The Transition to Vocational Ministry

In August of 2018, things shifted for us quite suddenly in terms of our business. All of this time I (Brian) had managed to run things about 50/50 with my time, half on the business and half volunteering as the Executive Pastor at the main church. We achieved this after structuring the business so that much of the day-to-day labor was handled by contract, meaning we hired other people, freeing us up for ministry.

However after eight years of very consistent numbers, due to changes in the marketplace that were totally outside of our control (operating costs, tax rates, export rules, competition, regulation, etc.) our business started to slide in a big way. We lost 33% of our business by Christmas 2018, a trend that has continued into the New Year and now sits at about 50%. 

My initial response to this situation was: “I can fix this.” 

However as I worked, my time began to shift more and more toward the business, and less and less on church matters. And at the same time, the more I tried to fix things, the more the LORD seemed to cause my efforts to fail.

So I finally gave up fighting and just asked Him what He wanted. His answer took some time but was eventually eminently clear: 

This represented an answer to a very specific question that our business crisis had left us facing: Either I let our staff go and start doing all of the day-to-day work on the business myself (which would mean spending 95% of my time on business and 5% on ministry) or we essentially stop taking a paycheck from the business, keep our staff on to run things, and find other employment.

I should probably note at this point that almost every year since the church leadership structure has been in place, they have offered me a job. And every time I have declined because I knew what a burden it would be to the young church, and because the LORD continued to provide for us through our business, even though it meant our interests were divided. The reason the church leaders kept asking is because they wanted my full attention, not half of my time but all of it. 

(And I now suspect that some of our leaders have been praying towards this eventuality, as it seems that the LORD is suddenly very much for this idea.)

At this stage, what was being offered to me was a full-time ministry position, formally as the Executive Pastor of Church 21 in the Montreal Region. (We already had a full-time paid executive pastor in the Eastern Region of our church family, covering two congregations to the east of Montreal. Up until this point, I have mirrored his work as best as I can in half the time, and as a volunteer, but it was not always been easy.)

Being hired not only permitted me to continue in my current role, but also allow me to expand my ministry to full-time, working not only with the churches in our planting region but also other ministry initiatives we’ve started such as Acts 29 Canada.

- We were looking at planting a new bilingual church out of our downtown location by the end of 2019. It was to be set within a housing project in Montreal. Already the planting pastors had moved into the neighborhood and their core group is ready to multiply. Test-gatherings were planned for the summer.

- Our in-house seminary Academy in Context was mid-way through its first year, with half a dozen students, 3 of which are hosted in our downtown church. New additional students were anticipated in the fall, expanding our administrative needs.

- We were in the process of formally joining our denomination, which has required many hours of revising our bylaws, but which would unlock new levels of partnership among French-speaking churches with deep roots across Quebec.

- And we had just started the Canadian Network of Acts 29 a year and a half prior, and were then poised to see dozens of new churches join over this next year. Additional administrative challenges come with growth, and yet there is such a great opportunity to mobilize existing churches to help train, send, and support church planters across Canada.

In each of the situations above, I (Brian) get to play a key role in providing logistical support and we (both of us) get to provide pastoral care for the leaders leading these churches and ministries. The urgent need was for me (Brian) to transition from volunteering 20 odd hours a week to being full-time staff and able to focus my undivided attention to these ministry opportunities.

*Our church organization has grown and is now able to fund me for almost two days a week, Praise God! *

And our expectation is over the years the church will increase in its ability to be finically self-sustaining (despite our aggressive bent towards planting new churches), but until that day, we are seeking raise enough outside support to complete our funding for four days a week. 

Currently (as of 2021) we are about $10,000 short of that goal, so the need is real (tap here to see our most recent update).

Through the years, we have seen God provide in wild ways and now again, we find ourselves driving off into the unknown, trusting that He has already put everything into motion. 

Are you a part of this? God may have prompted your heart before you even read through this page. We’re not sure of who we’re supposed to be reaching out to, only that the LORD has already gone ahead to prepare the way for us and has pre-supplied for the journey: 

Regardless, we would love to keep you informed so that you might pray for us and with us for Quebec. You can sign up at HERE to begin receiving updates by email. You can also find more information about how to join our support team, either from within the U.S. or  Canada.

We are thankful for your prayers. If you have any questions, you can TAP HERE to contact us.