Here's more about three local pastors who also work part-time jobs and how they make all their commitments work for them.
MICAH MERTES / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, October 10, 2008 7:00 pm
Any pastor will tell you that ministry is a calling. It is something one is meant to do.
But that doesn’t mean it’s going to pay all the bills.
The majority of Christian congregations in the United States are small — in some cases, really small. According to the National Congregations Study, the median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings.
In his 2006 book “God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations,” sociologist Jackson Carroll found a wide salary disparity between Protestant pastors serving large vs. small congregations. One serving a congregation of more than 1,000, Carroll found, earns a median salary of $82,000. But a Protestant pastor serving a small congregation receives a median salary of about $31,000.
In a lot of cases, the small church pastor has to get an additional job.
We got to know three double-vocational pastors of small Lincoln congregations and learned about the art of juggling family, ministry and a second job.
Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.
Jeremy Calcara, 27
Husband, father of two
- First job: Youth pastor of Lincoln Christian Fellowship, 4111 N.W. 44th St.
- Second job: Detail manager at Simply the Best Auto, 4650 Cornhusker Highway.
- His story: Calcara has been a member of Lincoln Christian Fellowship for 25 years, and he said his parents have been “praying for me to be a pastor about that long.”
Two years ago, he was hired as the youth pastor at LCF.
- His week:
He said he spends 35 hours at the church and 16 hours at Simply the Best Auto. He also spends several hours at volleyball and basketball games that youth ministry members are involved in.
- His priorities:
1. Husband
2. Father
3. Pastor
4. Everything else.
“If you look at my datebook, it wouldn’t show it,” Calcara said, “but the most important thing in my life is that I have a successful marriage.”
- Does your second job ever conflict with your spiritual beliefs?
“I’ve never felt like I needed to compromise my beliefs,” he said. “Everybody knows where I stand on stuff.”
Jesse Foster, 39
Husband, father of two
- First job: Senior pastor at Newman United Methodist Church, 2242 R St.
- Second job: Independent technology consultant for local businesses.
- His story: Though he graduated from seminary school and had done some ministry work in the past, Foster thought he was done with pastor work when he moved to Lincoln.
He came from Birmingham, Ala., in 2001 for a position as a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; he has a doctorate in instructional technology and curriculum instruction. That position didn’t work out, and when he was offered the job at Newman three years ago, he took it.
- His week:
He said he spends 20 or more hours at Newman each week, with anywhere from 30 to 60 hours consulting.
- His priorities:
1. Family
2. Church
3. Work
4. Community
“But they’re not separate,” Foster said. “It’s not a linear thing in the sense that this is one thing and it’s mutually exclusive from the other thing.”
For instance, Foster’s family is heavily involved in the church, and Foster’s ministry extends to both work and community.
“It’s all so tightly woven together.”
- Are there days where it all just gets to be too much?
“In the secular world,” Foster said, “we say you have a talent. In the spiritual world, we say you’ve been anointed to do something. God has given you the ability to do what comes very difficult to other people, to do it very easily and do it with a certain amount of grace and poise. When you’ve been anointed to do this, to care for people and to pastor, it’s not as hard as it looks.”
Steven Graffius, 30
Husband, father of one
- First job: Senior pastor at Living Word Seventh Day Baptist Fellowship, 4140 N. 60th St.
- Second job: Barista at Starbucks, 33rd and O streets.
- His story: Graffius moved from Denver to Lincoln in early 2007 to start Living Word. His father and grandfather both served as pastors for the Seventh Day Baptist denomination.
And Starbucks?
“I picked up Starbucks in seminary in grad school,” he said. “It’s funny because in that seminary, it seemed like everybody was either a nanny or worked at Starbucks. And I didn’t want to be a nanny.”
- His week:
He said he spends about 20 hours at the church and about 35 hours at Starbucks.
“I do my best to live by a principle of time management,” he said. “Plan weekly. Adjust daily.”
- His priorities:
1. Christian
2. Husband
3. Father
4. Pastor
5. Friend
“I make sure that my calendar and my planner reflect those priorities,” he said. “I make sure my family comes first.”
- Is Starbucks a good place for a Christian to work?
“It doesn’t come into conflict at all with Christian values. And a lot of the values of the corporation reflect those of Christianity. For instance, customer service is a really big value of Starbucks. And the way the Bible teaches how Christians are supposed to witness the outside world, that’s really a customer service kind of thing. It’s giving your best, going above and beyond to help the other person.
“I mean, that’s what we’re all about.”