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.

My Top Five iPad/iPod Touch Apps For Youth Ministry

One of the most important tools that a youth pastor can have is an iPod Touch or iPad. I have been blessed to have both. I purchased the iPod about a year or so ago, when the headphone jack on the first one went out. Additionally, the school I teach at has given a few of the teachers iPads to use in the classroom.

One of the things that youth pastors like to write about are their favorite apps. One time I wrote about my favorite apps for the Kindle Fire, but here is a list of the most used iPod/iPad apps in my ministry.

Evernote is probably the most important tool you will use in youth ministry, other than your Bible. Evernote is a storage system that you can access from nearly everywhere. I use to store my sermon notes, meetings notes, and blog posts that I see that I want to go back to in the future. I can type the notes on my laptop, save them to Evernote, and then access them on my iPad. The only downside is that you have to be connected to the internet to readily access your files, but this is easily solved by downloading your files before you get to an area where you may not have service.

I think Facebook should be pretty self-explanatory. I have heard that there are more individuals on Facebook than live in a lot of countries. That means your students are probably on Facebook. If you want to keep up with what is going on in their lives, Facebook will tell you. You can also use Facebook to send out events and announcements. This is a great app to have.

   Students love to see pictures of themselves, especially when they know that it will be posted on Facebook. Instagram is an incredible camera app that works with the camera installed in your iPod Touch or iPad. After taking the picture, you have the option of choosing various filters, applying a caption, and sending it directly to your Facebook account.

The Hootsuite app is essential if you are trying to update and maintain a personal Facebook page, a youth group Facebook page, and a Twitter account. Hootsuite allows you to link a number of accounts to it and you can update as many as you would like in just a few simple steps. Right now, I am able to update two Twitter accounts (@wannabepreacher and @ctbcjonathan) and both of my Facebook pages with one app. It saves me a lot of time.

I don't see this app mentioned often, but it is a great tool, especially when you need to learn a lot of new names and faces. While I have not figured out all of its functions, I do know that Evernote Hello allows the user to take a picture of an individual, attach a name, and write the location. My plan is to use it more extensively when our youth group has a number of guests coming in. I had a pastor who took pictures of individuals with a Polaroid camera, so he could learn the names and faces. This is the updated version.

There you go, my five favorite iPad/iPod Touch apps. I use most of these apps almost everyday and I believe that they have had a huge benefit on my ministry.

What apps do you use in your ministry?

Thank You, FBC Kingstowne

Over the past two years or so, I have had the opportunity to preach at First Baptist Church of Kingstowne. I was called and asked to preach there yesterday. As always, it was a wonderful experience. There are some great people at this church and I always leave feeling encouraged from being with them. Even though I don't see them but every couple of months, I feel like the members of the church are good friends and I look forward to the next time I can be with them.

I would ask that you pray for the church. They have been looking for a pastor for some time and I believe that the right pastor is out there for them. Please pray that God shows the church leadership who that individual is. They are located in a great area and it is my belief that they will continue to be a light to their community, one that will glow even brighter in the years to come.

Thank you, FBC Kingstowne, for your friendship and encouragement. I am truly blessed from my time(s) with you.

Signing Up for Texting - An Incredibly Hard Decision

I have been a customer of AT&T for over 11 years. I still remember getting my first cell phone, having to put down the deposit, and carrying this giant brick of a phone around with me. After I got married, I added my wife to my plan. Fortunately, the school district that I teach for has made discounts available, so we were able to go with a bare-bones plan that typically cost us about $70 a month. The catch was that we could only talk. No texting. Any time we received a text message, we were billed for it. Of course, the idea of no texting was extremely strange to the rest of the world. People could not understand why we did not text.

I am about to begin my ministry as a youth pastor and one of the things that I am learning is that teenagers do not make phone calls...ever. They send text messages. With that piece of knowledge, I knew that it was time for me to enter the world of texting. I went to our local AT&T to see about upgrading our phones and adding a text messaging feature to our calling plan. After hearing what it would cost, I dejectedly walked out of the store with no new phones and no text messaging. That afternoon I made a phone call and was able to get the activation fee waived, but our monthly bill was still higher than I wanted it to be.

I spent most of the evening doing some research and came to the realization that it might be time to switch carriers. After looking at all of the available plans, my wife and I have decided to switch to T-Mobile. With this company, we are able to get mobile-to-mobile calling (so we can call each other), plus texting for about $80 a month. It also turns out that my employer has a discount available that gives us an additional 12% off the monthly bill and waives the activation fees (a savings of $70). We are getting new phones and texting and our monthly bill is staying almost what it was before the switch.

It is my understanding that this may not seem like that big of a deal to some folks, but it was a huge thing to me. First, it was a huge deal because it meant the possibility of a larger cell phone bill. My wife and I are doing our very best to decrease the amount of money we spend each month. Second, it was another indication that I am moving closer to my dream and calling of ministry. From talking with some individuals on Facebook, it was made quite clear that texting is vital to having a strong ministry to students. I am just thankful that the Lord provided a way for us to acquire this necessary tool without having to increase our monthly spending too much.

We serve a great God.

Free Kindle Books Worth Looking At

In light of my post about preaching from a tablet, here are some Kindle books that may be worth looking into. The price can't be beat: all of these books are being offered for FREE (at least for a limited time).

Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn

Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up by Francis Chan

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

And, for those of you who haven't gotten your Kindle yet, you may want to think about picking one up. It is a great ministry tool and good item to have in general (at least in my opinion).

Kindle Fire

(HT to Tim Challies for the book list.)

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?