It's August. Anyway. So, in an attempt to be proactive I've made a list for David and Amy's Ministry Job. Note that I didn't say dream job, just job. This is what we need to have just to make it work.
1. A Wesleyan Church position or similar denomination that will accept David's credentials without requiring more education, which we cannot afford.
2. A parsonage (or a salary that reflects the rent on, at minimum, a two bedroom apartment.)
3. Covering moving costs.
4. Full-time, so that we have family health coverage.
5. In Canada.
6. A salary of at least $24,000 a year after taxes. (More if we need to pay rent.)
7. In an area where we don't need a car to function.
Yeah, if you're shaking your head slowly back and forth, join the club. The chances of us finding this elusive job that does not exist is pretty nil. Although I have been looking at the website for the Free Methodist Church In Canada, and they are almost identical to the Wesleyans except that they have, like, three times as many churches. When David gets home this afternoon I may have him take a look, too.
We have some major hurdles to jump, though. The first one is that although David is officially a licensed minster now, it is a student license, not a district license. This means that his chances of getting a position where experience is listed in the job description is non-existant. I have heard of only one pastor getting a senior position with a student license. So what does this mean for us? Well, it means that the job that David will get will be something fairly low. An assistant pastor in charge of visitation or something. Most student ministers seem to get given the Children's Pastor/Youth Pastor/Worship Pastor positions. And that would be fine except that:
A) David is an older (relatively, he's not 18!) man, and churches like 'hip' 20-somethings to run their youth groups.
B) David is a man. And churches tend to prefer women as their children's pastors.
C) David is not gifted in playing instruments and singing, both of which you need to be a worship leader. It's practically mantatory that you wear tight jeans and strum a guitar. Just kidding. Sorta.
Now, that doesn't make it impossible that David would get a position in children's or youth ministry. He's done both before on a volunteer level. It could happen, it's just not likely. More likely is an Assistant Pastor or Associate Pastor position. But they are rare, and coveted, and that brings us to problem #2:
David hasn't finished his degree yet.
He's working on it, but it isn't done. And until it's done he's competing with graduates from the Wesleyan Bible Colleges on uneven ground. They have majored in Pastoral Studies, and David had a family and has basic licensing from Indiana Headquarters. Although technically, they have the same level of licensing, but the degree makes them better on paper.
So when a job does come up, David's resume may simply get tossed aside because almost every other candidate is going to have a BA. And the problems keep going...
1) We don't own a car. Even if we did own a car we couldn't afford to drive it so there isn't any point in buying a car. This is a tricky one because it means that whatever church David is at needs to be central enough that he doesn't need a car to do his job.
2) We don't have the money to move. It cost $3000 to move from our old house to here, 16 hours away. The days of me pulling $3000 out of my account and moving are long. gone. Even if I had it. Which I don't. And three grand was with using a U-Haul with my family and friends pushed into driving and unloading/loading the van. I couldn't do that move again on less than $3000, and probably not for that. Plus we don't have licenses to drive a truck, so that means we'd have to use a moving company.
So where does this uplifting post leave us? Here, I suppose, in rural nowheresville, which I can't stand.
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