Finally, the church search at an end, I was brought to the place God had prepared me for. The Holy Spirit weaved experience, dreams, prophecies and intimacy with Him, developed over decades, into one coherent ministry vision. Had I not reached an end of all my ideas and all the traditional concepts of ministry, I would not have been open to such a radical idea. I can now look back and see how God used it all to prepare me for this. He's using my past sins, my addictions, my illnesses and my ministry education and experience. It's all fallen into place!
Stitches in time: 10 years of small group ministry administration. An early vision of home church as a replacement for commercial churches. A Professor in Bible College saying in front of class, "Maybe some day Glen will found some huge Internet ministry." A Christmas program based on someone looking on the Web for help with his life. A book on need-centered evangelism. Learning to use search engines to help my dying brother. Experience and education in business. Frustration and disappointment with the present one-size-fits-all approach to ministry and evangelism. God used it all!
This was going to be a church...on the Internet. Not like the traditional church programs on the Web, but radically different. People would be reached based on the needs they searched for help with, led to Christ and then introduced to Christian fellowship. We would offer all the standard answers for addiction, abuse, weight, money, relationship problems and one additional, powerful answer...help from God. In 5 years on the Internet, I've yet to discover another Christian who approaches evangelism online form the needs of those being reached...yet, this is exactly what Jesus did. After they decided to hook up with God, rather than plug them into who knows what church, we would use the Internet to teach them about Christian life. To help people fellowship together, we would encourage and support small groups in homes. For people who feel there has to be an order of worship, we would have an online worship service with teaching, music...even an offering. As God revealed the details I was awed by the possibilities. A single community church that includes almost every community in the world, yet, is more local than the church down the street...it's the church in your house.
There were weeks spent, just dreaming and praying over all God had for me to do. But first, I had to learn how to build a website...and about a thousand other things. The fascinating journey begins with the next post...
How has God spoken to you? Have you ever experienced times when you could finally see where your experiences fit into a bigger plan? Have you ever wondered, why did God let this bad thing happen to me?

It was time to seek the Lord again on what He wanted me to do next...I misunderstood what He told me. He had always given me the dream of being involved in the lives of people, of reaching people for Christ and of being in charge of a huge ministry. After getting a BA in ministerial studies and 10 years on church staffs only to be starting over, it occurred to me I may have misunderstood Him. So, I set out apart from everyone to fast and pray about God's calling. This time I wanted specifics. After 3 days, God confirmed He wanted me in ministry and that I would lead the ministry. I took this to mean He wanted me to be the Senior Pastor of a church and immediately set out to find the church He wanted me in.
What an education! I researched over 200 denominations and came up with just a handful whose doctrines and practices were, in my opinion, compatible with God's Word. No, I'm not going to tell you...study the Bible and do your own research. I submitted about 150 resumes to those organizations and all the independent ones I could find. I contacted the district supervisor of the denomination I had most recently served in to see if they had any openings. Over the course of a year, I was offered 6 Senior Pastor positions in churches with congregations from 10 to 150 members. In every case, I asked God, and, in every case, He said, "no." Well, now it was clear I had misunderstood Him. After much more prayer and fasting, God revealed the details of the ministry He wanted me to pioneer and lead...it was exciting...so different from traditional ministry, yet, with a potential so big it frightened me and still does. Find out next time...
What about you? Have you ever misunderstood something God was saying? How did things work out while you were misunderstanding? How about after you got it right?

The second church the Lord called me to was moderate with respect to Spiritual gifts, believing in all of them, but not allowing them to add confusion to the public meetings. It was also very evangelistically oriented. My regular duties included Men's Ministry, Small Group Ministry, some Counseling, Ushers, Greeters, Facility Maintenance, Mocha Ministry (believe it or not) and whatever else came up. I managed a staff of 7 employees and about 150 volunteers. I was on call 24 hours a day. In addition to this, for 2 years, I managed a $ 2.5 million building project from design through occupancy. As you might have guessed, this was a pretty large church, with average weekend attendance of 1,300 people.
If you're considering a ministry position as your primary income source, consider this: Someone with 2 degrees and these responsibilities in a California business would receive over $ 8,000 per month in salary and benefits. My salary (no benefits) grew from $ 1,000 to 2,200 per month over my 4 year tenure...the most I've received in over 15 years of full-time ministry. The janitor I supervised had a higher salary than I did. Sadly, my experience is typical in the Christian world. Unless you're in the top positions on a huge church staff, you're not likely to receive enough to feed your family. There is something seriously wrong with our system when it pays so little for dedicated professionals. In my opinion, the reason for this involves our use of expensive commercial facilities instead of homes as the primary place of worship. This more than doubles the fixed expenses of most churches and more than doubles the number of paid staff required. See our forum Leading Small Groups and our web page Church At Your House for more information on how churches could eliminate over 75% of their expenses, leaving that money to actually meet the needs in your community.
I was called to this church but cautioned by the Holy Spirit that it was a pretty sick place. It was the most selfish and self-indulgent group of ministers I've ever seen. The Lord called me there to speak truth to the staff more than to serve Him in the congregation. I was often forced to choose between popularity and prophecy, leaving me disliked by all but a couple staff members. The congregation seemed to love me. While there, I learned the staff didn't mean it when they preached about ministers being servants. I learned what Jesus meant about wolves coming in to devour the sheep. I learned from that church and that denomination that Jesus meant it when He said there would be false prophets and to examine their fruit before hearing their words.
Less than 2 weeks after my brother died of pancreas cancer, a meeting was called to discuss my behavior at church while he was dying. At the meeting, the Senior Pastor complained that I had not treated him with the proper honor when he came to visit my brother on his death bed. Because the Lord had told me to look for humility as a sign, the Sr. Pastor's comment ended the meeting and my tenure at that church.
That pastor is now selling real estate and most of his staff is no longer in ministry. The pastor of my first church is now selling insurance and most of his staff is no longer in ministry. Let me caution the proud and selfish ministers with something you may have told your sheep (while sheering them), 'God is watching!
What experiences have you had with false, arrogant or selfish ministers? Can you give me some examples of upright, though poorly paid servants of God? Do you feel someone has to have a title to serve God?