Bivocational Ministries

Ministry at the corner of Main Street and Church Street

 

    At 2:00 a.m. August 24 my father passed away.  He was 81 years old and had gone in to the hospital for heart surgery.  Although the doctors were optimistic that he would do well, problems arose after the surgery that we believe caused too much trauma for his body to handle.

  Dad spent much of his life farming.  Most of my childhood was spent on dairy farms where we milked cows for most of our income.  Hay and corn were raised primarily for feed for the cows.  We also raised tobacco and usually had chickens and hogs for additional income.  A large garden supplied much of the food for our family that included five children, me being the oldest.  Up until about five years ago he continued to raise a small patch of tobacco to supplement his Social Security check and provide him with some exercise.

  When Dad stopped farming full-time he worked a number of jobs that never paid much and required a lot of work.  Dad was drafted out of high school in World War II and never graduated making it difficult for him to find a good paying job.  One of his great joys occurred earlier this year when he was awarded his high school diploma.  Indiana recently passed a law allowing veterans drafted out of high school in WWII to be granted their high school diploma.  Dad received his at a school board meeting, and our local paper ran a front page story detailing much of Dad’s life.  All five children were in attendance when he received his diploma.  When the reporter asked what he would most like to do now that he had his diploma he responded he would like to show it to all the people who wouldn’t give him a job because he didn’t have it, but he couldn’t because they were all dead!

  Our mother passed away about 10 years ago, and about 12 years before her passing she had a major stroke that seriously impacted her quality of life.  Many men would have put her into a nursing home, but Dad refused to do so.  He explained to us that he married her for better or worse, and it was his responsibility to care for her.  It was often difficult, but Dad lovingly cared for our mother until her death.  He taught each of his children more about being a responsible husband and wife during those years than we could have learned anywhere else.

  In 1980 I began serving as an interim pastor for a church we attended during my high school years.  Mom was very regular in her attendance, but Dad was not.  He finally started coming on Sunday nights but never for the Sunday morning service.  One day I asked him why he didn’t come on Sunday mornings.  He asked how many deacons that church had, and I told him there were 12 deacons in that church.  He responded that he never saw more than a couple of deacons on Sunday nights and if going to church once on Sunday was good enough for a deacon it was good enough for him!  As usual, I found it hard to argue his logic.  Before I left that church Dad did transfer his membership to the church and started attending on Sunday mornings as well.

  Several years after I had been serving as pastor of Hebron Baptist Church Mom and Dad moved their membership there and began attending very faithfully.  Soon, Dad was asked to serve as a deacon, and I was most surprised when he agreed to do so.  One of the joys of my life was the day I led the service to ordain my father as a deacon, and it was a very special time for me the first time my Father served me Communion.

  Since Dad’s funeral on Monday I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on the many ways he impacted my life.  I never knew a man with more integrity or one who was more generous with his possessions.  He had strong beliefs and could be very plain spoken if needed, but I never knew him to intentionally hurt anyone.  He was a man who knew both how to discipline his children and how to love them, but he was from a generation that did not voice that love very often.  Those were words we did not use very often to each other.  On the morning he went into surgery, before he was rolled away, I had prayer with him.  I started to step away, but went back and took him by the hand and told him I loved him.  With tears in his eyes, he repeated those words back to me.  It was the last time we would speak.

  I’ve had a few melt-downs this week, and I know that it will take time to process my grief.  I already miss him.  I keep returning to the Scripture that reminds us that we do not sorrow as those with no hope.  My sorrow right now is deep, but because of Jesus I know that I will one day see him and my mother again.  It is that hope that sustains me, and all of us during times of loss, and it is a hope for which we should always give God thanks.  I was scheduled to preach in a church the Sunday after my father’s death.  When the church heard of it they contacted me and said they would get someone else, but I insisted on preaching.  I told them that Sunday morning that I could be there because of the hope that God provides each of us through Jesus Christ.

  Please keep our family in your prayers this month.  I will appreciate that very much.

 

A Tribute to My Father

Volume 4, Issue 9,

September 1, 2007

Publisher—Dennis Bickers

 

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The Tentmaking Pastor: The Joy of Bivocational Ministry

 

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   Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. If you found it helpful, please forward it to others interested in bivocational ministry and encourage them to have their names added to the mailing list.  Also, be sure to check out our website, www.bivocationalministries.com, for some more resources for bivocational ministers.

 

   I would be very interested in hearing your comments and suggestions for future issues of the newsletter.  I would also appreciate your input into other resources you would like to have that would improve your ministry.  Please feel free to contact me with your suggestions.  Until next time, may God continue to bless your ministry and your family.

The Healthy Small Church continues to enjoy very healthy sales.  This book looks at church health issues from a small church perspective. The effectiveness and growth potential of our churches are directly related to how healthy they are.  The final chapter pro-vides you and your leadership some diagnostic questions you can use to evaluate the health of your church in each area of church life.  Order your copy today at a discounted price.

Now Available!

 

  The Work of the Bivocational Minister is now available for purchase.  This just released book has a suggested retail price of $12.00, but you can order it through my website for $10.50.

    “This compact volume meets a critical need in the emergent church as it offers creative and practical insight into a time-tested, if not always honored, paradigm for ministry in the twenty-first century.” (Back cover)

Correction

 

  Due to some incorrect information I had been given I announced in this space last month that Campbellsville University would begin offering their new on-line certificate program in the fall of 2007.  That program is not expected to start until the spring of 2008.  I will continue to pass on information about this exciting opportunity as it becomes available. I do apologize for any confusion this might have created.