A Word of Practical Advice to New Bi-Vocational Pastors

A Word of Practical Advice to New Bi-Vocational Pastors

In Reformed Baptist Fellowship on January 28, 2015 at 5:26 pm
 


I’ve been bi-vocational for some time and I wish I had something positive to say about it. The reality is, you’re going to be put into impossible situations where you can’t possibly see to the needs of the church, your other occupation, and your family at the same time.

There will be times when you just can’t be there for the church and some people will be upset about this. There are times when the demands of the church will put a strain on your other employment. There are times when your wife and children just aren’t going to see you much. While we shouldn’t sacrifice our families to our work, we have to provide for them and you’ll have seasons where your occupations DEMAND every waking moment.

For example, a couple weeks ago, one of our breaker boxes went out and to get it fixed has required days sitting in government offices for permits and inspections (long story how it came to that). This has lead to me working from 7:00AM to 11:00PM (16 hour work days!) every day for the last week and a half to take care of all the obligations that are on me. Sometimes these sorts of things happen and there just isn’t going to be anyone who can help and it’s going to all fall upon you. In the above example, everyone else has jobs and can’t be available or can’t legally represent us with the county.
Now…what does a building’s electrical system have to do with our calling to preach the gospel? It doesn’t, but practically, as the only member on staff in the church you’re probably going to have to oversee many things that other men with jobs can’t (even though you have another job too!).

There is also likely to be a challenge with finances. When expenses come up for the church, and people say, “let’s just trust God with the money”, what that really means is YOU are going to have to trust God with the money because any shortfall is going to come out of your support check. What’s worse, I’ve seen people who say, “let’s trust God with the money”, pull up into the church parking lot in a brand new SUV right after my having received a substantial pay-cut. Trusting the Lord with church finances often means that only the pastor’s family is eating beanie weenies.

You may think that a man embittered in the ministry is writing this but I actually happen to pastor a wonderful little church. While my situation could be greatly improved if everyone would faithfully tithe (I’ve never seen that in any church), the people at CRC are very supportive and encouraging. I think in many ways, my situation is fairly optimal as a bi-vocational pastor.

What I am saying is…it is going to be HARD, especially as the years roll by and the bi-vocational situation remains. My advice is, KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTIN INTO! Discuss these matters with your wife. Lead her and pray that God grant her commitment to this as well as yourself. You are going to need her understanding and support and never forget that she is the most important congregant you need to shepherd. If the burdens become to great for her, it will likely cause you to need to step out of the ministry.

So…my number one bit of practical advice to the bi-vocational pastor, love your wife fervently, and lead her into the joys of Christ. I remain in the ministry today with all of the burdens it has placed upon my family in large part because my wife is supportive and on board with this calling. She is a wonderful, godly Christian woman and no doubt used by God in a powerful way to help me be much more the man than I could ever be without her. On my part, and more than ever as a bi-vocational pastor, I need to lead and encourage her in the faith.

Robert Truelove, Pastor
Christ Reformed Church

Innovative Thinking vs. Time Tested Truth

Posted by: Bobby Crenshaw January 27, 2015 

 

I have started to read Samuel Renihan’s “God Without Passions: a Reader”. I could not even get past the foreword (by Carl Trueman) without being reminded of how the smallest departure from the Doctrine of God can lead to many unintended and dangerous consequences.

He mentions some particular examples from church history to illustrate this. The Socinians started with what may appear to be small departures from historic Christianity but ended up teaching a “Unitarian God with limited or no knowledge of the future…” What is shocking is not that there was some group teaching heretical doctrines but that this group started as a “biblicist movement” that “…claimed a high view of scripture.” (Trueman)







Many naively believe that we should simply study the Bible without having a conversation of how the church has historically understood the Bible. However, is this not choosing to consciously ignore the wealth of information that the Holy Spirit has given as an inheritance to the church already? Are we willing to lightly cast aside what the Spirit has shown to our forefathers in the faith throughout history? Are we really expected to start at square one every generation?

The Early Church was taught the dangers of a bare biblicism and the need for stated explanations of what the Bible teaches (confessions of faith). This is best illustrated in the Early Churches interaction with Arius who denied the Deity of Christ. As the common story goes, Arius was willing to use all the Biblical terms and agreed to all the scripturesthat were brought before him. What the early Christian leaders did was devise a plan to make Arius prove his real beliefs. They wrote out a confession of faith describing what the Bible teaches in their own words. Arius refused to sign this and thus showed that he was a heretic in reference to the person of Christ.

There is a body of orthodox truth that we inherit from our forefathers in the faith. God has given teachers to the church throughout history. While it is true there has been doctrinal development, not all development is good and a refusal to study church history only dooms one to repeat it. It is not wise to trade a tried and time tested description of Biblical truth for a newer formulation of truth based on mere “biblicism”.

Novelty and innovation should not be our goal in the study of scripture. We should seek to do theology in the context of  the people of God. It is His church with whom He has given teachers throughout history. These teachers have given us Confessions of Faith which are not to be lightly or quickly dismissed in favor of a proposed innovative or new truth.

Read the rest here: Innovative Thinking vs. Time Tested Truth | Reformed Libertarian.

Basic Baptist History quiz for Sunday School

Baptist History quiz

1 Which were the 2 types of Early Baptist?

                  A General / Particular                      B Bible / Traditional

2 General Baptists believed in:

                  A general confession                         B general atonement

3 Particular Baptists believe: 

                  A some are predestined to be saved

                  B 1 years’ worth of attendance is required before membership

4 The “Trail of Blood” refers to:

                  A connection between Baptist history & the Native American Trail of Tears

                  B tracing Baptist history back to John the Baptist

5 When was the SBC organized?

                  A 1801                                                        B 1845

6 Where did the 1^st two SBC appointed missionaries go?

                  A China                                                       B Africa

7 Early English Baptists were famous for: 

                  A potluck meals                                   B public debates

8 Who is famous for establishing the 1^st Baptist Church

                  A John Smyth                                         B Roger Williams

9 Easter offerings go into a fund called:

                  A Lottie Moon                                       B Annie Armstrong

10 The Greek word for Baptized is: 

                  A Baptizo                                                  B Baptizmo

Membership Matters - What is a Baptist?

Opener

1 Have them talk about themselves

2 Talk about myself:

                  I am 1 of the elders here, I’m a true nerd – I’ve got interests in Science, History, Comics, Cinema & Literature – the whole 9 yards, S. (my wife) does the kid’s ministry here, I’m the father of 3 girls – ages 8, 6 & 3 so I could use your prayers in that area, I did not grow up Baptist, my childhood was more moral than Christian but I was a regular churchgoer.

How much do you know about Baptists Quiz?

So there are 4 Truths to determining “What is a genuine Baptist?”

I – a Baptist is a Christian

                  What I mean by that is Baptists are historically orthodox.  Orthodox means “right” in doctrine or beliefs.  So basically Baptists fall in line with orthodox Christian beliefs.  Like what?  How we view God – a trinity.  How we view Christ – as both God & Man.  The sinfulness of Mankind & the need of Salvation & the Atonement of Christ, these are all orthodox beliefs.  Brian will say, “You cannot be a True Baptist & not be a Christian.”

II – a Baptist is an evangelical (or gospel-centered) Christian

                  Last week, I believe you guys talked about the 5 Solas of the Reformation these very important truths were defended by Protestants against Catholics at that time.  These ideas were mainly about how sinful people can stand before a just judge & have him declare us innocent, which of course is because of Christ’s work done for us.

Can anyone remember a few of the Solas? Sola Fide, Gratia, Christus, Scriptura & Deo Gloria.

Any questions so far?

III – a Baptist is an evangelical, ecclesiastical (or churchman) Christian

                  A Churchman is a older term that denotes a more ardent or active participator in the church.  This cab be a hard concept to grasp today when the ease of travel & technology have lost that sense of 100 years ago, in small town America, where everyone knows everyone else & we’re all involved in each other’s lives.  This is 1 of the reasons we have Sunday school together in class instead of individually via YouTube video & we have potlucks & community groups to try & tie those bonds a little tighter.  Jay will often make the point that one of the ways we can get more Sanctified (or more Christ-like) is in helping one another along the path of growing in more Christ-likeness. So being involved.

                  Being ecclesiastical is also why some things we regulate like guidelines for eldership, baptism, membership, and stuff like that. Stuff at Calvary isn’t just anything goes because we are actually trying to mimic how the NT tells us to run the church & what to do & what not to do.  That in itself is also being very Baptistic, as Baptists were often called people of the Book.

However this also means there are some things that we leave to a liberty of conscience, I’m a political Libertarian, meaning I don’t want to make a hard & fast rule or law about every single scenario that may come to past.  There are areas that we just have to use our intelligence to figure out for ourselves & we’re not going to tell you how to finance you house or what color shirt to wear to church or more theologically what view of the end times you should hold, even within the Elders we don’t all agree on that subject & its okay.

IV – a Baptist is an evangelical, ecclesiastical, confessional Christian

                  Historically Christianity has always used various creeds & confessions as ways to help articulate & clarify beliefs & to help prevent against reoccurring errors in the Church. This could be anything from the small phrase “Jesus is Lord” which in the NT was a sort of rebellious rallying cry that Christians aught to obey God even over the Government which said “Caesar is Lord” in Jesus’ day or like pharaoh who considered himself a god on earth or even in more modern times like the Korean Dictators Kim Jung-Un & Kim Jung-Il who have both made themselves out to be gods & expected worship from their people.

                  A few famous creeds & confessions from Church History are the Apostles Creed, the Cannons of Orange 529, the Augsburg Confession 1530, the 39 Articles 1571, Synod of Dort 1618, the Westminster & the Baptist Confession of 1689. I absolutely love the Baptist 1689, I’d be happy to print or email you a copy of it if you were interested in reading about the beliefs of Baptists coming out of the Reformation; I think it really sums up what it means to be Baptist.  

Wrap-up

                  Okay so let’s wrap up what questions do you have for me? Doctrines, Church History, Astrophysics, Ancient Civilizations, Marvel comics, this church, anything? Hit me.

A closing quote from the famous Baptist preacher C. H. Spurgeon, I recollect my mother saying to me, “I prayed that you might be a Christian, but I never prayed that you might be a Baptist;” but, nevertheless, I became a Baptist, for, as I reminded my mother, the Lord was able to do for her exceeding abundantly above what she had even asked or thought, and He did it.