Thanks for the encouragement, everyone.

You did what you could with what you knew, at the time, and in that process you came to change your mind about a few things. That may not have happened on another path.

Now that you've perfected your methods of speaking to people within a certain spiritual lane, you now have a whole freeway to expand your skills to speak with people more aligned with your current spiritual views, with freedom to speak more broadly, and perhaps be able to admit there are things we just don't know, but isn't it fun to try to figure out?

You likely already know about the Clergy Project [clergyproject.org] and I bet there are many other former ministers who have felt the same as you feel. I think about people like Dan Barker, who after leaving the ministry, is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation with his wife, whose mother founded the organization.

Or maybe you want to do something totally opposite or apart from faith/non-faith. Work with your hands or creative mind. I'm sure your experiences have given you a perspective about people that many others will never see.

As a minister, you would have used and perfected many skills such as public speaking, knowing the importance of community service being only a couple.
Take the things you have learned a put it into more secular opportunity. It will benefit all people, including yourself... not just the ones that went to your denomination.

I spent fifteen years in Reparative Therapy, trying to be straight. And at that time in my life, I was cute, and guys liked me, and they came onto me. Now I couldn't get laid in a bathhouse. So it's easy to feel as if I've wasted my life. But the interesting thing is, there were some interesting nuggets that came out with me. There are things I learned, there's an approach to life, all those things are not a waste to me, though I wouldn't mind having learned them more simply.

Nothing is ever a complete waste. The fact that the scales have fallen from your eyes, and you are now re-evaluating your past makes you question how you ever believed and even ministered to others, but you were just following a path that countess others take, and follow unquestioningly. The fact that you can now see that you were fed a diet of supernatural nonsense, probably from the earliest age, and never given the chance to think critically about it, gives you the chance to challenge this practice of training children to believe dogma instead of using their brains and science to work out what they believe. Use your inside knowledge of how religions operate to brainwash the young and try to counter it in any way you can.

If you honestly believe you have helped others live better lives, then no, it wasn't a waste. However, if you believe it was all for nothing, then I'm afraid the answer is obvious. And, if it was all a waste and for nothing, then now is the time to start making amends and try and fix what you can. Continue to strive to make the world a better place for everyone, only this time do it with science and facts.