I'd like to offer my ministry services for free. Do you know a church that needs help?

11 points•11 comments•submitted by JamesFutures to r/TrueChristian

TLDR: This is a long post so tldr at the front. I'm looking for a church that needs help but can't afford to hire someone or would otherwise greatly benefit from someone willing to do ministry for free. Help me find these churches or get in contact with ministers who need help. In particular, I'm looking for a church that's focused on making disciples.

Why Free Ministry

Two years ago, I met some ministers who are doing tent-making ministry. They are essentially missionaries who develop a skill and fund themselves while doing part time ministry. One of these men has planted a church and even preaches 2-3 times a month. I was really drawn to this approach because I saw the incredible disciple-making potential of a ministry like this. But I'm also quite fond of the potential to serve a church without being a financial burden on them.

I have been greatly blessed with a well-paying skill where I can work remotely. So I can work from anywhere in the world as long as there is internet. My wife and I have been looking into a potential home purchase when we had the realization that we could live almost anywhere in the world. For us, this meant that God has designed a great ministry for my family somewhere that has great need. We started by just looking at random places on a map, but we're struggling to feel like we're getting any real sense of where we're supposed to go.

My wife had the idea that we need to let the world know what we're trying to do and see if God places something in our path. I'm currently in the process of contacting everyone in the world of ministry that I know. That includes multiple church planting organizations and missions movements. But the people and organizations that I'm currently involved with are mostly located in the North-West USA. We're hoping that we can potentially reach more people by using the internet: thus this Reddit post.

A Bit About Me

When I was 18, I joined the Marine Corps and served 4 years. When I was 20, I married my wife who was 18 at the time. We've been married 10 years. When I was 25, I was called into ministry. I moved my family up to Boise, Idaho, so I could attend Boise Bible College. I graduated in December 2019 with a major in Preaching Ministry. We now have 4 children. My oldest is 9 and my youngest is 3.

I grew up as a Mormon in Utah. When I was 23, Jesus rescued me by showing me his incredible grace. I had never been exposed to such powerful and freeing love. I had trouble reconciling that grace with my Mormon worldview. Eventually, I realized that the two, Mormonism and Grace, were incompatible. So I chose Jesus and left the Mormon church.

I decided I wanted to do a tent-making ministry so, after graduation, the next step was to develop a trade that I could use to provide for my family. A lot of people thought I was crazy because I had already gone to school for 4 years to develop a skill in preaching and ministry, but I was determined.

I had lined up an apprenticeship that was supposed to start in February 2020. But we all know how COVID messed up everything. My apprenticeship fell through.

My wife and I took to prayer to try and figure out what Gods intentions for us were. Most of our stuff was in storage and we were living in my dad's basement as a transitional home. My father is a software engineer, so I asked him if he would teach me and allow my family to stay in his home until I could find a job.

For the first time in our marriage, my wife went to work. We both worked about 30-40 hours each week, taking turns watching the kids while the other was working. My wife's income was providing our basic needs (and we were blessed to be in my fathers home rent free). While I "worked" studying programming. This began in the first week of March 2020.

In November 2020, I was offered a contract building an Alexa skill. This contract was a blessing because I was in no way qualified to be doing this work. It's been a real struggle, but I'm about done with my first contract and I've already been offered a second contract.

Now, my wife has stopped working and we're back to living off my income. Because there is so much demand for my skill and I've already got my foot in the door, we're ready to get back to ministry. We're now at a place where we can start looking into where God is calling us to ministry.

My Ministry Philosophy

I mentioned in the beginning that I saw discipleship potential in a tent-making ministry. For me, my main goal in ministry is discipleship. Everything I do, I do it for discipleship purposes. I do discipleship primarily through small intimate groups. For me, this currently looks like groups of three men who read the same scripture throughout the week and meet each week to discuss what we've read, our sin issues, our Christian walk, and how we can make more disciples. I'm also quite fond of small groups and any other form of small intimate gatherings.

I like small gatherings because discipleship happens in relationship. Jesus was in deep relationship with his 12 disciples for a period of multiple years. Even in those deep relationships, He really had 3 primary disciples known as the inner circle.

I was taught this triad system (we call them Life Transformation Groups) by one of the many incredible Godly men who has spent countless hours discipling me. I've been involved in these LTG's for 4 years now and I even have one running with 2 Mormon men. My LTG with the two Mormon men is one of my proudest accomplishments. It means that they saw Jesus in me and trusted me enough to ask me to disciple them. I'm excited to see what our relationship leads to. Who knows, maybe they will leave Mormonism some day and go on to be incredible disciple makers.

For this reason, building deep and intimate relationships is one of the most important things I can do. My ability to make disciples is based entirely on my ability to develop relationships.

I'm looking for a church or movement that shares this same discipleship focus. While Sunday is huge and vastly important, everything I do, even Sunday service, I do for the purpose of getting people involved in discipleship.

In other words, discipleship is the main event. Sunday exists for corporate worship and to get people exposed to and involved in discipleship. Please don't read this wrong. I'm not devaluing Sunday. I'm just emphasizing discipleship. I want to see a church filled with Christians who don't just go to church on Sunday. I want to see a church where everyone is reading their Bibles frequently, where men and women are discipling each other, where we exist in deep relationship with each other and support one another.

Obviously, no body of believers is perfect, but I want to serve in a church where this kind of discipleship and community is the goal and people are willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

I want to be involved in a church that is working towards a compounding discipleship movement of disciples who make disciples that make disciples. This, I believe, is what Jesus did.

My Limits

Because I'm working a full time job, I am not capable of working full time as a minister. I can offer between 10 and 20 hours each week. I know that a lot of churches looking for a part time minister really want a full time minister that they can pay part time. If that's the case, I just can't make that work.

I'm not looking for a super prominent role in the church. I'm looking to play a support role.

If the church is looking for a youth or children's pastor, that's definitely not me. I'm more than happy to help in those arenas on occasion but when God made me, He didn't make a youth or children's pastor.

What I Have to Offer

I'm looking for a place that's focused on discipleship and needs some extra help. I'm a bible college preaching graduate. While I can preach, teaching is certainly one of my strengths.

If the church isn't currently focused on discipleship but recognizes their need for discipleship, I would be happy to come help spearhead that effort.

Maybe the preacher just wants to have a week off from preaching each month to focus on other ministries. Maybe they need help with teachers in Sunday school or organizing and running the small group program. Maybe they're just trying to figure out how to get discipleship going in the church.

Maybe the church has multiple ministry needs, but by bringing on a free "associate" they can afford to pay a youth/worship/children's pastor.

I'm really just looking to play a role where I can be a source of relief for the pastor and elders and support the discipleship effort in the church. I'm essentially looking be a "light" associate minister.

In Closing

Help me find the place God is calling my family to. If, while reading this, God put a church or a minister on your heart, please ask them to contact me and describe their ministry and their needs. If you know anyone or any church that needs someone like me, please ask them to contact me.

Post this on your other social media accounts. Refer me to other sub's or places to reach out.

I'm providing an email contact. It's a junk email so I'll only be using it until we've found our place. Have anyone who needs my help reach out to me through this email: [email protected]

I appreciate any help. I'm hoping we can find the place God is calling my family to do ministry.