co-pastoring.

Robert asked about our experiences co-pastoring. To start off I should be clear that my wife Debbie and I are the only pastors of the church. We are not working with others (not that we don't want to but just to be clear that we are "the team" at the moment; she is one pastor, I am the other, thus we are "co-pastors")(I will not talk about the biblicality of women pastors - we are a part of the Assemblies of God and believe God is and EOE - Equal Opportunity Employer!). Also, to get technical, I am still in the licensing process and Debbie is fully ordained with the Assemblies of God. Thus, she is the "Senior" Pastor for technicalities sake - though we both share the general pastoral responsibilities (and really, the real "Senior Pastor" is the Lord Jesus! He alone is the True Shepherd of our congregation and we are simply his agents in administering his will and purposes for the congregation. No?). We would not be here if either us did not have the proper "papers" so to speak. We are a district church, meaning we are under the full authority and control of the district leadership - though we are given freedom to run the ministry as we are able, it's just any major issues and things need to go through the district leadership). We were not voted in but appointed as pastors by the District Superintendent. We did come visit the church and we each preached a service prior to appointment. We interacted with the people and made sure we got a feel for the environment and the congregation before we agreed to the appointment. We did not want to just be arbitrarily appointed but wanted to be sure the people liked us (more or less).

So, we are co-pastors. How does this work? What does it look like? Well, it isn't too complicated really. We go back and forth on preaching (me one service, her another, or me for a few services and her for a few, etc). We each "lead" different aspects of the service. I can't sing a tune to save my life so Debbie leads worship. We have a time of prayer and at different times either of us will lead the prayer time. We just go back and forth. It's not a big deal really. Then in terms of ministry Debbie focuses on the women and I focus on the men, so she has gals she is interacting with and talking to while have some guys I am working to connect with in different ways.

The dynamics of ministry here is much different really, than the average church (or so it seems). At the moment we have more people coming to our Thursday night Bible Study than are coming to the services on Sunday. Once the tourist season picks up, most of the morning services will focus on the tourists who come, the night service is more geared toward the locals and regular attenders.

So, that is how things are going so far. If you would, pray for us.