The first rule of blogging is, you don’t talk about…wait…that’s not it.
I’ve said it a few times, I like to write. I like to write almost more than anything else. While spelling and grammar are not my gifts, writing flows naturally. It comes so naturally, many of you may be surprised (or it might be evident by some of the disjointed thoughts) it only takes me about 15 minutes to write a post. I have the gift of gab…in my fingers.
I have this silly little dream, you can laugh at it if you like.
If you have been coming here for any amount of time, you will know I am planting a church. For anyone who has ever tried this, you know how difficult it can be. There are things you need which are not free. Besides having to sacrifice time, you have to have money. There are, and it should be no secret, expenses to be considered. In the early stages, most of this comes from the church planters pocket. This might include money for missional living, buying books or materials to promote spiritual growth of your core, or, it might be to pay a full time pastor (or at least pay a pastor to only need a part time job).
I’m not at that point, yet.
Yes, it would be great to have a part time job and spend the rest of my free time getting to know my city and the people in it. But I understand how God has been using my current full time employment to provide for my family (it is always good to have health insurance when you have a pregnant wife and two small kids!). But, I do not believe I am called to be bi-vocational as a pastor. Someday in the near future this is going to have to change.
I pray I can support myself through writing.
I think it would be a huge blessing if I could support myself and my family through this blog or by writing books. I know, that is the equivalent of saying I wish I could support my family by being a rock star. My prayer is, still, to not have to take a salary from the church, ever. I have no problem with churches paying a living wage to pastors. I believe it to be biblical and in most (like 99.99% of the time) cases it is necessary. I often think, “what if my church did not have to bear that burden?” This is important to me as I do live in a poorer area where I would like finances to have a maximum impact toward mercy and ministry.
Can I dream for a second?
Imagine this, I live in a city where 20% of the people are below poverty (that is like TWICE the national average). Many of them will not make it out of high school, much less go to college. Sure, there are nice areas in my city with half-million-dollar houses, etc. What if we can raise disciples who want to go into a full time ministry, but never go to seminary or Bible college? Why should we take the poor, force them to pay for college (or worse, take out student loans) to go into a vocation where they will probably never make enough money to pay it all back?
What if the church became the primary training ground for future pastors? With minimal financial contributions needed. What if, instead of having to pay the pastor a living wage, you could send one student a year to a more prestigious seminary (I’m looking at you, Westminster)?
Silly? Maybe.
But, there it is. Just laying it out for you.
-Don-
Sounds aspirational. Pray it up, bro.
BTW, R.C. Sproul did something like this, as far as training people of the Church without sending them to seminary.
That's because Sproul is a BEAST!
I will be praying it up. You can count on that.
Absolutely love this. You–not Rob Powell or his pastor [inside joke]–are my new hero.
Let me just say this: I've been around this blogging thing for nearly eight years [as an insider, outsider, forward-facing, back-office] and I've noticed one thing about those bloggers who "make it."
They've got the chops. They've got writing chops that take your breath away. And they got the chops to hang in the ring.
And it's that last part that I think is the most important, because even if you don't have the writing chops to begin with…keep at it and four years from now you will.
Count me in, Don.
Thanks for the kind words Demian! I appreciate the advice as well. I am three years in, I guess five more to go?
Don, I'm involved in a church start-up" half way around the globe – Melbourne, Australia. (I differentiate our church from a plant in that we have no sponsoring church, or overseeing us.)
Another major difference is that our church is in the heart of the affluent eastern suburbs situated amongst million dollar plus homes occupied by well educated professionals.
Believe me, this does not make it an easier 'mission field'. And strangely, money is not flooding in. Fortunately, we have a number of well qualified ex-pastors and lay people who have put their shoulders to the wheel on a voluntary basis, so other than the building rental, our costs are very low.
God is faithful as we see new people coming to our worship every week, many of whom are returning and becoming faithful attendees.
We will likely put off calling a pastor for six months or so, and then look for someone on a bi-vocational basis. There is something to be said about unleashing God's people to ministry which tends to occur more intentionally when a church is without a 'professional' pastor.
Man,
I have heard of so many good things coming out of Australia lately. I will keep you guys in prayer.
Demian I am crushed.
Don, I wish I had just a slice of your ability to visualize and plan.
I can't give you a specific story but I'm sure somewhere in history one of our faith heros was led to Christ by a person who was led to Christ by a person who never had a numerically or financially successful ministry but just loved Jesus and was willing to serve him with all he had right where he was.