Leadership – Page 3

Meet Pastor Aaron. Pastor Aaron is the college ministry pastor at Your Community Church and assists the body by nurturing relationships and spiritual growth within the college and young adult communities. Having cultivated a committed track record over the years, Aaron is finally reaping the fruit of his faithful service.

However, this year, Aaron is having a much harder time delegating ministerial care, overseeing interns, and finding time to provide ministerial awareness and vision to the entire church in light of rookie paternal responsibilities and a more demanding work environment at the digital marketing company in which he serves. With more hours devoted to new work assignments and baby care, Aaron is suddenly struggling to make ends meet as efficiently as he once did.

Granted, Aaron still works with the same kind of integrity, leadership, and stewardship as in seasons past. The problem now is Aaron struggles to find time for the little things…remembering to make certain phone calls, responding to e-mails, making every staff meeting, and following up with team members with whom he’s had to rely more heavily on.

As a result, his students (and their parents) are feeling the early stages of disconnectedness. While Aaron preaches and shows up to personal events whenever he can, the downtick in occurrences, while understandable, is beginning to manifest in lower attendance rates due to the notable drop-off in ministerial effectiveness between Aaron and his subordinates who have stepped up in his place.

Thus, Aaron is starting to wrestle with hopelessness that he can tie loose ends in the face of tighter ultimatums at work and ‘at home’ priorities occupying once-vacant ministry opportunities.

Aaron has a devoted wife who works at a local bakery and thrives ministering alongside him. When he’s not working in church or out, Aaron enjoys hitting the tee at local golf courses as well and the lake on his wakeboard.

Challenges:

More time spent on work + family matters = limited availability/in-person interaction with staff/team members/church attendees
Has little time to directly develop and mentor
Over-reliance on delegating (and forgetfulness to follow-up) leading to cracks in the communicational infrastructure
Hopeless and inferiority

Opportunities:

Is able to inspire others by a relentless and disciplined work ethic
Has stable job to provide for family
Brings joy to his family and those within his inner circle watching him grow and mature in new roles
Relates better with those in his demographic
Is gifted in building meaningful connections with people wherever he’s at

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: Odyssey Online

By: Jan Ferguson

Bi-vocational ministry. If you’re like me, some days I wonder what that really means. Okay, so down the definition rabbit hole we go… Bi-vocational ministry (I’m calling it bi-vo for short) is an interesting term. It literally means two vocations.

What does vocation mean? According to http://www.merriam-webster.com, the main meaning is: a strong desire to spend your life doing a certain kind of work. Other meanings suggest, anything you do for a job, entry into the priesthood, or a calling.

Now, most people don’t want two job let alone, two full time jobs. So, why do we do it? What drives the bi-vo minister? By day, mild mannered administrative assistant/house painter/substitute teacher/ etc. but nights and weekends, Super Pastor! Downloading countdown videos at the speed of, well high speed internet. Able to make three hospital calls in one evening – at different hospitals. Powerfully peppering social media with quotes, scriptures, prayers and invites. Finally crashing sometime after midnight only to get up early to do it all the next day, and the next. So, I ask again, why do we do it?

I believe we do it, because we love God and we are willing to lay down our lives for Him and the sake of the gospel. We are driven by the gifts and callings God has placed in our lives. Hopefully, we are driven by obedience to Jesus and the desire to see people saved and set free. But are all bi-vo ministers alike?

As I see it, there are two kinds of bi-vo ministers and those I know fall into one of two groups:

Tent makers who minister
Ministers who make tents

Note: If you’re wondering where on earth I came up with the tent maker occupation, it’s an homage to the apostle Paul, whose trade was tent making.

A tent maker (fill in the blank with the career/job of your choice) is driven by a career vocation. Based on the definition above, it can be the thing you wanted to spend your life doing. But tentmakers may also be a youth pastor, worship leader, pastor’s wife, etc. I know a pastor’s wife that considers nursing her vocation. She teaches Bible study and helps lead the church, but she is an example of a tent maker who serves as a minister. She doesn’t actually dream of dropping the nursing gig to do ministry full time. God has strategically placed her in the marketplace as her primary service. She is passionate about the word and the church and she uses her gifts and talents in the church. But nursing… that’s the thing that floats her boat.

A minister who makes tents (fill in the blank with the job you do) has a different bent. Often, this is the person whose heart and passion are solely for the work of the ministry. They would drop the day job in a heartbeat, but God has called him/her to a church or ministry that cannot support him/her at this time. This pastor/evangelist/worship leader/church secretary/etc. works a job outside the ministry to pay the bills. But – their thoughts are consumed with ministry – sermon/Bible study prep, the people they serve, updating the church website, and the like.

With this in mind, our motivation may be similar, but the challenges we face may be very different. Next time we’ll look at the challenges and roadblocks encountered by the minister who makes tents.

Photo creds: amazon.com