How I Became a Bi-Vocational Pastor

I went “full-time” in ministry in 1997. I did this by starting a program for low income kids and raising my own salary (through grants, etc.) at a church in Greeley. I did that for a year and then was hired on by the church. For 9 years I was a full-time pastor. Last summer I resigned my ministry position to plant Mosaic church. We planted Mosaic with no money, no parent church, no money pledged, no nothing. We just went for it.

Right away, I noticed one thing. After I resigned from my old church, my kids still wanted to eat at least 3 times a day. Dang, what to do, what to do? So I dusted off my resume and started to apply. Initially I was given the old “thanks but no thanks” from the Starbucks management training program. The form letter said something like, “thanks for applying but we’re going to pursue other candiates at this time.” Shoot! What do I do? I really felt like starbucks was going to come through. This is what I did. I walked into a Starbucks in Greeley to have coffee with some friends and I saw a flyer for a management hiring fair. I can’t lie, I was a little put out because these guys didn’t hire me but now they’re doing a management hiring fair. I thought “Man, I must really suck.” So I just said “here goes nothing” and I showed up at the hiring fair about a week later. When I walked in, the lady that had sent me the letter was at the front table. She recognized my name and said: “Didn’t you try applying already?” Oh, well, we’ll give you a shot to interview with a district manager and see what he thinks.

Long story even longer, he hires me. Thank you God! I started as a Starbucks RMT - Regional Management Trainee (I think) on Sept. 10th and we had our first Mosaic service on Sept. 16th. What a week!