By Pastor Ken
According to a study, more than half of the Christian churches in the United States have less than 100 people attending Sunday worship. The first church I pastored belonged to this type of small church. In terms of financial limitations, small churches can only hire one pastor. The job of this solo pastor is “all-inclusive.” Besides leading worship service and preaching, the pastor has to do office chores and basic building maintenance.
Looking back on the ministry thirty years ago, I did many chores by myself for two reasons. One, to save money for the church, and two, I was still young. For example, every winter, it snows in the Chicago area. There was a parking lot in front of the church that has ten spaces. If snow fell on Sunday morning, we mobilized church members to come earlier and clear the snow. What if it snowed during the week? I shoveled it myself and considered it as my exercise.
The most challenging job was related to heating the church building. The machines at that time were placed on the roof and used natural gas. That furnace, like the water heaters in many people’s homes, carried a pilot light. When the heater was turned on, the pilot light would ignite the burner to generate heat. The problem was when a strong wind blew out the pilot light. If it happened, I had to climb a metal ladder, open the roof access cover, and manually light the pilot light to make it work. Otherwise, everyone would have to wear thick coats during worship.
The general maintenance of the church building in those years includes faucets, toilet tanks, sewers, light switches, and a sound system. For small problems, I fixed them myself. If I couldn’t handle it, I asked other church members to help out. Only when there were serious issues that we called professionals. In fact, before that church, God had given me some experience in repairing my own house. I was trained in identifying problems and figuring out ways to solve them since the days I studied engineering. God had prepared me long before giving me the assignment of serving as a solo pastor at that church.
When it comes to church office duty, an important job is making the weekly bulletin. At that time, desktop computers had just started, and Chinese software was almost non-existent. Most of the church documents in English could be typed, but Chinese text needed to be handwritten. Then the draft had to be photocopied, printed, and folded. God had also given me experience in that area. I was involved in literature ministry in my youth group and even in my college years. I could handle writing, layout design, printing, and binding.
As the pastor in residence (or a parish pastor), I sometimes saw myself as a Levite in the Old Testament time. Of course, Levites from the Aaron family could serve as priests, which had an honorable status. However, other Levites who did the setup or takedown of the tabernacle, cleaning, and maintenance of all temple grounds were also serving God. Other times, I saw myself as an apostle or elder in the New Testament era, with the calling to preach, teach, and manage the church. As long as God gave me the experience and the gifts, I felt the calling to do trivial jobs and didn’t mind whether they fell under the pastor’s title. My work was not limited to preaching. To serve God means to do whatever is good for the church and the congregation, to spread the gospel, and to glorify Him.
