Before going to university I had very little idea about career options. I drifted into and through a science degree, choosing subjects which I thought would eventually give me reasonable job security. I graduated from UTAS in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science and worked in Pathology for five and a half years.

The bulk of my day-to-day work was the glamorous task of screening pap smears (always a great conversation starter for a single male, as I was then). My job was to look for Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN), and it was life saving - it saved people from cancer and death. In fact, of all the cancers, cervical cancer has been the most successfully prevented cancer.

What I want to tell you in this brief article is how I went from Pathology to Pastor. There were a number of factors. While at UTAS I was involved in FOCUS (now University Fellowship of Christians) on campus. These years were formative for me - hearing passionate preaching from the Bible, seeing people’s lives changed, witnessing active evangelism on campus, and wrestling through deep theology at Mid Year Conferences.

I also heard a compelling sermon from George Viewer arguing that if Christianity is the most important thing in your life then it is not much in an average life span of 70 year to devote at least 2 years to full time Christian service. The more I got involved in church, leading Bible studies, and occasional preaching the more I felt the need to equip myself for a life of ministry handing God’s Word.

I went to Sydney Missionary Bible College. Even there I initially kept a lot of options open as to where God might lead me, but I soon realised - being confronted weekly with mission needs from all over the globe - that you simply cannot make a decision about where to serve God based on needs. There are needs everywhere. I felt I could have a go at many things, but knew that I wouldn’t thrive there.

It was also obvious that God had shaped the lives and experiences of others in ways that suited them for particular ministries. Someone was brilliant with language. They would enjoy Bible translation. Someone was a gifted musician. They naturally served the church with music. Someone else grew up in a different culture. Cross-Cultural ministry was natural to them.

It was liberating to realise that God had shaped my life and experiences in certain ways and that it was actually ok to play to my strengths and do the thing I loved.

I became a preacher. Now by God’s grace I am saving lives not from the temporary effects of CIN but from the eternal consequences of Sin. In fact, behind all of the brokenness in our world lies the problem of sin and only Jesus Christ has shown himself successful in its prevention and cure. That is why I left Pathology to become a Pastor.

- Phil Ninness graduated from UTAS with a Bachelor of Science in 2000 and now works as the pastor of Sandy Bay Baptist Church.