Maybe He is Right? What if?
His words to me, not exact, but this is what I heard, "Get a Job and still do what God is calling you to do in creating a Disciple-making Movement and prove your commitment to it." Those words haunt me. Am I committed without being bi-vocational? Or is the bi-vocational thing a real test of my metal and faith and determination?
Here's what I will do. Before I will let the vision of creating a new wineskin of ministry die for lack of funding "wherever" in my fundraising efforts, or at the denominational level, or with each planter, I will step aside and free up resources to fund the movement. What will I do? Whatever I can to provide for my wife Michelle, and I will trust God for the rest, the most important part will be God's part. These are my thoughts, that's all. You are hearing what I have been thinking since hearing from ?. His thoughts are timely since we are where the rubber meets the road. We have several guys, they are called and ready.
We are at a critical pass, we have guys ready to move totally by faith, but they need resources to relocate their families, they need start up funding for housing and money to live on while searching for jobs. They are willing to be bi-vocational and will likely be just that. And they are willing to move by faith -all the way. It stirs my heart and breaks it at the same time.
Maybe He is right, what are your thoughts? Maybe the cost is greater than I expected!
Willingly A Fool for Christ,
posted by Bob Carder @ 9:55 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I am saddened that it is so difficult to fund these kinds of ministries. Where is our focus? How do we break the deathgrip American Christians have on "their" money? How do we make them see it is NOT theirs?
Too many churches have not stepped forth and preached that the tithe is not optional. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir (hello choir!), but how it must sadden God's heart that His people, whom He has given everything to, cannot, will not, give even 10 percent of it back.
Statistics vary, but AVERAGE giving is around 2 percent. Just THINK what God could do if we would honor Him properly with the resources HE has already given??!??
If the average is 2 percent, then you know there are many giving less than that or nothing and a few giving more.
And, by the way, Scripture calls for tithes AND offerings ... the tithe is assumed, the offering is giving from our abundance after the tithe.
Bob,
I admire your heart. I think you and I and the men joining your team are beginning to see what I've been sensing on the horizon for quite some time.
America is a different place today. The clergy used to hold a privileged position in the community. For the past 100 years or so it has been very, very easy for men of God to receive full-time compensation for pastoring. Not anymore.
I believe that today America is on the precipice of being a tent-makers mission field. I believe that in the next 20 years we'll see a very small percentage of pastors who are doing it full-time and most of those will be in non-missional mainline institutional churches.
The men who will be leading the lost to Christ and making missional disciples will be the men whose hands are getting dirty in the marketplace. And it will be in that marketplace where we'll be seeing our greatest harvest.
Praying for you!
Thnaks for all of your comments. I have decided that for now I will hang in here and stay flexible with my time. I still give a week of my time each month traveling and helping other Churches in the Northwest become more healthy. I also need to have the time to spend in Kansas City once I get the system up and running.
For now, I am trusting God for the needed resources and I will continue the hard work of fund-raising and recruiting of people.
So for now, He is not right! God is telling me to stay full time right where he placed me. I'd much rather be doing what God is telling me to do anyway.
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