Good Step

Baby steps are often how we see growth in our own lives and also in our churches. Sometimes it seems like things aren't moving at all, but then you see a baby step and it's encouraging. Well, I saw a baby step taken by our church today.

A few weeks ago I told Gideon (my pastor here in Belize) that I wanted to call a church meeting to discuss the topic of our church actually paying him for his work there. Yes that's right, he hasn't been paid a dime from the church in the 3-4 years he's been serving as pastor. So after the service today our church took a baby step.

Gideon cut his sermon a little short and then joined the children's class so we could meet without him being present. This meeting, by the way, was the first one like this I think this group has ever had. I began the meeting with prayer, then told them my concern. I reminded them that Gideon recently resigned from his job as a primary school teacher so he could devote himself to full-time ministry, which was a God led step of faith for him. I then asked everyone to raise their hand if Gideon had been a personal blessing to them in any way since he's been pastor. Lots of hands came up. So I asked random folks to share how he was a blessing. After 3-4 people shared I then reminded them of other things Gideon does for us all, the church building/grounds, not to mention time spent in visiting and sermon prep.

So then I popped the question, "Do you know how much Gideon is getting paid for what he does here?" Answer: "zero!"

Long story short. I asked if they thought it would be good to start paying him something each week. They said yes. I threw out a figure we could afford with what we have coming in weekly. They said it was too low and asked if we could vote on an amount. I said sure. Someone gave some suggestions. We voted and it ended up being DOUBLE of what I suggested at first! Praise God! They showed their love for their pastor and made a really good step. They not only want pay him something, they want to give him about half of what comes in each Sunday.

I left very encouraged about the future. I think 2013 is going to be an exciting year for our church. There are a lot of good things on the horizon. Hopefully we'll see more baby steps and maybe even some walking and running after Christ.