Tag Archive - pastor

Why Bivocational? 6 Reasons Why

April 24, 2009 in Ministry-Theology with 22 Comments

This is a guest post by John Sampson.

headshotJohn is a Residence Director who supports discipleship and missional work for  Oasis Church in Pasadena, CA.  He blogs on church mission, leadership, and life at Jon Sampson. Jon also Twitters at @jonsampson.

Rhett’s recent post on bivocational ministry caught my attention. I guess it makes sense. The bivocational thing is the life I’m living as a Resident Director on a college campus and a Life Group’s pastor at a local church.

For me (and I’m sure, a lot of others), bivocational ministry is not a short-term thing for someone who can’t get a full-time ministry job. It’s a choice of ministry style based on what it produces. I believe bivocational ministry can be healthier for both the pastor and the church. Not only that, but it instills some powerful values in the organizations where actions speak louder than words.

But before we dive in to some of the why, let me share a little of the context. The models we have today aren’t disappearing. I don’t think the bivocational thing is the only way. But if we want Christianity to thrive as a culture changes and resist marginalization, we have to be willing to try all sorts of models to connect with all sorts of people.

I believe the bivocational thing is one way this is going to happen. It allows ministries to grow slowly and keeps Christians outside of the church where they can connect with others. I’m still learning how to do this thing, but I believe that despite the challenges, it’s important.

I recently shared six reasons why I believe bivocational ministry makes a difference on my blog. Here they are with quick summaries and an additional thought.

  1. Why Bivocational?  Shared Responsibility: All Christians have a job to do.  We can’t leave the ‘ministry” side of life to the paid “sage on the stage.”

    2. Continue Reading…

Helping Your Staff Transition Through Life Stages

February 26, 2009 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

mcbd04912_00001When I took my first full-time church job I was as 27 year old single college director.

When I resigned I was a 33 year old husband and father of a baby girl.

I had no idea what that stage or life transition would look like, and it was a tough one to make in ministry. When you are a single pastor, especially in youth related ministries there is a huge spoken or unspoken expectation that you have all the time in the world to be with people and spend those late night and long weekends with students. And often that is what you find yourself doing.

I wish early on I had set some better boundaries and expectations around the ministry that I was pastoring. And I also wish that there had been someone to help me navigate all those life changes that really throw curve balls at you while you are doing ministry. There were definitely people speaking into my life, but I think as a whole we don’t think about ways to help those who serve alongside of us in ministry help make that transition successfully.

When I was single I burned the candle at both ends…In hindsight I came to see just how unhealthy that was, and that I really lacked some clear boundaries and was not differentiated enough from the ministry and people that I led.

When I became a husband I no longer wanted to spend weekend nights out at events, or long weekend retreats and week long mission trips away from my wife.

When I became a father I no longer wanted to come home late from work and miss my daughter’s meal times and baths and bedtime.

Something had changed in those 7 years…I had changed…and I was no longer so sure of how I could pastor the ministry effective…or if I even wanted to or had the same desire. That was a lonely feeling and only a few people recognized that and were able to resonate with me and speak into my life. Now, 8 months removed from the job I am finding out that I’m not alone in this transition and I’m starting to wonder if we (the Church) can help those going through the same transition, better navigate the landscape?

Have you ever experienced this before? How did you deal with it?

Do you have any suggestions of how we (the Church) can walk alongside people and support and encourage them during this joyous and life changing time?

Changing Role of the Pastor and Church: From Geography Based to Online Community, and from Top-Down Leader to Facilitator

October 1, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 9 Comments

Mark Brown had an interesting post over at Facebook and on his blog, Ministry in the not too distant future.

Here is what he says:

Seeing this visitor diversity reminded me of the huge shift presently happening in society: moving from relating geographically to relating through networks or interests. This is being driven by the massive growth of the internet. In the not too distant future where you live will mean very little to whom you relate to and the context of your work.

Your workplace may well be wherever you want it to be, your ministry field perhaps on the other side of the world. The most obvious positive is that we potentially can reach huge numbers of people for a fraction of the cost (no travel expenses, venue set up costs etc..) And the negative is that we won’t have as much face to face contact. And for most of us this is the biggest struggle : the idea that we relate without meeting face to face. To quote Hugh Mackay, no longer do we need to be physically present to be in community.

The massive challenge facing us in the church and church organisations is that we are all deeply invested in the geographic model. Parishes are located in suburbs, with autonomous Christian organisations, one to each country. So as this shift away from geography builds momentum we are in for quite a shock.

It is essential that leaders start to wrestle with this otherwise we may well be left wondering where all the people went.. wait isn’t that happening already?

I agree with Mark regarding the essence of his comments here. I think we are seeing a shift away from a geographical based model of church. That is not to say that people will stop gathering at church, but how that looks I think will be very different than the model we see now. I think more and more people will be connected through online networks and gather more locally then drive to church.

I think we will see more and more people connected physically to various networks of ministry, instead of attendance at one church where they participate in everything such as worship, small groups, prayer, etc. It will be more of a modular model that Andrew Jones talked about at GodblogCon.

Two things I think pastors, church leaders need to start wrestling with if they haven’t already:

1) Shift from geographical based ministry to online community/networking based. This does not mean people still won’t gather, but how, where and when they gather will change.

2) Technology is allowing the people/congregants to self-organize, collaborate and participate without having to go through traditional means and hierarchies of the church. I think this will change the role of the pastor drastically from the top-down leader, to more of a facilitator. I think that means we will see less and less traditional roles of pastors, and maybe even less full-time positions, etc.

Thinking out loud. What do you think? Where do you see this already happening?

What does it mean to be a pastor?

May 1, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 5 Comments

My co-worker RO Smith posted some great stuff on our blog Collection of Crumbs last night.

We Are All Pastors

Here is some of what he says:

Without getting into detail, there have been some issues at our church. I know all churches have issues, so that is nothing new. But the issues occurring at our church have got me thinking about what we value in being ministered to by others, in particular those with the title of “pastor”. It seems that there has been a disconnect in the pastors and the rest of the staff when it comes to being ministered to. Now, please know that I am not letting the pastors off the hook, or saying anything about their leadership style; I am going for something deeper…

I guess what the entire situation has got me thinking about is this: Why do we put so much onus and credence in what the person with the title of “pastor” does or doesn’t do? And how do we get people to see that we are all “pastors”?

It seems that all of us in church ministry want to be ministered to and be acknowledged by our pastors. In looking at these passages, I can not help but ask the question: Why? Why does it matter what those with the title of pastor think? What does it matter if they do not minister to us? What does it matter if they barely even know who we are? (Speaking from a mega-church perspective) More importantly, is it fair to them to have the these expectations placed on them?

Thoughts?