Instrument-4-Christ

The best job is the one you enjoy doing day after day after day. Right?

How many people out there have a job they dread? They might be making lots of money, but they might be happier doing something else that pays less.

Then there are the jobs that are fun for awhile and then they become mundane and undesirable. When I fly, I almost always sit in the back. I am never in a hurry to deplane, so I have no problem sitting farther back, and I also have a better chance of getting an empty seat beside me (and thus more space). After we land, I look out the window as the baggage handlers put our luggage on carts and take them away. I have thought to myself, “I think I would like doing that job…for a few days. Then I’d be tired of it.”

Refresh Conference 2017 By God’s grace, I have a job I love. But before I moved to Minnesota, apparently I did not do a good job of communicating to people what I was going to do. For awhile, one of the most common questions I received was, “So is this an internship or a full-time position?”

Well, it’s actually a full-time position! Having done three internships in other churches (and working a part-time position in another church), I did not sense God leading me to do another internship. So I’m here at Lighthouse Baptist with a full-time job as an assistant pastor!

So what do I do here? Well, I teach junior church on Sunday, oversee our children’s Sunday School classes and the nursery ministry, assist with organizing personnel for our music ministry, accompany the congregational singing for everthing but Sunday morning services, direct our handbell and handchime choirs, manage our website and Facebook page, assist our youth pastor with youth ministries, oversee the communication with our missionaries, take pictures and video at events, research new purchases and anything else Pastor Bjokne takes an interest in…and I’ll stop there. That’s most of it 😉

Some people have asked me, “How many hours do you work a week?” My answer is always, “I have no idea.”

I’m not paid by the hour, and I’m not required to work a certain amount of time each day or each week. Pastor gives me a certain amount of responsibilities, and my job is to get them done to the best of my ability. If it takes me a long time to complete them, I work well over 40 hours in a week (perhaps as much as 60 or more). If I get my responsibilities completed sooner, I sometimes work less than 40 hours a week.

Sometimes I use my extra time to get involved in additional ministries. Sometimes I relax and refresh and prepare myself for what’s coming next. Every week is different.

In college and seminary my professors often told me, “You think you are busy now. Just wait until finish school and get a full-time job in ministry. It just gets busier and busier.”

I always thought to myself, “How can that be possible? I don’t have any extra time for things right now!”

Well…they were wrong. Haha, at least in my case. I can honestly look at what I’m doing now and say I’m not nearly as busy as I was during my college and seminary years.

Is it because I’m a slacker? No. I think one of my friends said it best a year ago: “It’s probably because in school you did all the same things you’re doing now in addition to all your schoolwork.” I think she’s right!

Playing in the Orchestra When I was a student at Faith, I served in my local church with children, music, teaching, Sunday School, photography, and more. At the school I played in orchestra, rang in handbells, played soccer, participated in the Student Missionary Fellowship, took pictures and video, etc. This was all in addition to taking 17-19 credits a semester in college and as many as 18 credits a semester in seminary!

Oh, and I had a part time job as a lifeguard while at school. Oh, and I worked in a handbell repair shop. I guess I also donated plasma twice a week…

The point is that right now I am not a full-time student, and I don’t have 2-3 part-time jobs, but I still do all the same local church ministries that I did while I was a student.

So contrary to what I was told in school, life has not gotten busier, and I’m thankful for that. Three years ago, I was younger and my body was better-built for that kind of a lifestyle…but now I’m getting old 😉

But in all reality, there will probably come a time in my life when I’m just as busy as I used to be. Right now, I’ll thank God that he allows me to be heavily involved in ministry without burning myself out.

Furthermore, I’m thankful to have a full-time job that I love doing…day after day after day after day after day 🙂

Their stoic faces glistened with tears as the shock began to take root in their minds. Most people never saw it coming, and several tried to convince themselves they were only having a bad dream.But this was not a cruel figment of one’s imagination- it was

But this was not a cruel figment of one’s imagination- it was reality, a reality that is experienced by churches around world, perhaps more regularly than it should.

There comes a time when every pastor leaves the church that he served at. This departure comes in the form of a job change, a health issue, a moral failure, retirement, death, etc.

If you think about it, every lay person eventually leaves his church for the exact same reasons. It just feels different depending on the level of leadership a person has in a local body of believers.

Most of the time, these departures are not scheduled. Sometimes they are, but not usually. Interestingly enough, one of the questions I have received most since coming to Lighthouse Baptist is as follows, “How long will you be there?”

The simple, direct answer: I have no idea. I have no plans to leave anytime soon.

I did not come to Lighthouse planning to leave after one or two or three years. Personally, because of how God has led in my life, I do not believe that would have been a right attitude to bring with me. I came to do ministry, not to build a resumé.

At the same time, I don’t plan on staying here until I die. Pastor Bjokne asked me to come on staff knowing that I still believe God is leading me into full-time church planting. In fact, he’s giving me opportunities right now to keep training for church planting.

So I gave you the simple answer. Now for the expounded version.

Ephesians 4:11-13 says, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Based on that passage, my purpose is to equip believers to do the work of ministry so that we grow together into Christlikeness as a body. Lighthouse asked me to join them to fill some needs they had. I plan to stay here until those needs are filled.

Some companies make disposable products; they stay in business by selling you something that you will need to buy again and again. Some companies excel at making products that you will never have to buy again, and we appreciate their attention to quality and durability.

At Lighthouse Baptist Church, my goal is not to keep them dependent on me. My goal is to help them get to the point where they will no longer need me. When that time comes, I will be ready to leave, and they will hopefully be ready to let me go, realizing that they don’t need me anymore and have no reason to keep paying me a salary 🙂

Right now I play piano, but I’m trying to train children and teens to take my place. On Sunday morning I teach junior church, but I’m equipping others to replace me. Since coming last year I have redesigned the website, but I want to teach at least a couple others how to update it. We started handbell and handchime ensembles this spring, but already I’ve been teaching kids how to conduct. The list goes on…

Before moving to Minnesota, I did almost all of these things in my other churches in a volunteer role, so I know firsthand that churches can fulfill these responsibilities without paying someone to do them.

For right now, this is my job, and I love it! But someday, my vision is to see a host of other people doing these things without my help…perhaps even much better than I’m doing them now!

When that time comes, I will follow God’s leading to my next ministry. But for clarification, I don’t think it will happen within just a few years. God never seems to be in a hurry, so we need to practice patience with him.

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Instrument-4-Christ

A Year of Questions, Part 3: “So What Do You Do?”

A Year of Questions, Part 2: “How Long Will You Be There?”