Part Two: Rubber, Meet Road.

Picking up from yesterday’s post chronicling the middle school days (an appropriate description for many reasons), today was originally going to be about the methodology of early @V21Church services. However, long blog posts are a pet peeve, and if you’re like me you don’t even begin reading. So, before the first service of Vintage21 as a church plant, a lot of change took place. Today addresses the crossroads faced by @PastorTyler Jones, and the calling on my life to lead worship.

In late October of 2002 the church who had started the service of Vintage21, completely funding three pastors, one of whom moved his family from another country to serve, called @PastorTyler in to say “we’re dropping funding from this. You have ten days, after which you no longer have access to the middle school and will not receive a salary.”  It was probably presented with more grace, but that was the bottom line. Thankfully, what was poor management of both resources and people turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

At that time @PastorTyler and I had hung out several times, but it was still odd that he was so persistent in wanting to get together. The only time it worked was late on a Thursday night. On the drive over, at approximately 10:15 pm, this thought entered my mind -

Keep in mind, the news about dropped funding was unbeknownst to me, so there was no reason this thought should have come up. To begin with, there already was a worship pastor. I was a drummer and sound guy with no desire or experience to lead worship. It was odd – the thought literally came out of nowhere, and the rest of the drive had me praying and a bit confused. But within two minutes of arriving, @PastorTyler gave this news- “Our funding has been dropped, and the worship pastor, who is here on a religious visa, has to move his family back to their country. You’re the last person to meet with, but all other 36 involved voted that we continue. I’d like to pay you $50 a week to lead worship.”
Immediately the thought from the drive made sense! My response was that I’d take on the position, and continue working my two current jobs. The church wasn’t in a place to pay anyone, and as valiant as I’d like to appear, it’s not like I was turning down 50k. We agreed I should take time to pray about it, and fortunately that weekend was a retreat with some former roommates from college where we were intentional about sharing, praying, and shooting shotguns. All three of those activities confirmed this calling, and so two weeks later I was a worship pastor.

Since we were kicked out of the middle school, @V21Church had to find a new home. God led us to a beautiful loft space in downtown Raleigh that @PastorTyler and his wife had to personally sign the lease for. That was huge faith, and one of the pivotal moves in the life of this church.

To Be Continued-

Tomorrow, Part Three: The Pendulum Swings