Pastor Needed

That is close to home.

 

Are you looking for a church Wayne?

 

Boy, $12000 huh? I am not trying to be mean, but what is your preacher supposed to feed his family? Our church is small...we run about 60 on Sunday Morning...although growing. Our preacher has a parsonage, a FULL benefit package, including a funded IRA, Life Ins. etc, and well over $20K in salary. We support 25 missionaries. NNE in our church makes 100K and most are between 20K and 30K one income families that homeschool their kids. Maybe your folks need to tithe a little and update that figure? Whatever happenned to double honor? I think it is a shame that IFB preachers are forced to live BELOW the poverty line in order to hold a pastorate. IMHO, it needs to change. Please understand I am not trying to be nasty, and every situation is different, but I see it sooooo much and it is a crying shame that we abuse our pastors in this way.

 

I'm not tryin' to be mean either jarhead, but between 12,000 & the Lord me & my wife could live just fine! Done it before!!
But I do get what you're aiming at.

 

jarhed,

bivocational, my friend. The OP specified that they need someone with a secular job for now.

Hope that helps.....

 

Jarhed,

Some might consider it abuse and others will look at it as an opportunity. It does say 'Bivocacional'. That means you are expected to be a tentmaking preacher.

I know a lot of bivocacional pastors in the Northeast and here in Mexico. Paul was a bivocacional pastor/missionary. There's no shame in that.

Your church is doing good, you say- "...most are between 20K and 30K one income families..." and the pastor "...has a parsonage, a FULL benefit package, including a funded IRA, Life Ins. etc, and well over $20K in salary." So it appears that his living standard is about that of the congregation. I praise you for that.

 

Yup, like I said, things are different everywhere, in every situation. Sorry if I came off critical...it is just that I see so many churches starving their pastor while expecting him to build the church, if you know what I mean. But I will say this, if you get a guy who works hard at pastoring, it is tough to do anything else. I am just a teacher in our institute and a deacon, and I do close to 30 hours a week total work. I just don't see how I could do a pastorate justice under 50-60 hours a week...but I could be wrong. One thing I think IFB's need to do more of is indigenous church planting, where a bigger church expends efforts in starting churches (instead of building mega-churches) close enough to their own where there can be staff and financial support until that "baby" church can get on its feet, and then it grows up, trains men, and does the same thing. Does anyone think this might be closer to the biblical model than Mega-Churches, and sending our best FAR AWAY to college, stripping our Local's of their best, and using all of our resources to just build the local work and overseas missions? I wonder if we did this more, and concentrated less on "mission boards", which I can't find in the bible anywhere, if we could see less "bi-vocational" pastors. By the way, I think of ol' tentmaking Paul, who started, but DID NOT PASTOR churches. I believe the biblical model is for the man of God to be FREE from the cares of this world and able to concentrate on his flock. Lets put it this way, would you hire a shepherd to protect your flock, and then send him someplace else to work? What happens when the wolf comes and he is not there? Tentmaking for the evangelist or itinerant is much different than for the local pastor, imho. I will pray you locate a VERY energetic and dedicated young man who is truly filled with the Spirit, and I will also pray that the Church is able to support him forthwith. In Christ, Jarhed

 

James

Most certainly - if that is where God leads

God bless ya' brother!

 

If this had been two years from now, I would jump at the chance! I just entered school to get a degree in Religion, to become a pastor.

At the moment, I feel God is calling for patience on my part. Take it slow, learn the Word better than I know it now, and get my education while waiting..

One day I will have a church....

Jamie

 

Sorry I goofed.

I am an overseas missionary. I started a church seven years ago, by God's grace. It grew to about 150. We then split the church almost in half, started another with folks from their local area where we bussing them in from. We rebuilt the church to about 165. Now we are planning to start another church with about one third of our people. I am doing Wednesday night bible studies in a fourth area, bussing in about 25 people on Sundays. In about two years we will start another work in that town. Please do not cut off your "foreign missionaries." We are doing the work of the Lord over here like you are doing it over there.

 

I agree with what Jarhed was saying.....I hope he didn't mean though that he'd minimize support of overseas missions.
MikeinGhana is right, overseas it is being done this way FAR more than it is here in America.

Ive only seen one real large church do what he suggests. A very large church in southern CA that has its own Bible college, has started at least 3 different churches in its relative area....within an hour's drive. (To Southern Californians, thats within its area.)
They used people who lived in the new church's area but came to the first church, as workers and charter members in the new church.
It has worked very well, and I have already heard good things about the pastors that went to those new churches.

We here in the states need to start taking a look at how they do it overseas, and start doing the same thing!

 

One suggestion might be to advertize in the Army and Navy Times.You might get just what you are looking for and needing in the form of somebody just retireing from the military who would fit you description.Just a thought.

 

Please send me a PM and I can give you a KJV only IFB pastor's name whose wife is a RN and he is looking for a church.

Debbie C

 

Sorry I goofed.

I am an overseas missionary. I started a church seven years ago, by God's grace. It grew to about 150. We then split the church almost in half, started another with folks from their local area where we bussing them in from. We rebuilt the church to about 165. Now we are planning to start another church with about one third of our people. I am doing Wednesday night bible studies in a fourth area, bussing in about 25 people on Sundays. In about two years we will start another work in that town. Please do not cut off your "foreign missionaries." We are doing the work of the Lord over here like you are doing it over there. [/QB]</font>[/QUOTE]Are you kidding me! Give more and more...just don't ignore the church planting from the local church HERE! God Bless you Brother, you are doing EXACTLY what US churches should be doing here!

 

jarhead

Sorry I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying that we should deemphasize foreign church planting.

I agree with you about the need to expand our base at home. More churches definitely need to be thinking about church planting right there in the USA. In fact, when I left for the ministry I thought that was exatly what I would be doing. God had other plans for my life.

 

MikeinGhana,

Even though the evidence is not there if any of the pro church growth crowd reads this topic they will swear up and down that the mega churches are doing just that.
Give the people what they want that ought to be the slogan that church growth people use if they were being honest.
Church for the evangelical in america has to resemble a wal-mart supercenter or people won't come. You know you gotta be able to go in and get everything you need in one big swoop.
My mom and dad are good christians they go to a SB church that runs 5,000. (There kinda put out that I went independent) but they don't hold it against me. Anyway, at their church they have a Parables bookstore inside, A full service cafeteria with a full time on staff chef, also a "Cafe" . They have Starbucks coffee that you can pick up on your way to class.
Their youth dept. looks like a small coliseum its unbelievable the money they must have sunk into the youth dept just on media equip. Alot of Ind. Bapt. are becoming the same way. Now I'm not saying its right or wrong on this post I'm simply saying that Baptist in America spend a whole lot of money on pacifing believers when in all reality if they didn't have to have all that "stuff" to just have church there could be alot more done on the mission field my friend.
I personally find it disgusting how in America churches just keep finding new "ministries" to add to their churches along with a new staff position while most believers in other parts of the world would be happy to just have a Bible and somebody to teach them.

 

pro-church growth?

Theres nothing wrong with seeing your church grow....I mean isnt that an indication that you are reaching your community?