The Ups and Downs of Being Bi-Vocational

I am a bi-vocational pastor. For those of you who may not understand that terminology, it essentially means I have two jobs. I have a full-time position as an elementary school teacher and a part-time position as a pastor at Charles Town Baptist Church.

There are positives and negatives to being bi-vocational. I would like to point out, however, that I am not complaining. I am very grateful to the opportunities that God has provided for me by letting me serve as a bi-vocational pastor.

Positives

• Being in ministry is hard work. Some may wonder why this is a positive, but, for me, it is. I need to have that constant pressure to make sure that I am performing. I am easily distracted, so the requirements of ministry are good for me to make sure I am getting things completed.
• Having a day job provides me some stability. Jon Acuff addresses this issue in his book Quitter. As a teacher, I have a stable paycheck and good health insurance that doesn't cost me as much as it would if I were to pay for it another way. This is really good because I have a houseful of children.
• Working as a teacher keeps me in touch with the lives of real students. As a youth pastor, I get to see my students on Wednesday nights and Sundays at church. Of course, being at church, they are on their best behavior (at least we hope). Being with students all day at school, I get to see them at their best and at their worst. It keeps me fresh in regards to the issues and joys and pains that students experience.

Negatives

• Being in ministry is hard work. The astute reader will notice that I am using this point twice. Being a pastor is very draining and requires a lot out of a person mentally. We are made aware of the ugly side of life on a regular basis.
• There is a large time commitment. I often find myself feeling guilty because I am not spending enough time doing on job or the other. There are so many things that I want to do as a youth pastor, but am unable to because of school commitments. I also find myself thinking about one job or other when I am with my family. I know it drives my wife crazy when I am with her, but not really with her.
• I can't give 100% to either jobNo matter how hard we try, it is impossible to give more than 100% effort to anything. If you divide that between two jobs and a growing family, there is a great deal of frustration because you can't do more than you already are.

My goal is to turn these negative aspects into positives. I spend a good deal of time in prayer, asking God to make being bi-vocational a thing of the past. I do know, however, that I will continue to do this until the end of the school year. With that knowledge, I am doing what I can to put things in place to make full-time vocational ministry a reality.

The Lord is going to do great things and I can't wait to be a part of them.

Why I Will Be the Associate Pastor at Charles Town Baptist Church

For those of you who may not have heard, I was recently hired as the Associate Pastor for Children and Youth at Charles Town Baptist Church. My family and I are extremely excited about this opportunity and look forward to all that God is going to do through our new church family. I wanted to take a few minutes and lay out why I am so excited about this new position.

1. It is obvious that God is in this decision. While I don't have enough time or space to lay out all of the details, it was clear from the beginning of the interviewing and hiring process that God was in the decision. The fact that the church is located in my neighborhood comes to mind. We will not have to relocate our family or get acclimated to a new area before we begin ministering. God worked out so many details, little things that played a huge role in the overall decision.
2. The church has already made us part of the family. We have been well-received, even before the final vote was taken. My wife and I have received many encouraging messages and friend requests from people on Facebook. The process of coming on staff was long and, at times, stressful, but everyone was so excited and their love for us was apparent. When the final vote was announced during the service, there was a roar of approval and many, many hugs were exchanged.
3. Pastor Brian is excited about mentoring me. One of the things that my pastor made clear was that he was going to mentor me, especially in how to "maintain" in ministry. He wants me to be a part of the team for a long time and is going to meet with me regularly to make sure that I am taking care of myself and my family in order to stay in ministry for as long as the Lord will have me there.
4. The ministry opportunities are wide open. Charles Town Baptist Church has a strategic plan and a group of individuals that we are working to reach. As a result, we are working to build excellence in those areas, particularly in youth and children's programs. I have the opportunity to work with some great individuals and put in place some programs and plans to reach our community and to impact the surrounding areas as a result.
5. The ministry I will have here will impact the rest of the world. I know that sounds a bit grandiose, but there are a large number of individuals in our community who commute from West Virginia to Washington, D.C. The influence that our ministry has on them will then be carried with them to work in D.C., where they will influence others. One of the great (and not-so-great) things about our area is the transient nature of the people. Many people are here for a short period of time before moving on. Those we minister to in Charles Town will minister to those in Washington D.C. who will then minister to other around the country and the globe.

These are just a few of the many reasons why I am excited to serve at Charles Town Baptist Church. I couldn't be happier to be right where God has placed me.

How God Answers Prayer

There are times when we see God work in very easy to understand ways. We pray for something and it happens almost immediately. There are other times where that isn't the case. We pray and pray and ask and ask and the thing that we are praying for does not come to pass. Such was the case over the past year.

As many of you know, I am just a few days from a church voting on whether to call me as their associate pastor for children and youth. My family has been at the church several times and we have begun making friends and participating in church activities. I am very excited about what the future holds and the adventure that God is taking my family on as members of the church staff.

Before we got to this point, though, I was actually hoping to be on staff at another church, the church that I was attending. The church had recently lost two staff members and there was an opening. I spoke with the pastor and things seemed to be progressing. I was praying for the opportunity and it seemed like things would work out. I had several meetings with the pastor and he even mentioned to the church the possibility of calling me to be the associate pastor.

Then things changed.

Suddenly, the pastor was no longer interested in calling me. The church began talking with another individual and he was hired instead of me. Needless to say, I was devastated. Why hadn't God answered my prayers and given me the staff position that I had been praying for over the past months?

As it turned out, this was how God answered my prayers. While the church I was attending is a great church, it would have been the wrong fit. I love many of the people there, but the pastor and I see things differently and that would not have been good for anyone.

God answered my prayer for a pastoral position by moving us to a new church. The new position is exactly what we were praying for and the way that it came to be was too remarkable to be a coincidence. It is obvious to us that this is where God wants us to be. We are just a few days from the church voting to confirm that call.

Sometimes God takes us through difficult and discouraging times because He has something much better for us. If He were to always give us what we think we want, we would quickly come to understand that what we think is best is not always the best that God has for us.

Tips for Pastors With Potential Preachers in their Churches

As a seminary student and man who felt the call on his life to serve in vocational ministry, I felt that it was important to be actively involved in my church. While my wife and I have been in several churches over the years, we have taken every opportunity to be as involved as possible with the ministry of the church. Here are a few tips that I would like to offer to pastors in order to help them cultivate the individuals in their church who may be seeking God's will.

1. Help these men determine their calling. It is vital that, as pastors, you help individuals determine if the ministry is truly for them. Some individuals may feel a call, but do not have the necessary gifting to be a pastor or preacher. Help them determine this right from the start. It is vital that they know if they are truly called in order to prevent heartache and devastation later down the road.
   
2. Give them opportunities to preach. The pastor of my last church was good about this one. Many pastors are very stingy with their pulpits, using the excuse that God has called them to be responsible for the flock and the teaching that takes place. While this is true, it is also necessary to give others an opportunity to preach as well. There was a time when someone did the same for you, remember? If the individual goes off the deep end, well, it was only one sermon.
   
3. Offer feedback on what they are doing. Young preachers (experience, not necessarily age) need to know what they are doing that is right and what needs to be changed for the next time. Let them know what was good and what was not. The members of your congregation are only going to tell them that they did well or they aren't going to say anything at all. It is your responsibility to help them grow and mature as communicators of God's Word.
   
4. Please don't make promises you aren't willing or able to keep. Speaking from experience, seeking God's will and looking for a ministry position can be a time-consuming and patience-trying practice. As young preachers, we want so badly to be in the ministry because we want to follow the call we believe to be on our lives. Young preachers believe that their ministry position is right around the corner. Every preaching opportunity or submitted resume is going to lead to the desire of their heart. With this in mind, please do not lead the young preachers of your church on. Do not let them believe that they will be a pastor in your church if there is no likelihood of it coming to pass. All this does is lead to hurt feelings and will cause your church to lose good leaders.
   

I realize that this may sound like a lecture, but my intent was offer some advice to help pastor already established in the ministry in ways to nurture those who are rising up right now. The business world is excellent at this type of thing; shouldn't the church be multiplying pastors as well?

Some Thoughts on My Interview Experience (Another Update)

As most of you know, I have been interviewing with Charles Town Baptist Church. Things have been going well and I hope to have some "official" news to share in the near future. What I would like to do is share some of the things that has stuck out to me the most as I have gone through this process.

1. Pastor Brian and the team truly cares about me. One of the things that Pastor Brian has made clear is that, if I am called to join the ministry team, he wants me to be in ministry for the long haul. He has told me that he will be working closely with me to make sure that I am not burning out and that I am not growing tired of ministry. He said that he will mentor me and make sure that I am sustaining and taking care of myself.
   
2. Pastor Brian and the team truly care about the health of my family. As we have been discussing things, one thing that keeps popping up over and over is to make sure that I am taking care of my family. With so many marriages in our society ending in divorce, it is clear that they do not want my marriage to become a casualty as well.
   
3. Pastor Brian and I have a similar vision. Without a common vision, the team would be incompatible. We both have a desire to see people come to Christ and develop into true disciples. This means that we love them, even if they (horror of horrors) don't believe the same things we do. We will love them and treat them as family, praying for them, and sharing our faith in the hope that they will come to a knowledge of Christ. Someone can belong before they believe.
   

As I said, I am praying for the process and hope to have "official" news to share sometime in the future. Right now, I am encouraged and blessed by the folks that I have met and look forward to what the future will hold for me, my family, Charles Town Baptist, and the families of Jefferson County.

The Song That Has Become My Prayer

My family are (hopefully) on the verge of a new and exciting journey, one that we have been praying for for quite some time. However, this new journey is not like anything that we have been on before and one that will require a good deal of things that are not familiar to us. With that in mind, this song has become extremely important to me. I want to be a youth pastor, but I never want that to become more important than my family.

Ministry Search Update (as of Monday, March 12)

As many of you may know, I have been searching for a position as a youth pastor for quite some time. One of the places that I had sent a resume to was Charles Town Baptist Church in Charles Town, West Virginia. It just so happens that I live in Charles Town, WV. In December 2011, I had an initial meeting with the pastor and we had a great time over coffee.

In February, I contacted the pastor just to see what the status of the search was. He explained to me that they were currently talking with a candidate and if he did not work out, they would be in contact with me. Two days later, I received an email from the Search Committee letting me know that they were interested in talking with me. Attached to the email was a written interview. I completed the questions and returned the information to the Search Committee. About a week later, I was contacted again and asked to come in for an interview. This interview took place on March 6. A few days after the interview, I was contacted and informed that the search committee would like to meet my wife, so we are going out to dinner with them this week.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and words of encouragement. It has been an incredibly process and we are not quite there yet. However, it has been great to see God's hand in all that has taken place so far. I would ask that you continue to pray and hope that good news is on the way.

Reflections on My Interview

After months of prayer, I was finally called for an interview at a church. During my interview, I met with three members of the search committee and the pastor. It was a bit grueling, but somewhat enjoyable. Here are some of my reflections based on my experience.

1. You can never know what to expect. I asked a number of people what kinds of questions I could expect to be asked. Guess what? None of those questions got asked. I got asked all kinds of questions, but none that I truly expected.
   
2. No matter how prepared you might be, you will freeze under the pressure. When you are in the spotlight, your brain will freeze up. Questions that should be easy to answer are suddenly difficult. The only thing you can do is trust that God is providing you with the correct answers.
   
3. The people interviewing are great people. Even though they may not smile a lot and ask you some really tough questions, those interviewing you have your best interest and the interest of the church in mind. They truly desire God's will for the church and for you.
   

Those are my experiences from the interview that I participated in. I am trusting that God will see this through to the end. But whether I am hired or not, I am grateful for the opportunity to have gone through this process.

How Being a Teacher is Helping Me Prepare for Ministry

I felt the call to preach/be a pastor when I was in high school. I initially went to college with the intention of studying Bible. It turns out that God had other plans. I changed my major and ended up studying and graduating as an Elementary Education major. I am currently employed as a 3rd grade teacher in Loudoun County, Virginia.

As the years have gone by, I have often wondered why God would have me become a teacher when I clearly have the desire to be a minister. Here are some reasons I've come up with.

• God wanted me to mature. Youth pastors have a reputation for doing impulsive, stupid things. To be honest, I have done my share of impulsive, stupid things. One time, I let a student eat a live cicada in the middle of class. Needless to say, had I become a pastor right out of college, I probably would not have lasted very long.
  
• Being a teacher has helped me to get organized. My wife and colleagues are reading this statement and laughing. I am a very disorganized individual. I have stacks of papers everywhere. However, if I need to find something, I usually can find where it is in a short period of time. As the years have gone by, I have actually gotten better. I'm not perfect, but things are looking up.
  
• I needed to improve my communication skills. Being a teacher requires me to talk...a lot. I have to choose my words and phrases very carefully because time of the essence and I need to make sure that the students get the main idea quickly. When I first began teaching, I was nervous and awkward in front of crowds. I now feel very comfortable.
  
• My students have taught me about unconditional love. Every year I get a new group of kids. Some years are great. Some years are dreadful and I'm counting down the days until the end of the year...on the first day of school. But here's the thing: even when the class is awful, I find that I still love the students. I love them when they are doing what they are supposed to do. I love them when they are driving me up the wall. I love them when I am so angry I have to sit down at my desk and not speak for a few minutes. I don't get to choose my students, but I always get to love them.
  

If you are a teacher, you know exactly what I am referring to with the list above. God has used my experiences as a teacher as a preparation for the ministry. I am excited about the future and am praying that these times, the good and the bad, will help me to bring others to Him.

Ministry Search - Update

It has been some time since I have posted about my search for a ministry. I don't have a lot to report. I have been faithfully praying and sending out resumes to churches that have posted for positions, but they are usually to no avail. I applied to a church in a town very close to us, but they were not interested. A friend of mine told me that he had spoken to a pastor about me and that the pastor was interested, but he has never returned any of my emails. I spoke with the pastor of the church I attend about the vacant youth pastor position, but he decided to go with someone else. There was another church that looked promising, but my lack of experience in church work was the eliminating factor.

While all of this sounds discouraging, there is a bit of hope. I applied to a church in my hometown and had what I would consider a very productive meeting over coffee. We had a great talk and discussed many things. My family has visited the church on several occasions and we really enjoy the atmosphere of the church. After many weeks of waiting, I received an email from the pastor of the church letting me know they were interested in talking with me. I was sent a questionnaire with about 20 questions, asking me all sorts of things from my testimony to my view of Scripture to women in ministry to what books I have read. It was challenging and really required me to think about how I view ministry. After prayer and counsel, I submitted the completed form and am now waiting for the search committee to make a decision.

Please be in prayer in regards to this. My wife and I have been praying for this for some time and I would like to believe that God would not have brought us to this place if there wasn't more to come. It is an exciting time and I hope that you will be in prayer for us.

A Great Resource for Youth Ministry

As many of you know, I am pursuing a call to youth ministry. And though my time in seminary is over, I am still doing what I can to prepare for the ministry that God has for me. Along those lines, I am constantly looking for websites and books that will help me to grow in preparation for what is to come.

I found a resource that looks like it will be of great benefit in the future. It is a blog called joshevans.wordpress.com. While I have not spent a lot of time looking at it, I have come across some great posts that I think will benefit me in the future.

If you have a moment, I would highly recommend you check it out.

Should I Become a Youth Pastor?

Before I graduated college (it's a long story), I served at a church as a volunteer youth worker. I went back to college and took the year off, then went back to doing it for another year until someone else was hired (again, another long story). Since that time, I have had the opportunity to do a variety of different ministry positions, all on a volunteer basis. I have prayed and asked God to show me the right ministry and I always seem to default back to youth ministry. I have a good number of ministry books on my shelf and a large portion of those books deal with youth ministry. I can't help but wonder if this is an indication from God as to the direction I am being called.

With all of that being said, I have decided to begin my search for a ministry position again. I have spoken to one church (waiting to hear if the pastor is interested in talking to me), I have a lead to a church in Indiana, and I have looked at a few online. I ask that you would be in prayer in regards to my search and what it means for my family and my ministry.

P.S. I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. I have been absolutely swamped with seminary readings and projects. In fact, I should be working on those right now, but, instead, I am posting to my blog. Go figure.

The Kind of Pastor I Would Like to Be

It has been quite a day (actually quite a couple of days). That being said, I don't have much original content today. Instead, I have a quote from John Piper that I found that hit me like a cannonball. It is my prayer that I will be this pastor one day.

Oh how rare are the pastors who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel.

I dream of such pastors. I would like to be one someday. A pastor whose might in the truth is matched by his meekness. Whose theological acumen is matched by his manifest contrition. Whose heights of intellect are matched by his depths of humility. Yes, and the other way around! A pastor whose relational warmth is matched by his rigor of study, whose bent toward mercy is matched by the vigilance of his biblical discernment, and whose sense of humor is exceeded by the seriousness of his calling.

I dream of great defenders of true doctrine who are mainly known for the delight they have in God and the joy in God that they bring to the people of God — who enter controversy, when necessary, not because they love ideas and arguments, but because they love Christ and the church.

Read the entire post.

...And Knowing Is Half the Battle

Do you remember that show G.I. Joe? Not the really lame movie that I still haven't seen. I'm talking about the awesome cartoon that was on television when I was growing up. At the end of every episode, there was always a public service announcement. At the end of the safety lesson or whatever it happened to be that day, the kids would say, "Now I know," and the G.I. Joe character would say, "...and knowing is half the battle."

Not too long ago, I wrote about how a church in Texas declined to give me an interview for their youth pastor position. After some back and forth, I was able to gain an understanding into why they chose not to extend an interview. When it was all said and done, I had two positives and three negatives in regards to what they were looking for.

First, the positives. I had experience preaching. This is true. My pastor has been gracious enough to give me opportunities to preach (you can check out some of my sermons here, here, and here). The other positive was my teaching experience. I have been teaching Sunday School for nearly a year at this point, as well as multiple teaching opportunities prior to being where we are now. Additionally, I am a full-time elementary school teacher, so communicating to others is a huge part of what I do.

Now, the negatives. The first strike against me was the fact that I have no full-time ministry experience. All of my preaching, teaching, and leading have been on a volunteer basis. The second strike was the fact that I am still enrolled in seminary. At this point, I have only one semester left and will complete my studies for my MA in Church Planting and Evangelism from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in December. And the final strike? Well, this is perhaps the biggest strike against me of all. On my resume, it said that I was seeking a job as a pastor. They were looking to hire a youth pastor. I guess the omission of that one little word was enough to disqualify me. Three strikes...you're out.

I guess the question I have from all of this would be: How am I to gain experience if no one is willing to give me the opportunity? I would love to have some full-time ministry work to put on a resume or to serve in as my called profession, but it is a little hard to do when no one will give me an opportunity because of my lack of experience. It's just a vicious cycle.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to what I should do?

Another One Bites the Dust

It would appear that this "round" of my job search is over. I had sent a resume to a church in Texas back in May and I found out that the job has been filled yesterday. The sad fact to this story is that I did not find out from the search committee that the position had been filled. Rather, I went to the church's website and saw that they had welcomed their new youth pastor several weeks ago, at the end of June.

The really frustrating part of this process was that I was in contact with a woman at the church during the process. At first, she was very forthcoming and quick to answer emails. Then, suddenly, the responses completely stopped. I emailed her three times over a several week period and did not hear back. Finally, last night, I received an email that stated, "I apologize that you didn't receive an email. I sent personalized emails to all the candidates, but I guess you were left off the list."

I guess that mistakes like this happen, but the part that gets to me is that every church that I have dealt with so far has treated me this way. I either get no response or, when I ask questions about what I could do to improve as a candidate, my inbox remains strangely empty. My hope is that a pastor will read this and do his best to make sure that the process is improved. I know other places that hire do similar things, but you would think that a church would be different.

A Much Needed Word of Encouragement

Proverbs 25:11 (ESV) - A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

As many of you may or may not know, I have wanted to be a pastor for many years. In fact, I originally went to Pensacola Christian College as a Pastoral Ministries major, but different events led me to change my major. Anyway, off and on through the years, I have pursued my call to ministry, but usually to no avail. I did, however, begin my pursuit of the ministry again in December 2010 and have chased after it with a much greater passion this time.

I will be completely honest: it has been an exercise in frustration. I have sent out resumes and have either been turned down or have received no answer at all. Other positions have looked promising, but then have failed to pan out. It has been enough, at times, to make me question what God is doing and why we are going through this.

Then, last week, after I started writing this blog, I received the following note from a friend that I have kept up with off and on since high school:

Felt led to share something with you. I believe that at times we are like every character in the Bible, except the trinity and heavenly hosts. Sometimes we are as committed as Stephen and others as doubtful as Thomas.

David wanted to build a house for God and God told him he wanted to build him first, and we know it was Solomon that built it. You are in your David phase, and when it's time, you'll enter your Solomon phase.

Keep on keeping on and if you don't find a church, start one! I am praying for you as God builds your spiritual house to prepare you for building his church!

Thanks, Kevin. I hope others find as much encouragement in those words as I did.

The Insider's Club

Disclaimer: You may sense a tad bit of frustration in this post. I hope that is not the case, but there are times that I feel frustrated and the topic I am discussing is one of those times.

In my search to find the right pastoral position, I have noticed two things. I do not believe that these are the norm, but these two experiences are things that I have had happen to me more than once.

First, almost every job posting that I come across is looking for an individual with a minimum of three years experience. This is understandable, but that makes it very difficult for someone who is fresh out of college or seminary to be considered for the position. If a church is looking for someone with experience, that means that the only ones who will be considered are individuals who already have pastoral positions, not those of us who are on the outside looking in.

Second, it would seem that a few pastors out there are unwilling to help others find a way "in". Again, I do not think this is the norm, but it has happened to me more times than I would like. I applied to a few positions and was turned down for an interview. After receiving the email informing me of their decision, I replied back thanking them for looking at my resume. I then asked what qualities they were looking for in a candidate, did my resume convey that I had any of those qualities, and what could I do to help make myself appear as a strong candidate. As of this morning, I have not received an answer from either pastor that I contacted. I completely understand that pastors are busy. That is the nature of the ministry that God has called them to. I just find it unfortunate that they are unable to find a few minutes to help someone as he is pursuing God's call on his life.

As I stated, there is a tad bit of frustration in this post. I am not frustrated with God and the length of time that this journey has taken (although there are times). I felt the need to share this so that in case a pastor happens to read this (fingers crossed), they will work harder to help folks like me in the future.