Since January 2010 we have been preparing and praying for the place God would have us. All that we knew to do was to put our house on the market, and begin making contacts. We were blessed to see our house go under contract in April and close in June.

I made dozens of phone calls, and sent out resumes to out at least 35 different churches and Baptist associations. God then connected us to a guy in the Southwest Orlando area who planted a church a year ago Easter, and was looking for someone to come in and co-pastor with him.

His name is Jesse Carbo, and he is the Lead Pastor of The Roots Community Church. The church is running between 40-50 in attendance, and is in an area which is severely lacking in the number of evangelical churches, and has a great need for deeper community through Jesus Christ. Also, this area has a large mission opportunity of families living week to week in hotels with kids who need educational tutoring, and the gospel.

Church plants have struggled financially in this area since the economic bust in 2008, and because of this, most plants cannot afford to pay anyone full-time, let alone having multiple staff. With this in mind, I am searching for a full-time job with benefits that can provide for us financially, and for me to have enough time to do pastoral ministry within the church.

Being a bi-vocational pastor was not what I had in mind after graduating from seminary, but I see many great values in this being the future of my ministry. First is that my ministry extends beyond the walls of the church and into the workplace where many people need to hear the gospel.
Second, it is a benefit to the church plant, in that they do not have to support us financially, and in turn we can help financially support the church. Finally, I can gain a greater perspective on working full-time and then volunteering with the church, and help others with the family-work-church balance.