Dear CBC community,
I never thought Kathy and I would be happy about a pay cut but we are! This year’s budget proposes a 10% reduction in my salary/housing and we couldn’t be more excited. Let me tell you why.
First, the Lord prepared us for this change. Recently we have been in conversations with ministry colleagues about the budgetary constraints that a full time pastor places on a smaller church. Both the pastor and the church need a pastoral team but the cost usually makes additional pastoral staff impossible. So the Lord already had us thinking that less might be more at CBC which led us to propose this change.
Second, the hiring of an associate pastor has been a great encouragement. Last summer the elders posted for a youth pastor but the Lord had other plans and provided an associate pastor instead! While God was preparing Kathy and me for less, he was also preparing CBC for more. Pastor Shtem brings pastoral experience, gifting and leadership. This is another great addition to our staff team of Karen, Myriah, Rahel and myself and bodes well for CBC’s future.
Third, I had come across an article back in January that spoke, among other things, about the need for bi-vocational ministry to be the new normal. I shared the article with the elders and you can read the article at: www.christianitytoday.com/karl-vaters/2018/january/recalibrate-10-steps-church-this-year-dead-decade.html. I believe this change is moving CBC in a good direction for the future.
Finally, I have increasingly needed more time to manage our property business and the 10% reduction is both salary and hours. This change will allow me to dedicate one day every other week to our business and Kathy and I expect that this will make up for our lost income. I have always been bi-vocational in a measure and this change simply moves me a little more in that direction.
All of this makes me conclude that less is more! But don’t misunderstand - it is not less of me and more of Pastor Shtem. Instead it is less of us and more of you since the primary responsibility of leaders is to equip the saints, not do all the ministry. Our growing staff team will better train and equip all of you “for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13).
That’s when less is more!
Blessings,
Pastor Dan