Stay Connected

I get it.  It is tough to do.  You get that email or text from a ministry colleague about an upcoming meeting and conference and you think to yourself, "If I was full time, I would go."  Let me tell you that those meetings or occasional conference may be what you need to get over the "funk" you are in.  If your "other job" gives you personal time, use it for that afternoon meeting with some pastors in your town/area.  You can't expect to stay healthy if you aren't staying connected with other like minded people.  It is good for you and I to attend those meetings so we don't fall prey to the lone ranger mentality that says it's just me and my church...I got this.  YOU DON'T.  If that is your thought, prepare for wreckage because it is coming.

Trust me, your spouse will understand if you need a couple nights to get recharged at that conference.  If they don't then I question how much they really supported you being a Bivocational pastor.  Perhaps your job will give you the time off but you don't earn paid time off.  No problem, just approach your church board about covering the salary you will miss out from that employer.  Your board should love you and want to see you taken care of.  Besides, you're the one making a major sacrifice for the church to not receive a full time salary.  I find it hard to believe that most churches couldn't find a couple hundred dollars to cover missed salary and conference registration for you.  It may require some creative approaches such as a special offering or shifting some funds but most churches can make it happen but they don't know because YOU haven't asked.

Personally, I am blessed that the church I serve covers my conference expenses.  They don't cover my missed salary from my sales job for conferences, instead they cover me for my MANDATORY 2 weeks vacation I now take.  Yes, the church board has mandated me take 2 weeks off a year and they value that so much that they make up my lost commission because if I don't sell, I don't get paid.  There were several things that lead to this understanding but it all started with a conversation.

Let me add one final thought.  If you don't value your own personal growth and connection with other pastors, will those people you minister to value their personal growth and connection with other believers?

Pastor The Moment...Not Just The People

DISCLAIMER: This post isn't about bivocatonal ministry but certainly will help you.

I have the privilege of pastoring an Assembly of God church to which our fellowship (denomination) has some deep Pentecostal roots.  We understand that the Gifts of the Spirit are still available for today's believer in Christ in order to encourage, build up and bring direction to the local body.  Full confession...our church doesn't experience these gifts in operation on a weekly basis.  Some would argue that we aren't "Spirit Led Enough."  To that point, I would steer the conversation by asking if the pastor of their "Super Spiritual" church is pastoring the moment and they would likely look at me with a very confused look.

At Velocity Church, on nearly every occasion that the gifts have been in operation, I Pastor The Moment (I say nearly just in case I have missed doing so once in 6 years).  What I mean is that I take a few moments and explain to the audience what they just heard or experienced.  It only takes a matter of minutes and usually ends with two tasks for those who aren't familiar with it.  The first is for them to go a read 1 Corinthians 12 & 14.  Go figure, right...I direct people to God's word in hopes He speaks to them through it.  The second is I encourage them to speak with me about the experience if they still have questions.

I really felt the need to share this after speaking with someone after service yesterday who had visited our church, along with another couple, for the last two weeks.  Guess what happened on their first visit last week...YEP...God showed up in an incredible way and gave the church a message in tongues, followed by an interpretation that encouraged our church so much and was right in line with the message of the day.  When that happened, I pastored the moment.  What they guy shared with me yesterday floored me.  For him, seeing the gifts at work during a service weren't new to him because he had attended Pentecostal churches in the past but he said that until his visit at Velocity Church, he had never heard a pastor do what I did.  He expressed there were many teachings and sermons on the Gifts of the Spirit, but he hadn't experienced a brief explanation after something had happened in the service.  Now, that doesn't mean I am some great pastor, only that I care a great deal that people experience Pentecost in a way that draws them closer to God and doesn't have them running for the doors.  It isn't unusual for that same experience to happen when someone first visits the church because there are many families still at Velocity Church and on their first visit, they experienced the moving of the Holy Spirit through the gifts He gives...and they are still around!!!  Not only are they still around, many have since experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as a result of me pastoring the moment when they first walked through the doors.

To wrap this up, I want to share a few reasons why I believe this is so important for Spirit filled churches to do in the moment.  The first reason I would give is because Peter did.  Right after the Upper Room experience happened, Acts 2:14 begins telling us about how Peter pastored the moment. Secondly, if 1 Corinthians 14:22 tells us that tongues are a sign to the unbeliever, they have to be told what that sign means.  Imagine a new driver being handed the keys to a car.  They are going to see some signs on the road.  If they don't know what they mean,  they are going to cause some damage.  The same will happen in the church if we fail to tell people what is happening in the service.  Let me also add that 1 Corinthians 14:33 & 40 CLEARLY lay out the fact that God is about order, not chaos.  Explanation brings clarity.  Clarity brings order. Don't let things get away to the point it seems as if the circus has showed up.  You're not "quenching the Spirit"...you're ensuring order that is needed. Finally, I would say that I believe when we pastor the moment, it causes people to want to know more.  In their wanting to know more, they soon begin desiring those gifts, just as Paul instructed the early church to do in 1 Corinthians 14:1,12 & 39.  The Gifts of the Spirit are still FOR TODAY...but it is up to Pastors to "Pastor The Moment."

Systems vs Relationships

So, you're in bivocational ministry.  That likely means you are in smaller churches with less than 200 people.  If you are like me, you find yourself at conference after conference waiting for one word to come up..."systems".  Don't get me wrong, I know systems are necessary.  I am thankful for the brake system in my car and the alarm system at the church.  God gave us systems within our bodies to ensure they function the way they are intended to.  As necessary as the systems are, they don't tell the whole story.  

For us in smaller churches, we must first learn to build relationships before we ever begin to lock down systems.  If you leave that conference or that meeting and all you can focus is implementing new systems, you have missed something.  Think about some larger churches you know and what they do to make sure their systems work...they have small groups.  The small groups give opportunity outside of their Sunday mornings for people to connect with other people.  They are building relationships.  Trust me, that didn't happen overnight and yes, they messed it up time and time again but they stayed with it.  

Good systems don't flourish until great relationships become the focus.  For smaller churches, the "system" you need to focus on first is getting people to move from a guest to part of your church family.  Of course, you need to have plans or systems in place for the newcomers to your church but if that system doesn't happen with the intention of building relationships, then all you have become is a concierge service at the front door.  You can't expect to just find someone with a nice smile and a great personality to put at the front door and think it will turn in to people flooding your church because you're the "friendly church" in town.  At the same time, you can't have an incredible assimilation plan that leaves out people connecting with people.  It takes both relationships and systems working together to make your church a great fit for new people coming in.  Remember, the focus must be on building relationships that help lead to creating better systems.

Making An Impact vs Getting Out

As a bivocational pastor, I am asked many questions when it comes to what I do.  If you have done this for a year or longer, you know the questions.  Questions such as "How do you balance everything?", "Does your church have a problem with you not being at the office every day?" and the BIG ONE..."When do you hope to get out of bivocational ministry and be full-time?"  Many people are surprised that I don't CURRENTLY have a 5 or 10 year plan to get out, I simply want to make an impact.  Sure, in the beginning, it was a nice thought but soon it became more of passion rather than a plan.  I have told our board that when they feel there are funds in the budget to bring me on full-time, then that would be a great time to hire someone to help with the ministry of Velocity Church.

When I interviewed at Culligan, I told them I would expect to be back at the church within 2 1/2-3 years...that was nearly 4 1/2 years ago and I am so grateful.  There was a slight transition that took place in April of 2015 when I moved into sales but I was thankful because I realized God was continuing to allow me to walk into peoples homes long before they would ever walk in my office at church during the day.  I am thankful that I get to walk in numerous homes every week and make an impact on them.  No, I am not going in there to share the gospel of Jesus but I do hope to make an impact by the way I treat them.  When I am in meetings or hanging out with our service techs, I can be a voice that builds people up, not one that tears them down.  I don't walk in homes and announce I am a pastor but it has come up and opened the door for me to pray with people, encourage them and on occasion, invite them church.  Some have visited, many have not, few have stayed.  For all I know, there may be customers of mine that are sitting in a church in Knox or Richland County because their Culligan Man told them to find a church and get plugged in.

I don't use the platform of bivocational ministry to build Velocity Church.  If it happens in the process, GREAT. I do my best to use it to make an impact in the lives of people and do my part to build the Kingdom of God.  If you are in bivocational ministry and thinking more about going full-time than making an impact on people, you need to reevaluate some things.  If you can't honestly see yourself stepping in to bivocational ministry without knowing there's an end in sight and you may have to do it for many years to come, you probably shouldn't go down this road right now.

Benefits Of Bivocational Ministry

It can seem at times that being a bivocational pastor is such bummer.  If we're honest, we feel as if the enemy works overtime on making us feel like a second-class pastor.  As if we have missed the mark along the way.  But have you ever though about the benefits?  Just for a couple minutes, put aside the hurts and hurdles you have overcome or are dealing with at the moment. Here are a just a few things I feel are tremendous benefits to my family and the church I serve.  There are certainly more but if someone is looking at going into bivocational ministry and they were to ask me whey they should do it, these would be my top three.

1. PERSONAL FINANCIAL STABILITY:  Let's get real, ministry can have a very high turnover percentage.  Forget the stats that a Goggle search can show you.  We just know from experience in our churches, our towns and our fellowships/denominations that pastors leave ministry or leave churches and that will continue to happen. You and I would be hard-pressed to not name a church or pastor in our own community that has changed in the last year.  But for those that earn an income outside the church, if for whatever reason we need to leave or the church says we need to leave, we have some income that doesn't have us rushing the process to find the next church.  We can take the time we need to heal, let our kids finish school, or just take a time out from ministry because we still have a source of income.  Transition is hard enough.  To add a financial burden on that transition is like throwing fuel on an out of control fire.

2. INCREASED MINISTRY BUDGETS: In 2016, 30% of our general fund went to our ministry departments various needs, honorariums and rooms for guest speakers/missionaries and some leadership training.  What that means is that our leaders get the curriculum and training they need to their ministries better.  They don't have the strain of paying for some additional conferences or training material out of their own pocket.   When we have a guest speaker come in, we don't have to let them feel like we don't value what they do because we are able give them a generous honorarium and put them up in a nice hotel if their travel deems it necessary.  Considering the majority of my personal income comes from my "other job", it allows Velocity Church to support missions and our network (district) with an additional 15% of our general fund. Would that 45% of the general fund be nice as for a salary increase?  Of course, but it excites me that our church does what it does for so many other people whether it is in our own community or around the world.

3.  A DEEPER CONNECTION WITH PEOPLE: How many times in a sermon or teaching moment do pastors try and "relate" to what people are experiencing?  For a Bi-vocational pastor, we REALLY can relate. We know about those situations when the conversation turns a little inappropriate in the break room and we are looking for a way to escape.  We have likely dealt with the boss who gets under our skin and we do all we can to not "lose our salvation" or lose that job.  We have heard people talk about "the preacher" and faith under their breathe in a not so pleasant way.  So yeah, when we have those preaching or teaching moments when we encourage people to do the right thing and show the love of Jesus in those situations and so many more, the people connect with the fact that we know the struggle they have as well.  They appreciate that we are in the "real world", just like them.  I am certainly not taking anything away from the pastor that went to Bible School straight from high school, graduated and moved right into a church and has only known the role of a pastor and nothing else.  I have a number of friends in ministry that have gone this path and they are terrific people.  There is a great value for them in many ways but the reality is that they can only imagine what it must be like for the people in their audience when they use a work situation as an illustration.

So, stop beating yourself up if you are in bivocational ministry.  Besides, we're in good company with Paul and other New Testament individuals who worked outside the church to earn a living while spreading the the Gospel.  Be encouraged that God is using you in incredible ways to reach people that need Jesus in their life.

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.