find repeatedly is that when people are good at teaching that people do indeed show up. There's a lot of people searching for answers and truth and if you can actually show them in an interesting and reasonable manner, they will respond.

Marv

[Edial]

The biblical qualification of apt to teach is most important. Based on what you say RevCowboy about the lack of knowledge, it sounds almost to me like the pastors who have preceeded you were not qualified to be such.

By that I mean, let's go for instance to a school. Let's say we check the 5th grade and we find the children cannot read nor write. Do we assume it is the fault of the students or do we assume it is the fault of the teachers? I'm thinking the pretty universal conclusion would be the teachers.

Now we move to the church and we find the sheep know little and we blame it on the sheep.

Hmmm. Why is that?

You have taken years and years of courses in a variety of subjects. How many courses have you taken on how to transmit what you have learned to your flock? I'm thinking almost none.

We end up, as a body, I think disobeying God. For we have many with great knowledge, but they are generally not apt to teach. Some have the ability on their own, they figure it out but most don't.

So it seems to me we largely have a group of very educated theologians, who are lay teachers. That is they are left to do home study on how to teach. There is of course mentoring that takes place, but many slip through without really being helped.

We work a bit more on sermons and how to do them. But our style of sermon is not a lecture on understanding a doctrine.

And so we go, for several hundred years now we have had pastors complaining the people know nothing, and the people complaining the pastor speaks in a foreign language or in ways they don't understand, and there seems to be little effort to change it.

Maybe you would bless your congregations with doing exactly that. Laying out a system using your Sunday School, Confirmation, adult classes and such to teach them the faith. Not just kind of talk and hope they absorb it in some sort of order by osmosis or something.

It can be frustrating especially at first because people will wonder why you bother. But what you find repeatedly is that when people are good at teaching that people do indeed show up. There's a lot of people searching for answers and truth and if you can actually show them in an interesting and reasonable manner, they will respond.

Marv
Good post Marv.

Thanks :)

[WildStrawberry]

Yes, Mark is a Funeral Director, but not practicing.

Oops! Well smack my face and call me silly. *G*

Kae

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Oops! Well smack my face and call me silly. *G*

Kae

No problem. Just don't mistake me for Benny Hinn, Ratzinger or Herbert W. Armstrong!:D ;)

[BigNorsk]

No problem. Just don't mistake me for Benny Hinn, Ratzinger or Herbert W. Armstrong!:D ;)

Well at least you don't set the bar too high!

I can think of a few others I would never mistake you for. And all without even working up a sweat.

Marv

[RadMan]

Well Marv beat me to it but my simple answer was "Feed my sheep". That's the only way that the church can judge doctrine and know that they are hearing the "Shepard's voice".

[Tofferer]

I read this and I question my seeking to earn an M. Div. I am woefully unqualified to even consider being a pastor after reading this. Perhaps I'd be better off elsewhere......

[Willy]

Ever considered seminary? You seem to get better than a lot of pastors I know!

One of my friends was recently consecrated as a diaconal minister and her father, a pastor, preached at the service. He said when he was going to seminary Rev. Dr. Joseph Sittler was a prof at his school and when they got the chance, he and few other senior students approaching graduation asked Dr. Sittler what advice he would give them before going out into the world. And Dr. Sittler said:

"In the midst of evil and dullness, and dull is what evil claims the Church to be... Build the Church. You have been given people of clay, breathe life into the them."

That quote really caught me and has since become one of my favourites. It seems to capture for me the task of ministry so well. What you said Mark equally reminds of this task of ministry.
When I graduated from seminary Joseph Sittler spoke and he encouraged us never to forget "the haunting allure of Jesus." I appreciated that. I want a pastor who is grasped by the allure of Jesus. I have to admit that public energy and charisma are important to me. I want a pastor who can inspire and who can lead. Also I would want a pastor to have a heart for people. It's important to me also that she or he is theologically grounded and contextually relevant.

[BigNorsk]

Well Tofferer, a man, any man is not up to being in the office of public ministry on his own. He really needs to be called to it. If you are called to something else, it is not a higher thing to decide on your own to be a minister.

That said, a seminary education is not by any stretch a waste, it is after all not a techinical degree. But rather an intense study of the greatest discipline.

Do not be discourged by the difficulties of ministry, rather make sure to equip yourself with the armour of God.

Marv

[RevCowboy]

The biblical qualification of apt to teach is most important. Based on what you say RevCowboy about the lack of knowledge, it sounds almost to me like the pastors who have preceeded you were not qualified to be such.

By that I mean, let's go for instance to a school. Let's say we check the 5th grade and we find the children cannot read nor write. Do we assume it is the fault of the students or do we assume it is the fault of the teachers? I'm thinking the pretty universal conclusion would be the teachers.

Now we move to the church and we find the sheep know little and we blame it on the sheep.

Hmmm. Why is that?

You have taken years and years of courses in a variety of subjects. How many courses have you taken on how to transmit what you have learned to your flock? I'm thinking almost none.

We end up, as a body, I think disobeying God. For we have many with great knowledge, but they are generally not apt to teach. Some have the ability on their own, they figure it out but most don't.

So it seems to me we largely have a group of very educated theologians, who are lay teachers. That is they are left to do home study on how to teach. There is of course mentoring that takes place, but many slip through without really being helped.

We work a bit more on sermons and how to do them. But our style of sermon is not a lecture on understanding a doctrine.

And so we go, for several hundred years now we have had pastors complaining the people know nothing, and the people complaining the pastor speaks in a foreign language or in ways they don't understand, and there seems to be little effort to change it.

Maybe you would bless your congregations with doing exactly that. Laying out a system using your Sunday School, Confirmation, adult classes and such to teach them the faith. Not just kind of talk and hope they absorb it in some sort of order by osmosis or something.

It can be frustrating especially at first because people will wonder why you bother. But what you find repeatedly is that when people are good at teaching that people do indeed show up. There's a lot of people searching for answers and truth and if you can actually show them in an interesting and reasonable manner, they will respond.

Marv

Sorry, its been so long to reply. I have been sick and then catching up on work.

I think you have touched on a significant issue here (and I would argue its not just the ability to teach that we fail often to require of our pastors but also being capable administrators, writers, musicians, liturgists and more).

Going about education in the congregation is one of the things that keeps me up at night and which we sem students spend long hours around a few beers hashing out.

I really like teaching. Being a teacher was the competing career choice before I decided on seminary. However, at seminary we only have one class on Christian Education, which is usually not taught by an actual teacher (mine was because the normal prof was on sabbatical).

I grew up in the home of a teacher so I have good resources, but I have also had 7 summers of working a bible camps where you are constantly teaching every thing from bible study, to how to play games, to how to use a broom, to how to sing a song. So far my experience has been that kids and adults a like have enjoyed, appreciate and learned from experiences where I have been teaching them. At the same time, I am also amazed that people don't already know the things that I am teaching about...

Which relates to my experience with many pastors, is that they couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag. I know that most would want to be better at teaching, most want to spend more time teaching, and feel they are going against the grain with congregations who simply don't have the time or don't want to be taught.

Its a vicious circle. Teaching isn't a priority for our church, so we don't make it a priority skill for pastors, so pastors don't teach us very well and therefore we don't like education and it becomes less of a priority.

Thankfully our profs are now getting us to think about in each of our classes how we will make the things we learn accessible to our congregations. Whether it be as part of our studies writing mock newsletter ariticles, making presentations that can be used in the parish, writing sermons on the topics etc...

Buts mostly importantly they teaching is that only through education does faith grow and mature. I think there was sense in recent decades that pastoral counseling was the way to nuture faith and this proved to be untrue. The more people know and understand the faith that living and experiencing each day and more particularly the faith that they experience each Sunday in worship, I think the important faith becomes in life, the important being a part of the chruch community becomes. I am looking forward to education a part of everything that I do in the parish.

[RadMan]

Sorry, its been so long to reply. I have been sick and then catching up on work.

I think you have touched on a significant issue here (and I would argue its not just the ability to teach that we fail often to require of our pastors but also being capable administrators, writers, musicians, liturgists and more).

Going about education in the congregation is one of the things that keeps me up at night and which we sem students spend long hours around a few beers hashing out.

I really like teaching. Being a teacher was the competing career choice before I decided on seminary. However, at seminary we only have one class on Christian Education, which is usually not taught by an actual teacher (mine was because the normal prof was on sabbatical).

I grew up in the home of a teacher so I have good resources, but I have also had 7 summers of working a bible camps where you are constantly teaching every thing from bible study, to how to play games, to how to use a broom, to how to sing a song. So far my experience has been that kids and adults a like have enjoyed, appreciate and learned from experiences where I have been teaching them. At the same time, I am also amazed that people don't already know the things that I am teaching about...

Which relates to my experience with many pastors, is that they couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag. I know that most would want to be better at teaching, most want to spend more time teaching, and feel they are going against the grain with congregations who simply don't have the time or don't want to be taught.

Its a vicious circle. Teaching isn't a priority for our church, so we don't make it a priority skill for pastors, so pastors don't teach us very well and therefore we don't like education and it becomes less of a priority.

Thankfully our profs are now getting us to think about in each of our classes how we will make the things we learn accessible to our congregations. Whether it be as part of our studies writing mock newsletter ariticles, making presentations that can be used in the parish, writing sermons on the topics etc...

Buts mostly importantly they teaching is that only through education does faith grow and mature. I think there was sense in recent decades that pastoral counseling was the way to nuture faith and this proved to be untrue. The more people know and understand the faith that living and experiencing each day and more particularly the faith that they experience each Sunday in worship, I think the important faith becomes in life, the important being a part of the chruch community becomes. I am looking forward to education a part of everything that I do in the parish.

It still makes you wonder why the Bible makes a designation between a preacher and teacher. Jesus was addressed as teacher many times and not only seemed to preach but also to teach at the same time. He might have had to perform the dual role since Christianity was new and there weren't many reference points to use. His seemed to be a dual role whereas preaching and teaching today seems to be separate rolls. It makes sense since most of the references in the Bible to preaching seem to be about the milk of the Word (simple Law and Gospel) whereas teaching seems to go into the meat of things. Something that plays a part in our sanctification like an ongoing experience or an ongoing work in us through the Holy Spirit. Type in the word "preach" in some searchable Bibles and you will notice that the word is limited in scope (but the most important) whereas the word teach is more broad.

Maybe that's why some pastors are good pulpit pounders and bad teachers or vise versa. This makes you wonder what kind of call some pastors or teachers really get.

[Edial]

I read this and I question my seeking to earn an M. Div. I am woefully unqualified to even consider being a pastor after reading this. Perhaps I'd be better off elsewhere......
Please do not say that. :)

You are work in progress. :)

If you agree with some of the things here and see that you do not have it and despair - it is a good desperation. :)

I was desperate in many things when I did not have it - I got a lot of them in time. :)

That's the way it "works". Once one has a good desperation - it is good.

Thanks, :)
Ed

[Tofferer]

I guess I just get discouraged at times. It is really hard to study when you have a tendency to spend between ten and fifteen hours a day at work, and mine is not a desk job. To get a rough idea on what I do, you can visit http://www.americanfast.com who knows, you may even see the picture of me (I have only seen it once, I wonder if its still there). However, given the industry I'm in, I suppose it is easy to see why I may feel discouraged.

[Edial]

I guess I just get discouraged at times. It is really hard to study when you have a tendency to spend between ten and fifteen hours a day at work, and mine is not a desk job. To get a rough idea on what I do, you can visit http://www.americanfast.com who knows, you may even see the picture of me (I have only seen it once, I wonder if its still there). However, given the industry I'm in, I suppose it is easy to see why I may feel discouraged.
Yes. It is hard work.
Do not get discouraged.

Ed :)