Why is my name so perfect to my call as an online Pastor?

-Pastor Melissa Fain-

Have you ever met someone who is so perfectly named for their job? Like a carpenter named Smith, or a jeweler named Diamond? 

You’d think something like that only happens in cartoons in comics. Maleficent literally means to cause harm on a supernatural scale. Lafou, from Beauty and the Beast, literally translates to “the fool.” Cinderella comes from the joining of “cinders” being the last of the dying coals, and “ella” meaning beautiful. 

When these things work out in real life, you begin to wonder if their names influenced their life choices, or if those names really were perfect for who they would eventually be.

Becoming Fain

When I realized I would be Pastor Fain, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.I l already aware of the word, “feign.” It is pronounced the same and means to fake, pretend or invent. 

Being a minister of anything with the last name of Feign would be unfortunate indeed.

But my name isn’t “Feign,” it’s “Fain.” To “fain” has a completely different meaning than to “feign.”

To fain is to do something with pleasure, or willingly under the circumstances.

When I learned what “fain” meant, it immediately felt incredibly right. 

It is extremely hard for me to feign anything. I am uncomfortably real. I hate pretense, and feel like a charlatan among the pomp and circumstance.

Yet, the above is what people naturally think when they hear my name, and probably think even more when they realize the ministry is online.

“Oh, your Pastor FAIN?! You mean Pastor Fake! You’re just pretending to do church, I see. Stop playing pretend and go do some real work!”

But, Pastor FAIN isn’t Pastor Fake. That would be Pastor Feign. I’m Pastor Fain, and despite the overwhelming lack of support for a growing number of people attempting to find God in this ever growing wilderness, I take my call with joy and (mostly) willingly. 

I am faining love in a world that mostly feigns it.

So you see? I married into the perfect name to be an online minister.

I'm Pastor Melissa Fain. I'm real, and I don't feign anything.