Called to Serve, Equipped to Work:
The Bi-Vocational Advantage
March 14, 2025
Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett
Co-host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest: Aaron Causby
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 3/14/25. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, thank you so much for listening to the program today. We want to talk today about Called to Serve, Equipped to Work. As we look at the bivocational advantages and opportunities in churches and ministries, we want to look at not just pastors who maybe work another job, a bivocational type of job setting, but even those who are volunteers, ministry volunteers, people who may be working part-time or retired and able to give a lot of their time to a church or a Christian ministry. Lots of neat opportunities, lots of neat advantages to how that can work out. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I do work oftentimes by vocationally. Right now I’m in a church where I work by vocationally and I’m joined by the Honorable Sam Rohrer, the regular host of this program and the president of the American Pastors Network. And today we have a special guest, a return guest, pastor Aaron Causby. Pastor Aaron, thank you so much for joining us today.
Aaron Causby:
Oh, I’m delighted to be here. I appreciate the opportunity to be back on the program.
Isaac Crockett:
Pastor Aaron is the pastor of Connolly Springs Free Will Baptist Church down in North Carolina, and he’s also a funeral director for Jenkins Funeral Home. And Aaron, we want to talk to you about some of these things going on in your life and in your ministry as a pastor who’s very busy and a growing church, but also as a husband and father and one who provides for your family through being a funeral director and a job outside of the church on top of it all. But before we get into that, you were on our program a number of months ago with evangelist Dr. Dave Kistler, and we were talking about the work that you and Dave and others were involved with, the devastation that was left from the North Carolina floods in your area. And on that program you did speak about being a funeral home director as well as pastoring a church. And that’s going to be our focus today. But before we get to that focus, could we just talk a little bit about what those flood recovery efforts are looking like? Because for many of us it’s kind of out of sight, out of mind, but I know Dave has been posting some things that there are still efforts going on, there’s still stuff happening, and I’d just love to get an update of what things look like all these months later.
Aaron Causby:
Sure. Well, like I said, I appreciate the opportunity to be back on the program and I love Brother Dave and things are getting better by the day. In Western North Carolina, our church is still involved in certain degrees. Really the biggest need now is physical labor, boots on the ground. People that would be willing to volunteer their time or their efforts or their equipment or financially just to show up and help. And that’s really what Brother Dave’s been doing and a lot of what our church has been involved in, a lot of the needs have changed and sort of focused on people that they have the supplies, they just still have devastation in their homes. So people that can show up do woodworking, plumbers, sheet rockers, carpenters, people that can just clean up, show up with a chainsaw construction type people. That’s really the biggest need.
Sam Rohrer:
Alright, Aaron, and thanks for that. And I have not been able to go down there, so I have not seen that I have been in some other smaller areas like up in our part of the state. There was a big flood years ago locally, but it was on a small microcosm, some of what we’ve seen there. So the devastation, unless somebody has actually seen it, is hard to believe. But as you’re talking about, there’s a lot of basic things needed, just people helping as you’re talking about. One of the things that has gotten attention, I’d just like an update from you I suppose if you can, is that when needs occur, sometimes people look to government first. Federal government has a thing called FEMA that’s been put together, federal emergency management to help in such cases like this. But most are knowing that they have either not been there or have not done anything when needed to be done. Here’s my question, have they yet arrived as anything being done as the federal government, even under now a new administration? Have anything’s changed in that regard?
Aaron Causby:
Well, early on when it first happened, I know that FEMA was going to distribute $750 checks to people. The way that they would obtain those checks is they would’ve to fill out information on the internet. The problem with that is there was no internet accessible. I even served families here at the funeral home and the funeral home is an hour and a half away from the devastation. And I served families at the funeral home where they couldn’t come here, they couldn’t get here on the roads and they barely had enough cell phone service to even call in. So we just had to do the best we could with the resources that we had. But truthfully, for the most part, the government is staying out of the way at this point and just letting people come in and do what they do. And it’s not all churches that are doing it, but it’s primarily church groups, local churches that are coming together and going to Western North Carolina and just volunteering their time to rebuild.
I know early on FEMA was making things very, very difficult. I had many reports of church people that would take truckloads. I had church people that were renting U-Haul full of water and toilet paper supplies and trying to get to Western North Carolina. And FEMA had checkpoints set up that they would stop them, they would confiscate their supplies that they were trying to deliver. Those things are not happening anymore. And honestly, for the most part it seems like people are grateful that the government’s kind of moved aside. And I have heard that it’s easier to get access to those funds. Now. I don’t know anyone personally that’s had to get those funds, but I have heard that its progress has been made there. There’s not so much red tape to jump through and the rebuilding process is going to take a long time, but it seems to be working more efficiently now.
Isaac Crockett:
Much time left in this segment, but could you just maybe walk us through the area you are in? Wasn’t a hit as hard as even an hour away, but kind of what it’s like to go from where things have mostly fully recovered or mostly recovered to some of these areas where some parts of towns were almost completely wiped off the map. Maybe just kind of describe some of that for us, for many of us who aren’t familiar with that.
Aaron Causby:
Sure. Well, the devastation really started about 20 minutes from our church, and so we lost power and those kinds of things, but it was restored relatively quickly. But about 20 minutes from us is where the flooding really, really was bad. And then as you go further west from there, it got worse and worse and worse. I just preached in a revival meeting earlier this week in Old Fort North Carolina, which is a small town, just a little east of Asheville, which has obviously hit really hard and Asheville got a lot of attention because it’s a major city, it’s city. But a lot of these little mountain communities, they weren’t just affected. They were completely wiped off the map. Some of them, they didn’t have much to begin with and they lost literally everything. And even in Old Fort where I was earlier this week, you can still see small creeks where the water was 40, 50 feet up from where it normally is. And I don’t know how else to describe it other than it looks like a bomb was dropped in those areas. There’s still trees down everywhere. There’s mattresses up in the tops of trees, cars upside down everywhere on the side of the road. I mean it looks like a horror film
Isaac Crockett:
That is just so hard to imagine sometimes. And so we are praying for those folks. I’m thankful for your church and others are doing things reaching out, thankful for what God is doing. We want to come back after this brief time out and we want to talk about pastors who have other jobs outside of their church responsibilities. We’ll be right back on Standing the gap. Welcome back. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, joined by the Honorable Sam Rohrer, and our guest today is a friend of ours, a returning guest, pastor Aaron Causby calling in from North Carolina. He’s the pastor at Connolly Springs Free Will Baptist Church. And we talked a little bit about what’s going on in North Carolina still with the rebuilding from the floods. But Aaron, the last time you were on several months ago with evangelist Dr. Dave Kissler, we talked some that you are a funeral director and a pastor, and I wanted look at this idea of this bi-vocational calling.
It’s often called having two callings or two jobs, sometimes it’s called tent making because of the Apostle Paul who as often as he could, he would provide for himself through his skills of making tents and an area that I have myself in most of my adult life that I have worked either on the side as well as pastoring and involved with ministry or I’ve worked full-time and still done the pastoring. Another ministry. And this is something that you and I we’ve talked a lot about. In fact, there’s another term we call it sometimes, but there’s a gentleman I follow on social media named Eric Hoke and he’s written books on this and actually he helps pastors find side jobs or things like that and he calls it co vocational. He says it’s not bi-vocational like the two are competing against each other, but oftentimes work another job in additions to provide for your family, to provide for yourself to provide even for your church.
In my case, usually working in church planning and revitalization that’s necessary and the two can work together having an outside job so to speak. And he calls that co vocational, which I like that as well. But Aaron, you’re working two fronts as a funeral director and also your church is really growing with you as pastor. And I’d just love for you to talk a little bit about what those roles are like and how it came to be. And I’d love for you to kind of explain to us which came first, your pastoral position or your other job as a funeral director and just kind of the equipping and opening of opportunities that God has given you in that dual role that you fulfill.
Aaron Causby:
Sure. Well, the work for me to preach when I was 18 years old, I was getting ready to leave for college in two days and I was planning on being a special education teacher and on August 13th, 2009, I woke my parents up at three o’clock in the morning and said, Hey, God’s been calling me to preach. And I just said yes. My parents called my uncle and my uncle’s a pastor and he came to our house, he prayed with me. I gave my entire life to God and I was saved at an early age, told and I knew that God was calling me to be a preacher. After we prayed, my dad hugged me and he said, son, I’m so proud of you. I pray that God will take your ministry and use you as only he can only have one request. Please get an education to where you can support yourself in case you have to.
And that was the first piece of advice I got from my dad. The night that I surrendered to preach the Lord led me to our church where I pastor 10 years ago. And so I was 23. I was engaged to be married. I was getting married in four months when I was voted in and our church was very small, probably 30 people or so. They didn’t have adequate funds to support time. So I knew that I was going to have to work and I was interested in funeral service when I was a teenager. My first job interview ever was actually at a funeral home. I did not take that job at the time, but I was interested in it and I began to look into what it would take to become a funeral director in North Carolina. Each state has their own qualifications and rules and licensing processes and it seemed relatively quick and it seemed like a good fit.
So I was hired here at Jenkins Funeral Home in Newton, North Carolina where I work now eight years ago. And so I’ve been pastoring 10 years. That came first and I’ve been at the funeral home for eight years. I started out working services and then I came on full-time, did my apprenticeship, finished my schooling and obtained my funeral director’s license. And then I’ve been the general manager here for about two and a half years now. And so they both have been a part of my life for almost a decade now, but I absolutely love where the Lord has me here.
Sam Rohrer:
Aaron, I think that that is a great testimony folks are listening that perhaps have considered what you have walked through in the past you just described and what Isaac you have done for most of your life. But here’s a question I would have for you and that is this. When you look fathers have responsibility to provide for their families. That’s a big one. And we also respond and must respond to the calling of God. Now, you described your calling first coming to be in the pastorate. We generally think that’s full-time. You are now working at a funeral home, so you’re working there that also has demands on your life. If I were to ask you or someone were to ask you as a pastor who is a pastor, someone who has a job, which one do you reflect as your calling when there is a priority that comes to you to demands one by the funeral home, one by the church, how do you resolve those kind of conflicts? Is it possible for a pastor to do
Aaron Causby:
Well on the day that my boss hired me eight years ago, I was very upfront with him and I told him, God has called me to be a preacher and that is my priority. And I told him this statement, it was eight years ago. I said, I’m not a funeral home employee that just happens to preach on the side. I’m a pastor who is also going to work at a funeral home and you just need to know that if you were to ever come to me and make me choose, I would choose preaching. But I would ask you advantage of that I’m here when you’re paying me to be here, but my priority is what God has called me to do and it’s just a unique opportunity that I work for a very good Christian Guy and he’s been very understanding and he lets me do what I need to do and I don’t take advantage of him, he doesn’t take advantage of me. So it fits together. The Lord has put that together, but my priority would definitely be that of being a preacher.
Isaac Crockett:
I love that. And I think being clear with expectations if you’re working with a boss or with clients or customers in your church and letting all of them know there’s going to need to be some give and take when needed and certain priorities are going to be priorities and that’s kind of where I think this program is helpful. I would love to hear what you see as some of the advantages of being so many times it’s kind of like that’s a last ditch effort. Well, that’s a last resort, and we kind of forget throughout Christian history how often there have been people like the Apostle Paul who did provide for themselves financially and the creativity behind that, and also were able to preach or write books or pastor and help pastor. So what are some of the advantages that you would see especially in your situation as a bi-vocational pastor?
Aaron Causby:
Well, the biggest advantage for me, I wouldn’t call it an advantage. I would call it an opportunity. In my particular situation, I am a funeral director, which means that every single day I sit at the table with people the worst day of their lives. People are here because they’ve had a death in their family, they’ve lost someone that they love dearly and when they come into the funeral home, they’re grieving, they’re sad, sometimes they’re angry and they sit down at the table with me. And matter of fact, right now I’m sitting at the table where I meet with families in our conference room and I sit here every day and I’m sure it’s the same where both of you live. It is amazing how many people have no connection to God, have no connection to a church, and God has put me in a position to where I can sit at the table with them and certainly serve them as a funeral director, but I can also give them the gospel and the funeral home that I manage used to be a Baptist church and my boss bought it and turned it into the funeral home because the church was moving buildings.
And so this is when you walk in our funeral home, the first sign you see is this place was originally a church. It will always be God’s house. So it’s an amazing place, an amazing opportunity to sit down and give hope to people on the worst day of their lives. I’m also able to officiate funerals for people that have no pastor, which happens so often. Probably once a week I’ll have a chapel of people that I can give the gospel to. I’ve done that three times in the last seven days. And another advantage is for our church. Our church we’re growing. God has been so gracious and good to us and we’re getting ready to enter a project. We are going to build a new parking lot, we’re going to build a new building. We’ve got all these things that we need to do and because our work, it puts less of a financial strain on the church and we can update that growth with that money.
Isaac Crockett:
I have seen that so many times and something I think we could spend a whole program on is just talking about the importance of Christian community. Sam, I know that we have very, very integral partners with the American Pastors Network and Stand in the Gap media who are business folks who give their time or of their expertise. You even in your political background working with ministers, so important to have Christian community that can help each other support each other. Many of the churches in my area, whether the pastors are bi-vocational or not, have people in their church that work and help employ other Christians who are also involved in the church. So much of what you’re saying is so helpful across the board all over the world and even more and more here in America as we go through and our culture is changing more and more, I think more opportunities for bi-vocational pastors and ministry leaders.
When we come back, we want to talk about the role of unpaid volunteers, lay people who help in our churches, volunteers in our Christian ministries, so many ways that you can work for the Lord even if that’s not where your paycheck comes from. We have a lot to talk about on Standing the Gap today. Well, welcome back to the program. Sam and I have been talking with a friend, pastor Aaron Causby, who is bi-vocational works as a funeral director and pastors a growing church, and we’ve been exploring the idea, the topic of called to Serve, equipped to work the Bi-vocational Advantage. And this is something, a conversation happening in churches and pastors and seminaries and bible colleges all over our country right now and that’s what we’ve been talking about so far in the program. Before we go further and we’re about to talk about the help of volunteers and churches and Christian ministries, I just want to send it over to our producer, Tim Schneider. If you could maybe give us some of the updates and opportunities of things going on at Stand in the Gap Media or the American Pastors Network.
Tim Schneider:
Sure, Isaac. Good afternoon to everybody. Want to ask you a question? Do you ever find yourself too busy to listen to a whole Stand in the Gap today show we are on an hour, but I understand a lot of times that we have lots going on and we can’t always catch everything. Well, did you know that we have shorter audio segments of somewhere between two and 11 minutes covering various topics discussed on our Stand in the Gap today radio show, we call these podcast q and A’s and these are podcasts which are good for listeners who desire to hear a short segment on a certain topic. We have many topics, Islam, the Constitution, current events, Christian living, biblical worldview, lots of podcast q and ass out there. When you like this podcast q and a, you go and find it. If you like what you hear, you can go back and find whole show in our archives if you desire, check out our podcast Q Ass on our app and at our website, standard gap media.org.
Also, we talk a lot about downloading the app and if you haven’t done that, we please encourage you to. You can find that on podcast store or you can find that within your phone store if you have Android or Apple, but we also are on a lot of the streaming platforms and you can subscribe to our podcast through Apple Podcast and lots of the other streaming platforms. Tune in Spotify, iHeartRadio to hear truth every day. Sign up to get our podcast downloaded to your smart device every time a new podcast is released. And additionally, if you’re a subscriber to our podcast through any of these platforms, please make sure you rate us ratings will allow other like-minded individuals to find us as they search for podcast. And thank you in advance. Also, we encourage you to please check out our websites. We have two great ones, American pastors network.net and stand in the gap media.org. Lots of information on them. Please sign up if you go to our American pastors network.net, you can sign up for our e-newsletter and we’ll send you information about the ministry that you might find useful. So those are some of the things that I’ve got Isaac, and I’m going to go ahead and send on them back to you.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, thank you very much for that, Tim. It’s so helpful. All those resources, free resources online, the archives, the shorten question and the answers that you just spoke of. I would highly encourage you if you’re listening via radio that you look us up online, find us on social media if you’re listening, if you listen to podcasts to listen to our show on your favorite podcast platform. Very, very helpful. I want to go back to Pastor Aaron Causby and Aaron. Sam asked you I think in the first segment about finding the right priorities in times when maybe something comes up at church and something’s going on at work. And I think we have to be so careful what kind of outside work we find as bi-vocational pastors that we have that flexibility, but it’s also important for churches to be understanding of what their pastor needs.
And I’ve worked in many different churches and different settings and different ways, sometimes completely volunteer, sometimes partly paid, and it’s important for them to also know that their pastor or person working with them needs to be able to provide for his family as well. But you and I were talking recently just I think this week about the importance it is of those people who just volunteer at the church. And this is the case in all churches no matter what size, but especially in certain churches where a bi-vocational is more likely to be, sometimes it is a smaller work or kind of a restarting work or church plant. Could you, Aaron, just talk to us about the importance of people who are just unpaid volunteers that help every week at your church and then for special occasions?
Aaron Causby:
Sure. Well, I think you’d probably agree with me that being a bi-vocational pastor probably wouldn’t be possible without those people. I know it wouldn’t be possible in our situation without lay church people laymen and women stepping up and helping with the daily needs of the church. And I want to be a part of a growing church, but a growing church needs to be a changing church. Sometimes not changing the doctrine or changing things that don’t need to be changed, but sometimes you have to change logistically and structurally things run. And we’ve had to do that to accommodate our growth. God’s given us some precious people that have stepped up. They love our church. Some of them have been there their entire lives and some of them are relatively new, but God love for our church in their hearts. I have a great deacon board that helps me with the daily administration of the church.
I have what we call a care team and my wife and three other ladies serve on the care team and help me each week keep track of visitors, those who were sick, those who need to be checked on those types of things, surgeries. And then I hope she listens to this. I have a wonderful wife also who stays at home with our three kids and homeschools and she has to sacrifice a lot for me to be bi-vocational. She helps me keep track of things that are going on each week as well because it takes a lot of people on any given week to accomplish everything that needs to be done at our church. And those unpaid volunteers are vitally important in our church.
Sam Rohrer:
Aaron, let me follow up with you. This is a little different question. Isaac and I have talked about questions to pose to you, and I’m going to depart from that just a little bit if I can, Isaac, and that is this. Everything that you two have described, Aaron, you’ve described Isaac views described, has only been possible it seems when you the father pastor is able to balance the fact of preaching and all of the work that goes into that with working outside the church in order to support. You’ve all mentioned the fact you have to have a wife that understands Aaron. You talked about your employer, you told him up front at the funeral home, God has called me to pastor to be a preacher first. He is working with you in a knowledgeable way, but so is your church, Isaac, your church Aaron in your church.
The people have to understand. Now, here’s my question to you. I guess in this regard, Aaron, is do the people in their mindset where they have a pastor who is working outside the church, do they have to come to the point where they’re thinking, I’m only getting half a pastor because you’re not there all the time. They can’t just call you up. How do the people in your church, how can they help to allow you to do what is being done and have their expectations established in a way that they’re not disappointed? Does that make sense?
Aaron Causby:
Yeah, it does. Well, I think it evolves over time. I think we sort of find fits and find what works. And I don’t want our people to feel like they don’t have. The reality is, and I know brother Isaac would agree with this, there is no such thing as a part-time pastor. When I first started, someone referred to me as part-time and I said, I may work outside of the church, but I’m not. Every pastor is full-time. Some just have to do what we’re doing. Our people have evolved. And honestly, I think the pandemic made it sort of changed things for us because you couldn’t go to the hospital. They had restrictions. I couldn’t show up and pray with people before surgeries. I couldn’t visit in the hospital, I couldn’t visit our shut-ins in the nursing homes. We sort of got out of the habit of doing those things. Still keep track of those folks, but I’ve tried to implement systems where they’re being checked on not necessarily by me every time, but they’re still getting checked on. And our people also know that they can call me and to the best of my ability, I’m going to try to be there. But you use the word balance. There’s balance in it on both sides. On my employer side, on my church’s side, and on my spouse’s side as well.
Isaac Crockett:
And I think of it too, Aaron, as a husband and as a father, if a father works a 40 hour a week job, he doesn’t stop being a dad. And if he’s at the kind of job that’s so demanding of his time that he can’t be there for his family when they need him, then he needs to switch jobs. And the same idea in bi-vocational, that’s where that flexibility comes up and the church understanding the flexible part, but oftentimes that flexibility makes the pastor more available. Some pastors that think of it as a full-time job on their eight to five if you want me come during that time. And most of the people are working a full-time job. So a lot of times it opens the door. It also allows us when we’re preaching to understand the mindset of what our people are going through every day, going to work, dealing with people in a way that somebody who’s not in a regular job and around regular people all the time, often can’t do.
There’s really a lot of neat practical steps that go into this that can fit and mold every part. And Sam, as somebody who has been involved in different ministry, you were a minister of the government and now you work with pastors. I would love to pick your brain. We’re running out of times, we’ll probably have to start this in the next segment, but how you were involved at church and some of the roles you played in church and in Christian ministry while at the same time being a minister of the government, you were in Harrisburg at certain times and in other offices and things. So this idea that a vocation doesn’t always have a paycheck. I’m here to help my pastor, somebody who volunteers with maybe a feeding program or cleaning the church or teaching a Sunday school, all kinds of different volunteers and different aspects that we don’t get a physical paycheck for, but I was preaching to my church on Sunday.
We’re laying up heavenly currency with these things. So I want to just kind of hit that a little bit more and get a little perspective from you, Sam, as somebody who has spent so much of your life involved in church, but it wasn’t your vocational calling. But we need to take another quick time out to hear from some of our partners and we’ll be right back to finish this program. Stand in the gap today as we talk about being called to serve and equipped to work. Looking at those who are bi-vocational pastors or even those who may be aren’t a pastor but are doing God’s work as a volunteer. Well, welcome back to the program we’re talking about those who are called to serve and equipped to work by vocational pastors as well as volunteers within Christian ministries like churches. Sam and I were talking during the break and you were saying that discussions like this that we’re having you say can sometimes help people have the freedom to consider that having a secondary income outside of a church income is not an indication of failure.
And I’m very hopeful that that gets across today. And maybe there’s a church that can’t afford a quote full-time pay for a pastor, but they have business people in their church that could help a pastor have a secondary part-time or even full-time income if needed. And looking again at Christian community what that means and what it means in America today as opposed to other times in our history. Sam, before I go back to asking Pastor Aaron Causby, our special guests, some follow-up questions. I did just want to give you a chance to talk a little bit about over your career. You’ve had a couple of different careers, but how you’ve been able to be very involved at church even though never a full-time church salary.
Sam Rohrer:
Isaac, in just a nutshell, all of our experiences are different. All of those listening to us right now, everybody can identify on different levels. I think already with what has been said here today, even if they’re in the pulpit or have never been in the pulpit. And that is this for me, I grew up in a Christian home at nine years old. I felt the tug of God on my life in a calling, and I would put it a calling either to the pulpit, full-time pastor in that position or into civil government. We would call it politics. I felt both in my life. Well, when it came time to go to college, what do I do? God did not call me to go into a Bible major directly. He did not call me to pick up some political degree, but he led me to get a business degree, which I knew would be of help no matter what I did.
So for me, God opened the door first in the calling into public office, into government. And right after I got in and began to work with pastors, the Lord gave me the opportunity to preach. Well, that was 20 years of my life in that area. And then now the American Pastors Network is in this ministry. It’s not the pulpit, but we are doing the function of a pulpit. When we’re talking on the air, we’re communicating the truth of God’s word in a way. But that is what God has done. Isaac, this is the one thought that I would say I would pass along is that every believer should feel a compelling to be involved in doing some regular service. And I would suggest it’s important to do it under the auspices, the authority of a local church. And that can be in any way, that can be teaching a Sunday school class but doing it regularly.
It can be in visitation doing it regularly. I have many friends who are getting close to retirement or they are and they mow grass every week at our church in our camp in order to keep things properly stewarded. As an example, there are women who are holding Bible studies wives. I mean, there’s no end to what can be done, but I believe Isaac, every person needs to say, am I willing and I want to be a part of some type of ministering, the word ministering to others. And I think once that’s established, if that is really there, then God works out the circumstances to be a pastor where church is able to provide for them full-time to smaller churches, which are frankly the book. Churches are looking for people all over the country. They can’t find pastors. Maybe they ought to consider somebody who does it not part-time, but does it in a role that we’re talking about today, changes the view of it. It’s not bad. It’s the model of the Apostle Paul. I think it’s a wonderful thing indeed, perhaps a necessary thing. But anyways, I’ll just stop right there. But I think we have to be willing to do what God calls us to do and seek it. And when we seek it, then the Lord works out things.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, let me go to Pastor Aaron Causby. What Sam is just talking about. There are so many churches looking for pastors. There’s a lot of people out there. We hear at American Pastors Network on a regular basis. We need a pastor. Where are all the young pastors? And there are young men who feel like, well, I have to provide for my family and this church job won’t provide financially for us. And yet you’re kind of an exception to that rule. You’re a young pastor who went to a small struggling church that is now a growing building church, and you’ve taken on, Hey, I’ll take on another job then. You’ve made it work. And I would just be interested what words of encouragement you might have to a man out there who’s thinking of becoming a pastor, maybe just a little advice.
Aaron Causby:
Well, the first thing I would say is I love pastoring and the Bible it a good thing. The desire at the office of a bishop, desire to good work. It is a good thing to be a pastor, to be a preacher. It’s such incredible opportunity. And it’s a calling. It’s not a job or career. If you view the ministry with dollars signs exclusively in your eyes, you will burn out. You will not make it. But I would say simply walk with God every day. I preached Tuesday night at a revival of when Saul got saved on the road to Damascus, the first thing he said was, Lord, what would you have me to do? And that’s a good question. I would encourage young men to ask that question, Lord, what would you have me to do? And then whatever he says, say yes to and let him work out the details. Like Brother Sam said, it’s an exciting time to be in the ministry. It’s an exciting time to young man in the ministry, and I love what the Lord lets me do. And I would say walk with God every day. One of the struggles of being a bi-vocational pastor is time, time management. And I’m sure you identify with that as well, brother Isaac. It’s time
Isaac Crockett:
For sure.
Aaron Causby:
I’m married. I have three kids, six, four, and two, so I have to prioritize that. And I was so encouraged this past Sunday. There’s a college in Raleigh Southeastern college, and I had their choir come and sing at our church Sunday night, 30 college students in the choir, probably 20 of them were young men. And I asked them the question at the end of the service, how many of you are called to preach in all but one raise their hands. There’s young preachers that are in college that are training to be in the ministry, that are training to serve the Lord. And I praise the Lord for that. It gave me hope. It gave me hope for my children that there’s still some young men that are coming on the scene that have a heart for God and love people and want to serve in whatever capacity that is. And whether that’s a church where you don’t have to work outside of the church, praise the Lord for that. But for a lot of us, I heard a statistic last week in Catawba County, North Carolina where I live, 77% of churches have a bi-vocational pastor, and that’s across all denominations. And so it’s definitely on the rise, and it’s a great opportunity to serve the Lord and minister to people that probably otherwise wouldn’t come to church on Sunday.
Isaac Crockett:
Amen. Well, thank you so much, Aaron, for taking time to be on this program with us to discuss some of these particulars and to be that encouragement. We’re so encouraged to hear pastors like you. Pastoring is a good thing. Preaching the word of God is a marvelous thing. Sam, I know we have just a few seconds left. I’d give you a chance to maybe close this in prayer or any final comments.
Sam Rohrer:
Well, other than this, Isaac, I think this discussion is absolutely so practical, so I trust that it will help many people. Heavenly Father, Lord, you know all that we’re talking about here today. You know those who are listening really across the world to this program, may what has been said be of help and clarification to those who could be in the pulpit and could be preaching, but have said perhaps no we can’t. Or a congregation who needs someone to consider a different way about perhaps going about it. Lord, we ask that you will call people and equip them as a result of today’s program. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Isaac Crockett:
Amen. Amen. Thank you for that, Sam. Pastor Aaron Causby, thank you again for being on this program and all of you, thank you for listening. We wouldn’t be here without your listening, without your prayer support, financial support. Keep on doing that. And until next time, I pray that you’ll stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today.
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