Saturday, May 5, 2012

Accounting Pastor?

Once upon a time before I was Pastor Mark E, I was just Mark E.  Hard to believe, right?  I was studying accounting at San Francisco State University and working as a Junior Accountant at a pre-IPO software startup that had extended a full time offer to me after graduation that came with a title promotion as well as  cash money.  Things were going well for me career wise, probably better than I had planned, and I was thankful.  

In my personal life, I was very active in the church, running sound, set-up, leading worship, doing the bookkeeping, was very involved in the young adults group, and definitely hungry for the word and to be involved in ministry.  It was always an extracurricular thing so to speak, I never thought I would ever be receiving a paycheck for it...

Then things changed.  Pastor Rick asked a few of us to pray about working at the church as an intern to assist him and have some more hands on and intense discipleship.  When he first mentioned it, compared to the other guys he approached as well, I never thought I would be the one to end up with the opportunity.  I thought they were all better suited than I was, besides, I was working towards a career that I enjoyed and was very lucrative, I had no reason to leave it.  

Of course, man plans his was, but God always guides his steps.  Jack and I had gone on a short term missions trip to Nicaragua during the winter holiday.  The experienced rocked me.  I travelled as much as I could as a young man and enjoyed it very much, but this was like nothing I had ever experienced.  I fell in love with the people, the place, and the idea of doing missions.  I loved it.  I wanted to go back.

Upon my return, there were some things going down at work, that I wasn't super stoked about.  The company was growing, which was a good thing, and as it did so did our department, which again, was a good thing, but also my manager left the company, who was a very good friend and someone who poured a lot of time into me spiritually and professionally, which for me, was a bad thing.  Another coworker transferred to another department who I really enjoyed working with.  I lost my buddies at work and began to feel alone there.  I don't think my performance suffered, and my new manager seemed to be happy with me, but I felt something that I never felt before...  I wanted to leave.  

After work one day I had a voice mail from Pastor Rick asking me to call him back.  That scenario doesn't seem too strange, but I think it was like only the second time he had ever called me...  I knew something was up.  I called him back the next day and he bluntly asked me if I had been praying about the internship.  I had been.  I had actually been praying about a lot of things.  I wanted to go back to Nicaragua but between work and school I never thought I could do it.  I also thought that Rick for sure would have picked one of the other guys over me by that point for the internship.  But he was straightforward with me, so I was straight forward with him. I told him about my plan to quit my job to go to Nicaragua for the summer, then after I returned I could work at the church for a couple years, finish college, then most likely head back to the mission field, or get a full time job in accounting.

That was like 7 years ago (I just had to calculate all those dates in my head, wow, I can't believe it has been that long).  Though the first couple things on that list happened, nothing else did.  I did go to back to Nicaragua for the summer and did come back and work for the church.  My work at the church actually became a much larger piece of my life than I expected, and though I did eventually graduate I didn't go on the mission field, nor did I go back to my planned accounting career.  

I have though over the years gone on short term missions trips, and that is still a large part of my ministry, which is a blessing and something I always plan to continue to participate in.  But I have also had the opportunity to do some contract accounting work over the years.  My previous manager has had me help out in some of his various roles over the years, which has always been a blessing.  To be honest, mostly financial, as you can imagine, I didn't choose to work at the church for the money.

I've spent the past couple of weeks on a contract assignment during my spare time and days off.  It's been a blessing not only to connect to an old friend, but also to do the work as well.  I do really enjoy accounting work.  It's very different than a lot of what I do on a regular basis, and it's very satisfying in a sense that if there's a problem I know I can fix it.  It may take some time, some thought, and a lot of trial and error, but a solution can be found.  I have also gotten to learn about some new things I haven't worked with before which is also cool.  But one thing that struck me is that I really enjoy doing the work.  I remembered why I entered the field in the first place.  I like it.  

I was a bit surprised by that feeling.  At the time I left my job to enter into full time ministry, it was like I was finally free to do what I was meant to do.  In the past when I have done the work, it was purely to earn some extra money, kind of out of necessity.  I never thought that I would or could like doing that work again.  The idea of it just seems wrong to me for some reason.  But why do I feel that way?  I don't know, but I don't think I should.  Doing some part time accounting on occasion doesn't mean that I am running back into bondage, but quite the opposite.  God has given me some skills and abilities and I am free to use them as He guides me.  

This has turned into quite a long rambling post, but I'm just processing some of the things I've been feeling and praying about.  I am thankful to Jesus for the ways that He has guided me through life and all the blessings He has given me of talents and opportunities, and for all the ways that He has provided for me, it's much more than I deserve.  I want to use it all for His glory whatever that looks like.