Let’s say, I had a vision.
Let’s say, it was more a dream than anything, but I’ll conjure up my Filipino heritage and call it a “Beeshion.”
It’s a regular night, and as the kids are going to sleep I’m slowly winding down from a long day of work. There’s nothing on TV, my duty’s as a husband and father are paused, so I start looking through my social media feed. Almost immediately, I get a text from one of my friends. Followed by another, and another.
“Where is Pastor leaving to?”
“Who’s going to replace him?”
“Do you know the family?”
Then I start seeing tweets indicating that there is going to be a new Pastor at our small church.
I snap out of it, and come to.
This dream (vision) brings me back to the memory of my life from birth to 17 years old. Growing up in The Salvation Army, with my father and mother both being Officers (pastors) I have always been on the other side of that equation, and this brought up something I’ve had to deal with during that time: Coming into a new church, as the new Pastor’s Kid.
I saw the level of expectation of a stereotypical PK from the eyes of the adults.
I felt like our family was an outcast, just trying to befriend our respective circles.
I witnessed my father finally gaining the level of camaraderie he so desired, only to find he had to leave and start this cycle all over again.
I was reminded that It seemed no matter where we moved, we had to start from scratch: New friends, and new leaders. The previous pastor hardly ever set it up to make that easy, and I doubt my father did much to improve the situation.
We had it all wrong.
I think about the time our Pastor announced he was no longer going to be the Campus Pastor, and how that would affect our massive church. Sure, there would be a butterfly effect, but I think the tools are there to continue to grow, and to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
The reason I believe our church, and any church for that matter can continue this, is by an amazing core of volunteers.
Volunteers.
Not Deacons, not elders, not bishops, not the pope, and not a board. I firmly believe that whoever is up on stage teaching and speaking to the congregation can change, and the pulse of our church will not. This is entirely because of the volunteers that are recruited, and who are pouring into the lives of the members and the children. I understand it is not easy to just “have volunteers,” but as a church if you spend the time and energy to recruit good quality volunteers, the transition between pastor’s can be much smoother, and the pulse of your church will thrive.
