Bivocational Profile: The Very Involved Volunteer

May 5, 2015June 12, 20152 Comments

Meet Jack. Jack is a volunteer at Your Community Church…and is involved. Very involved. So involved, he’s often misunderstood to be a full-time staff member. Not like Jack seeks to milk the myth; he’s just really passionate about serving people. Jack is a newly wed and works 30-40 hours a week as an Apple specialist at Best Buy. He has no kids, but dreams of having them, which is partly why he commits 25-30 hours a week as a volunteer in the youth and tech ministry programs. In the rare case, he’s caught up on both work and church, Jack can be found hanging out with senior high youth at the rec center or movie theater.

Challenges:

Time management is weak.
Tendency to over-exert is high.
Little time for family and peers due to heavy workload in church and out.
Unbalanced priorities with respect to community overall.

Opportunities:

Is able to use IT skills in both spheres.
Uses church community as a bridge to bless colleagues at work.
Is constant in loving people, allowing non-churched and churched peers to trust his counsel and encouragement.

The challenge is real…and so are the opportunities. Do you fit into this profile? What are some other challenges or opportunities you have encountered? Share in the comments below.

Photo credits: volunteerswmi.org & volunteerweekly.org

You May Be Bivocational If…

May 2, 2015May 7, 2015Leave a comment

And now…to brighten your weekend…here are a couple clichés you may be able to relate to.

You may be bivocational if…

You drive to work only to realize you’ve been going the wrong way for miles on route to church.
You accidentally say “outreach” in place of the words: “outbreak”, “outback” or “outsource”.
Your day-timer is loaded with the words, “coffee”, “train” & “lunch”.
You’re a role model tithe-giver.
You have more degrees than an acute angle.
Your résumé and/or LinkedIn profiles list ProPresenter and Keynote under “skills”.
You accidentally ‘amen’ during a staff meeting.
Your boss defaults to you to pray before special luncheons.
You literally consider a career in tent-making.
You reach out to John Maxwell to speak at your church and work.
You have just as many “groups” listed under contacts as individual contacts in your phone directory.
You have a Bible study with work colleagues but attend marketplace ministry seminars hosted by your church.
Your mail is saturated with sermon series packages and international outreach invitations.
Half your Instagram and/or Twitter followers are organizations, not actual people.

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See some not listed?

Check out our bonus reel above…then add to the list by commenting below.

‘Til then, we’ll see you next time on “You May Be Bivocational If…”

Good night.

Music credits: “Boogie Power” by Mark Scholl, Robert J Walsh; “Whistle to Work” by Jimmy Kaleth, Ross Andrew Mclean

New Series: Bivocational Profiles

April 27, 2015May 13, 20156 Comments

When we talk about the bivocational, no two stories are alike.

For one thing, we’ve all been unique designed by a masterful Creator, not to mention blessed with a special set of characters, challenges, and opportunities that paint the framework of our calling.

Perhaps some of you have wondered what your framework looks like or how your story relates to others out there.

If this fits you, well…let’s just say this validates a BIG reason why we’ve created this resource.

So for the next five Sundays, Lyssah & I are going to talk about five bivocational profiles most relevant to our time and place.

What is a bivocational profile? Basically…it’s a category to classify a group of similar stories. True, each story is divinely set apart. But at the same time…many gravitate towards certain “molds”.

So as we discuss these molds the next couple weeks, feel free to share your input and/or story in the comments below.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you as we learn and grow together.

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Bivocational Profile #1: The Part Time Pastor

Meet Pastor Joe. Pastor Joe is the pastor at Your Community Church. He preaches, teaches, visits hospitals, marries, buries, and even mows the lawn. Pastor Joe also works 30 something hours a week as a middle school teacher. He has a wife and two kids. In any given week, Pastor Joe is lesson planning and counseling a depressed congregant. He can most likely be found reading Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the book of James while cheering his daughter on at soccer.

And people have the nerve to call him a “part-timer”.

Challenges:

Work-life balance is non-existent
Tendency to burn the candle at both ends just to keep all his plates spinning
Difficulty giving family the attention it needs
Occasionally distracted by the responsibility he is not currently working on
Living up to “full time” expectations in multiples areas of life

Opportunities:

Readily understands the pressures faced by his congregation as a worker in the “real world”
Is constantly exposed to new technics and tools in his job that can be used in his ministry
Access to non-churched families with opportunities to show Christ’s love…without being perceived as a “pastor with an agenda”

Our hats are off to you Pastor Joe. ‘Cause truth is: you are the furthest thing from “part-time”.

The challenges are real…and so are the opportunities. Do you fit into this profile? What are some other challenges or opportunities you have encountered? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Photo credits: simplydisciple.com & collectionpicture.net

Why Part-Time & Bivocational Aren’t the Same Thing

April 17, 2015April 17, 2015Leave a comment

Have you ever wondered why some people associate bivocational with “part-time” or why others relate time to effort?

I know for me, it’s easy to perceive the answers through a marketplace lens; however, when we talk about bivocational ministers, we ultimately discover a new lens altogether.

First off, when I say “part-time” in a ministerial context, I’m referring to pastors who balance multiple “full-time” loads inside and outside the church. The specifics may differ, but in general, a part-time pastor is a bivocational pastor who has accepted two or more vocations.

With that said, I strongly believe pastors should never be labeled “part-time” since it’s not possible to limit pastoral responsibilities to 20 hours a week…not to mention the term is widely misunderstood.

‘Cause truth is: Regardless if a pastor is bivocational or not, every pastor is (or should be) on call 24/7.

True, it may be hard for some to be “on call” depending on their job’s requirements; however, just because a pastor may juggle multiple jobs doesn’t mean he lacks the time or energy to put in a full-time effort at church. Rather, it simply means he has to be resourceful in how he stewards his time, whether investing in rest and family at designated intervals or temporarily sacrificing personal conveniences to develop people and new skill sets.

At the end of the day, whether a minister is bivocational by choice or necessity (i.e. financial limitations and/or a specific seasonal call of God), the point is “part-time” pastors still carry full-time responsibilities.

And in a time when living costs are increasing and church membership is decreasing, the reality is bivocational ministers are becoming more essential in leading the church while modeling its purpose outside of it.

No wonder many bivocational pastors consider their greatest call to be on call regardless of where they’re at.

Stay tuned next time when we’ll dive into a brand new series on bivocational profiles.

Cover photo from www.bivocationalpastor.com and www.sojo.net

Rousing Resilience (Part 1)

March 4, 2015May 30, 20202 Comments

We all have heroes.

Whether they’re family members or historical/cultural icons…we all have figures we look up to¹.

Of course, not all protagonists and champions are alike; however, when we consider their innate qualities, it’d be hard to find any who lacked some form of resilience.

What is resilience, you ask?

Well, for starters, it’s the theme of this year’s Acquire the Fire event (hence, the topic’s prevalence).

Yet, as far as definition goes, resilience bears rich substance². In fact, when we dig into Scripture³, we find resilience to be a number of things. Among them…

A refusal to quit…
A pledge to stand firm…
Courage maintained…
Boldness with honor…
…and a fearlessness rooted in two instinct-defying words…

“I can’t.”⁴

Now, I know it sounds weird, but when we confess this itty-bitty sentence to God, it not only offers Him great delight, but it also allows us to see just how much “He can”.

Why? Because owning our weakness is the first step to being set free from it!

In other words, when we admit and release our crap to God, He doesn’t just listen – He intervenes, He intercedes…all the while, showing us the pathway to real, radical heart change.

Pretty cool, eh?

But resilience doesn’t stop there.

‘Cause when we drill a little deeper, we find resilience also enables us to know how…

…our helplessness can be expressed as acceptable worship and reference (Hebrews 12:27-29).
…our weakness can be flipped into God’s strength filling in the holes of our efforts (2 Corinthians 12:9).
…and our problems can (and will) be fixed simply by fixing our eyes on the One who ultimately is in control (Psalm 16:8, Hebrews 12:2).

Honestly, when you think about, this can be especially encouraging, considering we will encounter adverse circumstances at some point, whether it’s an abusive relationship, financial and/or occupational turbulence, past woundedness, and/or the stubble of our sin. But even when life seems stuck on cruise-control and hope is nothing but a fleeting fairytale, we can still know “no fear”⁵.

‘Cause truth is: all it takes is one simple shout of surrender to bounce back…

…one victorious “Yes” to God in the face of apparent defeat…

…and one resolute declaration of “God is enough”…

…even if ⁶ we’re walking through hell, unsure of what’s to come (see Daniel 3).

And I’m sorry, Captain Nesmith, but the phrase, “Never give up. Never surrender” doesn’t fully capture the essence of true resilience. Because the only way to “never give up” is to surrender…abandoning any independent pursuit that suggests we’re strong enough to adjust our course.

At the end of the day, the only means of courage is to admit we must be filled with it to live it.

And that, my friends, is what real resilience is all about it.

Next time, we’ll examine some practical points on how to live resilience out in a transformational way.

In the meantime, I leave with some passages from Isaiah & one from Habakkuk:

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“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” ~ Isaiah 30:15

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” ~ Isaiah 40:29

“…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” ~ Isaiah 40:31

“You wearied yourself by such going about, but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint.” ~ Isaiah 57:10

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” ~ Habakkuk 3:19

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Footnotes

1) Which is how we’re designed

2) And is arguably one of the most overlooked faith terms in Scripture.

3) Especially Joshua, 2 Timothy, Philippians and Romans

4) Point inspired by Christ Is Life Ministries

5) The fact this sentence contains a “triple-negative” doesn’t devoid it of truth.

6) The story of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego really centers on these two words (Thanks to Kemtal Glasgow for the inspiration)

Cover photo from thefeministwire.com