The Bald Goat

I struggled with an identity crisis not too long ago. I have served as youth pastor (minister) for nearly 7 years and believed I was called into ministry. This is what I was supposed to be doing and it is who I was. I was happy in this role and knew what I was supposed to do with my life.

Until I lost my job working for a church.

The church I worked for came into a season of real financial struggles and eventually all the staff positions were eliminated including mine. The parting of ways was difficult. I wasn’t sure what God was doing, but believed he knew where I was supposed to be. I felt a real call to work outside the church in a form of outreach or street ministry. So my wife and I began a ministry we called Fluid. We were going to work as domestic missionaries going to the places where we could find people and love them and build relationships and share Christ. As domestic missionaries, we would raise support for our work.

But raising money does not happen over night. I needed to support my family financially and so I began working for a lawnmowing company named God’s Care Lawnscapes. And although I was receiving lots of moral support and encouragement, I hadn’t really received much financial support. I think in part this had to do with a struggle I was having.

I truly believed this form of ministry was something that everyone should be doing. So, if everyone should be doing this why should someone get paid to do it.

I continued to mow lawns.

I had always expected to phase myself out of lawncare as the season slowed down during winter and focus on raising support for Fluid. But I found that my coworkers were the exact kind of people that I had intended to reach out to. Former convicts, drug addicts, homeless people, this is who I was able to spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with. God had put me in a place where I could interact with people, build relationships and share Christ. So I had an idea…

What if I started a mentoring program at God’s Care that intentionally and purposefully invested in making people better, improving their lives making them better employees and strengthening their relationships with God?  What would that look like?

So I approached my boss, Brian Holaman, and asked his thoughts about this idea. He loved it! I now had a place to begin creating a ministry. But I needed more money than what I cold make mowing lawns so I approached my boss again and asked if there was a way to run my own crew, be responsible for all expenses, and in turn receive all profits from the accounts we maintained.

He said it was an awful idea…

He said it would be better if we were partners and then I could receive profits from landscaping and holiday lighting as well! So we became partners. And one day a strange thing happened. Brian introduced me to a customer as his partner. He didn’t go into any detail about the mentoring program or my work as a pastor. For some reason this shook me up.

My identity had been so wrapped up in being a pastor that I felt unimportant without that title.

I realized something that day, I am no longer a pastor. I have become a part of a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). And I am just as important as I was before. I am now given the challenge to live what I believe. That all Christians should be doing this ministry I called Fluid where ever they find themselves.

I like the way the Message reads 1 Peter 2:9 - 

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

So I embrace my calling today and I head out the door to mow lawns…to the glory of God!