Focus on Four

Pastors have a tremendous amount of responsibility.  We face an endless list of things that need our attention from our families, our churches, our communities and our own personal needs.  At times, I find myself looking for the phrase, "He gave some to be jugglers" in Ephesians 4...but it's not there.  Whether we are working 40 hours a week or on the road for 20, we must find a way to balance all those things.  For me, this reality hit home in 2012 when I entered back into bivocational ministry after 5 years and 4 months.  We had a unique situation of coming to a church that had went through a season of difficulty and experienced quite a bit of decline in attendance and the availability of workers was scarce.  Don't get me wrong, the people that were there were willing to help in whatever way necessary.  I was super cautious of not wanting to put too much on them and so I did what most pastors did...I did much of it myself.

I was in deep.  I feared asking people to help around the church mostly because I had a fear that it wouldn't be done my way. Stupid, I know.  As if I was the only one who could shovel the sidewalks, set up ProPresenter, do my own graphics, find a Sunday morning video illustration, Blah, Blah, Blah.  The issue exploded on January 4, 2013 when I was overwhelmed and found myself at the brink of wanting to throw in the towel.  Thank God for amazing Network leadership.  John Musgrave, OMN Director of Church development, gave me some great advice.  He asked me to focus on four things that were things only I could do at that point.  He assured me that anything I was doing that didn't get picked up by someone else wasn't all that important.  He was spot on.  I began coming up with the list of those things I was doing and met with others who I felt could do it.  I knew if I let them know where I was, they would step up.  If not, it would probably be okay and wasn't vital to reaching the community for Christ.

Here are the four things I began to FOCUS on.  Not that other things don't have my attention or I am not ware of them, it's just that I realized if those "other things" don't get accomplished,  life would go on at Velocity Church.

1. The business of the church.  Working with the treasurer/book keeper week in and week out to ensure everything was paid up, taxes were covered and we locked down some incredible systems so the business of the church wouldn't hinder the ministry of the church.   I talked more about the business of the church in the October post, Be About The Business.

2.  New visitor/absentee follow-up.  I knew it was important for me to cover this.  For us, we know that people coming in and who have missed a couple Sunday's, need to hear from the pastor.  Our process isn't extensive but it is important.  In a church our size, the people are expecting to have decent access to my wife and I.  I knew if I delegated this concept to someone else, it would backfire.

3.  Membership.  I still believe in the commitment that comes with church membership.  We use Growth Track to aid us in moving new people along in their process at Velocity Church.  Moving new people from consumer to contributor is vital in ANY church.  It's not just doing a class...it's connecting with new people on a level where we learn about one another and they find their niche at Velocity

4.  Sunday Morning Preaching.  For a VERY long time, I had to focus on just a Sunday morning message.  Not videos, not fill in the blank notes, not bulletins or the occasional stage design.  People at Velocity didn't NEED those things.  They neeed a message that would challenge them in their faith and connect them to their creator.

For you, perhaps your four will be similar or much different.  Every situation is unique.  Your church needs you healthy and on your A-Game.  If you are playing "juggler" with things not vital to church health, it's a C-Game at best.  Be sure to talk with your board and leadership about making the necessary changes for you to shrink your list because it won't happen overnight and won't be effective without their help.

Bivocational Pastor...Get Some Rest!

If you follow this blog, you are confused right now.  If you don't follow this blog, you likely saw the last title and are thinking I have a split personality.  Here's what is happening.  I shared in October about finding something to do outside of ministry that breathes life into you, brings you joy or occupies your mind from ministry.  I stand behind that to this day.  Suddenly, you find me telling you to Get Some Rest...and I have good reason to because a lack of rest is why I haven't posted in 2 months.  I have had a problem for far too long of not taking some time off/rest and it caught up with me in a nasty way.  I came to Velocity Church in 2011 and have only taken one vacation in nearly 6 years.   It's dumb and I certainly don't recommend it.  A day off sounded more like a unicorn or Sasquatch because they just didn't seem to exist on a regular basis in my world.  I couldn't ever tell anyone what my day off was because if I wasn't at the church, I was out trying to sell something. I always said I would work it in but you likely know how that goes because something unexpected happens and there went any hopes of time off because if we really have to "work it in", it isn't all that important to us.

As I have previously mentioned, all but approximately 18 months of my time at Velocity Church has been bivocational.  For 2 1/2 years, I was working a 40 hour work week while pastoring.  The last 20 months, I have been doing sales.  Trust me...there is a difference from those two scenarios.  When I would work the 40 hours, I was done with work and ready to set my mind on things at the church at the end of the day.  Yes, that has it's own challenges that many pastors realize and live through every week.  In sales, it is much different from the view that I am never really "clocked-out" except on Sunday's and oh yeah, I have to preach on those days.  For so long now, my mind has typically been in one of two places...Sales or Pastoring.  Unless of course I was at football as I shared in my previous post.  It seemed as if I never had a break from THINKING about "work."  Unfortunately, it caught up with me. 

There were several things that led up to this URGENT need for a Time Out.  Perhaps I can share how that went at another time.  It ranged from using a vision God gave for a building expansion to validate myself, trying to pastor the church I wanted rather than the church I have and focusing on planning a project rather than pastoring people.  I was in a BAD spot!!!  Sure, it all looked great on the outside but on the inside, I was a mess.  A close friend of mine asked me what my destructive behavior was. IT didn't take long to figure that out in that moment.   It wasn't cheating on my wife, doing drugs, hitting the bottle, gambling, ripping off the church, looking at pornography or whatever other destructive behavior I could of found myself in.  My destructive behavior was that I didn't care!  I didn't care about the needs of people in the church, how much office time I put in, how much I was putting into messages or Bible studies.  That same mentality trickled into my sales job as I found myself taking shortcuts, not making follow-up calls, not sending out letters, not engaging in sales meetings and dismissing possible leads.

On November 13, I announced to the church that I would be taking a 3 week sabbatical from ministry.  Leading up to that Sunday, I met with our church board and some key leaders to share with them what I was dealing with.  They were all in agreement that I needed the time off.  The first 2 weeks I didn't do anything ministry or church related but still ran sales calls.  The final week I was off from all things Velocity Church and Culligan Water.  A week of REAL REST and VALUABLE TIME OFF.  Just as I will share about the struggles and mindset I had leading up this need to take time off, I will also share about what I am planning to do in the future to make sure I don't travel down this road again.

If you are like me, you are thinking how could I possible afford to go somewhere.  I would challenge that and tell you that you can't afford NOT to.  Trust me, it is beneficial to get away geographically...that's why we spent our final week in Myrtle Beach.  I have a pdf of some incredibly affordable or FREE opportunities that range from cabins, Bed and Breakfast, retreat centers or campgrounds.

The link below is a list by Lifeway of some additional affordable retreats/vacation spots for pastors.

http://www.lifeway.com/pastors/retreats-and-getaways/

My wife and stayed at the Hampton Inn on this list in Myrtle Beach for our final week.  Our 4 nights cost us $266.  The first image is from our bed looking at the ocean.  The second image is us enjoying the view in the morning from the balcony. The only thing that separated the ocean from hotel was the hotel swimming pools and about 30 yards of sand. We are going back in April.

The reality is that in Exodus 20, it takes 4 verses to talk about the Sabbath Day or Rest. The other Commandments contain 1 verse on keeping God first, 3 verses on idolatry, 1 verse on misusing the Lord’s name, 1 verse on honoring your mother and father, 1 verse to not murder, 1 verse to not commit adultery, 1 verse to not steal,1 verse to not lie and 1 verse to not covet your neighbors stuff.  Here's my take.  The 4 verses on rest doesn't necessarily make it the most important BUT without the rest, we will struggle to keep the other 9.

Find time to rest. 

Control your calendar, don't let it control you.  

Don't let your diligence become disobedience.   

Bivocational Pastor...you need something else to do.

Stay with me!  As a bivocational pastor, it seems insane to add something else to your week from your job and your ministry.  It's only for a season but it will be last beyond that.  For me, I just wrapped up my 6th season of coaching youth football.  Does it take away from some stuff at the church, Yes.  Does it take away from the job I earn money from, Yep.  So, why do I do it?  Because it brings me a sense of joy and fulfillment.  For me, when I step on that practice field or game field, I'm not thinking about anything ministry related.  I admit to having a major problem when it comes to taking time off or "resting" from ministry.  It's not something I'm good at.  I'm not talking about just physically going to the office or holding meetings but shutting off my mind (just ask my wife).  So, yeah, a typical week of football consumes approximately 8 hours of practice time, game time, roster adjustment, play changes, etc.  BUT...that is 8 hours that I am not thinking ministry stuff.  

For me, coaching is a "getaway" from ministry.  However, none of this works if not for the support of Velocity Church and my family.  I have been blessed with an understanding board and ready to help leaders that allow me 3 months to reach out to other families in our community  For them, they are ok with the reduction in office hours and the frequent guest speakers.  From August through yesterday, I had 5 Sunday's that I did not have to prepare for.  The church understand how much of a passion for football I have.  They understand the need for their pastor to be involved in the community.  Coaching allows those two things to come together.  The BIG difference maker is that they don't expect me to do all the coaching on top of preaching every Sunday.  For my family, we do as much of it together as we can.  From time to time, my daughters will be water girls for the team, my son will help run chains and my wife is always ringing that ridiculous cowbell in the stands, lol.  We all know that during football season, dinner is gonna be late and Dad is gonna yell alot (on the field of course) but they know that even though my schedule is busy, my mind isn't occupied by more ministry stuff.

I'm not telling you to go out and start coaching...especially if you don't know anything sports, haha.  I am encouraging you to find something away from your church to be involved with that brings joy and fulfillment to you and keeps your mind off the ministry.  When it can be in your community, that is even better as you will build relationships and meet people that you may not otherwise get to meet. So yes, it will take some work and vision casting from you to your church board and your congregation. Am I promising you that all of the sudden you will have people flooding your church when you add something else to your list? NOPE!!!  What I am promising is that when you find whatever that is and get the church and family support you need, you will be a better you and a better pastor.  It will take some trial and error of scheduling and re-assigning tasks to some leaders but remember, it all means your church is healthy.

Be About The Business

Well, it is another Monday morning.  For many pastors, it is the day they wake up and don't want to go to the office.  Sure, there are stats out there about how many want to leave the ministry on Mondays but who really knows how true those are.  Today, that is not where I am going. However, I do think many of those problems would be less concerning if pastors, especially those that are bivocational, did a better job of running the business of the church.  Oh No, I just lost you or you think I don't care about the ministry.  That isn't the case.  It is because of the business of the church that I can do a better job ministering to the people of the church and those in my community.

It was the advice of my presbyter, Kevin Crow (pastor of Harvest Ridge Church, North Ridgeville) where this mentality first surfaced.  Of course, this was new to me because at my two previous churches, I was in the role of a team pastor and wasn't very involved with the business of the church.  At the time, Kevin did not know me very well but today I would consider him a great friend and mentor.   What he did know was that I was a 29 year old Lead Pastor taking his first church.  As a presbyter, he also knew some of the struggles Velocity Church had faced in the decade or so before I arrived...many things I did not know and quite frankly, didn't care to know.  Look, if God calls you to a church, he wants you to dream about the vision not dwell on the past.  Kevin said these words to me, "Bill, many churches fail because of good pastors and terrible business men."  At the time, I didn't really get it.  It didn't take long for me to realize what he meant. As I came to the church, I began to look at some of the policies and procedures of bookkeeping, past tax practices, payroll practices, etc.  Oh, by the way, there wasn't a course at the Ohio School of Ministry on all of that.  And someone just felt, "This guy didn't even go to Bible college, what does he know?"  I know that if you don't heed this advice as I did, you will be out of ministry or at the very least, out of your church within 5 years.

Needless to say, I learned quickly how we needed to do business better with some help from our Ohio Ministry Network Resource Center (district office) leaders and their admins.  Within a year, the church had switched to a payroll system with W2's verses a 1099 or letter at the end of the year along with regular filing of our quarterly 941's (all for less than $200/year).  We did an overhaul on how expenses were paid and how deposits were recorded in Quickbooks.  We also purchased software to help us better track people's personal tithes throughout the year.  We developed a system for ministry leaders to PROPERLY be reimbursed for expenses they were racking up.  This hasn't been picture perfect for us, but we have done a good job of learning the right way to do things.  Since that time, we have even adjusted these systems as our church nears 100 people.

Here is a Facebook post of mine from March of 2015:  "HUGE VICTORY TODAY FOR Velocity Church!!! As a GROWING CHURCH (we don't use the word "small church") it is often left up to the pastor to act as Pastor, CEO, CPA, etc. all at the same time. Of course, most have people, as I do, that help out with these things but the reality is that most of the time...it is the Pastors butt on the line. Coming to #VelocityChurch as lead pastor, I knew very little about church law and finance and by no means am I an expert now. With help from churchlawandtax.com, The Ohio Ministry Network and Shelby Pratt, I have learned a few things along the way. Part of my natural DNA is a refusal to back down...from anyone or anything. Long story short, the IRS sent letter after letter explaining why we owed nearly $800 in payroll taxes from 4th qtr 2011. I knew if qtrs 1-3 were good, so was the 4th. They levied our bank account in December of last year. Once again...I sent them some more paperwork/documentation. Today, we got a check back for the amount they levied PLUS $4.48 in interest. If you are the pastor of a GROWING CHURCH and you do the payroll and taxes in house, don't just pay up. Swallow your pride, ask questions, get help, learn something and defend the gifts that come in for offering week after week!"  Side note, since this Facebook post, I have learned more about being a "small church" and it isn't all bad.  I will share more about that in a future post.

Just recently, the Secretary of State Office sent a letter informing us that we hadn't updated our articles of incorporation.  In case you don't know, that has to be done every 5 years. So, if you can't recall doing it since 2011, check their website as soon as you finish reading this. It was a quick phone call and a document reference that showed them I had filed it.  They called it a "clerical error."  

As I wrap this up, I want to remind you to keep copies of everything.  If you don't have a business or corporation folder for your church, start one.  Even for those emails and scans...keep some copies.  Perhaps you are blessed with people that "handle" all of these items for you.  If so, that is great! You need to encourage them and resource them as much as possible and at the same time, stay in the loop.  If not, you may find yourself in a legal battel you don't want to be in.  If you "Love people and preach Jesus" (advice from MY Pastor, John Dawson) and you determine to Be About The Business of the church, you will find Mondays a little less intimidating.  Perhaps that means you need to contact your denominations district or national offices for some help.  If you are an independent church pastor,  find a colleague in ministry to assist you. Pastor, at the end of the day whether you like it or not, you are running a business so don't let your church fail because you failed to care about the business of the church.

The Bivocational Pastor

Spoiler alert...I am a 34 year old bivocational pastor.  In case you don't know or need a reminder, a bivocational pastor works outside of the church or ministry they serve in order to supplement a shortage of salary that can't be provided from their church.  Chances are, you clicked this link because you are one. There could be many reasons for this but the main reason is that the pastor or staff pastor serve a smaller church, typically less than 150 people but sometimes, depending on the churches financial situation, could be a church up to 250 people.  This is my situation as pastor of Velocity Church in Mansfield, OH.  Velocity Church is a church that currently averages 75-85 people (including kids) on a Sunday morning.

Moving forward, I'm hoping to take a few minutes each week to encourage those currently in bivocational ministry or who may find themselves there someday.  Know this...being a bivocational pastor doesn't make you a second class pastor.  You and I experience things, see things and have insight to things that some full-time pastors could only dream to be part of.  At the same time, we experience struggles that at times, have our mouths watering to be in full-time ministry or perhaps wanting to throw in the towel every other Monday.

As for me, I have been in some form of pastoral ministry since 2005.  I'm not saying I know all there is to know about ministry...far from it.  I just hope that some of my experiences will help or encourage someone else. In 2005, my home church, New Hope Assembly of God in Lancaster, Ohio asked me to serve as youth pastor after being active in the church and youth ministry since 2000.  I did have a 10month break in there and someday, I may share that situation.  I was thrilled to accept the position while I was also working full-time outside  of the church while serving the students of New Hope. After getting credentialed with the Assemblies of God in 2007, I went to New Beginnings A/G in Tiffin to serve as full time youth pastor and was there until 2011.  In April of 2011, my family and I made the move to Mansfield.  Originally, I was full time but in August of 2012, made the move back to bivocational ministry and continue to do so to this day.

If you are keeping track, of my 11 years in pastoral ministry, all but 5 years and 4 months have been as a bivocational minister.  I wouldn't say this makes me an expert on the subject but it certainly makes me qualified considering I have done it as both a team pastor and a lead pastor.  No, I have never written a book, done an interview or been a conference speaker. Until now, I have never really blogged about it and yet I am sure there are some finer writers out there on the subject.  I have simply been that guy that has gutted it though hurdle after hurdle, year after year and am still active in ministry.

Be encouraged by Galatians 6:9 (ESV)  "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." You are doing good.  Lots of Good.  Keep it up! Don't give up!!!

So, in the posts to come, I will share some REAL thoughts, REAL struggles, REAL loses and REAL victories that I have experienced as a result of nearly 6 years in bivocational ministry.  I hope to give you insight of experiences that were good and not so good for me personally, my family or the church.

Waiting Room

Today, I am with my mom and nephew in Marion as my nephew awaits an oral surgery. As I sit here, I am thinking of the people that sit and wait for a procedure as they struggle with thoughts of fear of the unknown or thinking of all that can go wrong. They have the stress of how they will pay for it and what kind of restrictions they may have with foods to eat or time off from work and school. Then, I thought of my time on earth as I await Heaven. It is not with fear of whether or not I will make it or what the price will be. Jesus paid that price on a cross for me already. Because I accepted that price, while I am in the "Waiting Room" of heaven, I can live a life that looks forward with great anticipation of His second coming. What about you? How is your wait to get to Heaven going?

Philippians 3:20-21 NLT "But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.”