We are enjoying casual conversations among regional denominational leaders:
- Assembly of God
- Catholic
- Converge
- Evangelical Free
- Southern Baptist
- United Methodist
- Vineyard
Why? Well, did you know a denomination pays their church planters $200/mo? Another offers up to $50,000 for the first year, then $0 thereafter. The current economic model forces church planters out of our impoverished neighborhoods and pushes them into bi-vocation ministry.
What is bi-vocational ministry? One’s passion and calling is to pastor a congregation however due to denominational scarcity strategy, one must find gainful employment. And this becomes a very real scenario: A church planter works their 8:00AM-4:30PM job and comes home for dinner. One wants to get to their passion – ministry – but family becomes the distraction. Now its 8:30PM and weariness sets in for this to repeat tomorrow. Weeks and months pass with the pastor’s marriage and family entrenched as the perceived obstacle to ministry. Bi-vocational pastor randomly quits job to focus upon ministry exasperating the stress in the home. Check out the stats for marital dysfunction, moral failure, even suicide among our pastors.
Our strategy is a remedy to this scenario. Our Store Manager is a Christian Pastor. We pay a reliable baseline salary to compensate for the time it takes to plant a sustainable church. We offer the industry’s best benefit packages tailored to each employee (manager, attendants, delivery) because we reinvest 25% of our profits into our staff’s education, child care, immigration, etc. And best of all, we offer TIME to honor family.
Finally! Compensation becomes aligned to missional purpose … RELATIONSHIPS! The pastor/Store Manager is fueled by daily relational connectivity and conversations. If a customer has a point of need, they become the priority for prayer. As ministry becomes the priority, it’s a laundromat. Go and tend to the ministry opportunity without having to swap hours or seek permission. Just go!