The Office of a Bishop

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

(1 Timothy 3:2) KJV

In 2019 we we resolved the confusion we were in about our calling, what it is and what we’re supposed to be doing.

In 2018 we got out of debt. This was the first time in our adult life. We were also self-employed as an Uber driver so our schedule was completely flexible. Our church at the time was mostly older people and the leadership, particularly the Pastor, had a wide variety of health problems that affect their ability to show up in a dependable way.

Over the course of 2019 we got drawn deeper and deeper into the life of the church and it got to the point where we were preaching 2-4 times a week and leading every service. There was a space of about 6 months where the Pastor didn’t come to any evening services. We were, by default, the Pastor. It was wonderful to be such an important part of church life but, it was taking up a lot of time and they weren’t paying us, so we started to get back into debt. We were backsliding.

We were wavering on relationships, going into debt and, most importantly, we’re not technically qualified to be a Pastor. We’re not the husband of 1 wife. We did the best we could though. Our members had questions and issues about things in scripture and we worked hard to use the Bible to address their concerns. We were mindful of one verse in particular:

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

(1 Peter 5:2) KJV

We preached two sermons on consecutive Wednesday nights which addressed issues that the members were worried about, and we gave them Biblical wisdom about how to handle them.

This brought the church leadership out in full force against us. We stepped down and have broken fellowship with the leadership of the church.

But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

(Matthew 10:23) KJV

Keep the sayings of this book? We’re not qualified to be a Pastor so it’s time to stop trying to be one. Time to make up the lost ground on the progress we made in 2018.

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