When a church planter heads out to plant a church, sometimes it works out where he is supported by a support team he's able to solely focus on the church. Praise God! However, that's not the norm. Normally, church planting involves life getting very busy very quickly.That's how it went down for me, but not at first...
We arrived and moved in on a Wednesday in June. On Sunday, in the midst of living out of boxes, we flew to Kalispell, MT where I spoke at a summer camp for Fresh Life Church's middle and high school groups. We got back a week later and Denver, Nate, and Jenn all rolled into town. We spent the next week getting settled, then kicked off our Unight Summer Evenings in the Park. We did that for 8 straight weeks in July and August as well as a 6-week Wednesday night Bible study. Life was great though - we were unemployed (or as we called it "FUNemployed). We went fishing, slept in, took naps - life was great.
That lasted till early September when I finally got a job as a graveyard shift janitor. I rocked that for about a month until church services began and I took a different job as a school bus driver. Driving a bus is great hours for a pastor, but it doesn't pay the bills. I did that for about 3 months until I was offered a job as Graphic Designer for Lasaters Coffee. I'm enjoying both now. I work from 7am-noon doing graphics, then come home for an hour-long lunch, then drive a bus from 1:30-4:30pm. I work that schedule Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri. I study Tuesday nights and Friday nights, and all day Wednesday and Saturday. Unfortunately, those two jobs still don't pay the bills. So, I've added a third job, doing freelance graphic design on the side (check out my stuff at kevmill.com).
Normally when a pastor is working 1 job on top of teaching at his church, they say he's bi-vocational, so what's the terminology for working 3 jobs on top of planting the church? Would that be quadri-vocational? I don't know what the terminology is, but I know that the days of naps, fishing, and sleeping in are long gone...that is, except for Sunday. That's my day.
Life is crazy busy. On top of all my jobs and 25-30 hours of studying each week, we just kicked off Revive Women's Ministry, so Thursday nights are now Daddy-Daughters Night while Jenn is teaching women's ministry. I love those nights. Plus, we have weekly staff meetings where we go over events and vision for the church.
Here's where I'm going with all of this:
God is faithful. Period.
He always provides.
Someone told me the other day, "I don't know how you do it." I told him, "I don't either." Sometimes when I think about all that I have going on, I wonder how I'm not going out of my mind. The only explanation is this: God designed me for this. I don't believe I'll always be quadri-vocational, but God designed me to do whatever it takes to keep preaching. If that means working three jobs to make ends meet, then that's what I have to do. Today we had to cancel church because of how much snow we got overnight. So, I got an extra day off. I watched TV with my girls, played in the snow, took a nap, but the day didn't feel right. I missed a night when I'd normally be teaching.
Any other bi-vocational pastors or ministry workers out there?
What do you do to make ends meet and keep that ministry going?
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I know what you're going through. I was working at a church 30+ hrs a week and subbing at the middle school 1 or 2 days a week. I was also going to Dallas Seminary full-time (12 hrs every semester) which involved a 2 hour commute EACH WAY on Tues and Thurs. To pay for that I sold high end women's cloths and accessories on ebay. (no lie) I was a power-seller and that took lots of time. But I could do it at night after everyone was in bed.
I did that for 4 1/2 years.
You can do it... actually, you can't do it. God can do it. And He is with you to give you both the way and desire to continue working out your salvation. (Phil 2:12-13)
Press hard into him. It is not easy, but you will look back on these days with a fondness seeing how God was powerful through you.
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