What I do and Why

I guess I will first start off with a fairly common reaction that I get when discussing my primary job with people who I meet for the first time. I work at a YMCA one night a week as a Total Health Coach helping people achieve their fitness goals. In this job I meet a lot of new people and usually end up talking about more than just fitness stuff. We usually get on the topic of jobs and family, and whenever I am asked what I do for work, I tell them my primary job is working for a church.

This usually brings the eyebrow raising confused look from the person I have just met. Despite being at the Young Mens Christian Association, people are usually a bit confused as to why I would want to work at a church, or what work even needs to be done at a church to warrant it being a full time job. This got me thinking that a lot of people may have a perception of church being boring, and an easy job for a pastor or staff person. Now how can the Kingdom of God be boring or easy to understand, I mean we are talking about the creator of the universe here!

In this post I wanted to briefly talk about our church and what I do here. First off our church mission statement is "Revolutionizing lives through the revelation of God" I think the first time I ever read that mission statement I was excited. It's not that I never thought about "revolutionizing" peoples lives, it's just that I had never thought of it in such an exciting way!

I came to Calvary in the Winter/Spring 2006 when we were still meeting at the Courtyard Marriott. It was about 10 people meeting in a small conference room, and for some reason I felt like this was a place where I could use my talents and gifts to serve. And over the past 4 years it has been one of the things in my life that has always been their and felt right. In June of 2009 I came on as a staff member. Now I was led to believe that Ministry was all about hanging out at the office and having Daiquiris hahaha and sometimes doing some work.(Thanks Mike I can now say it is not about that) Just Kidding, I came one in a very busy time for our church (New Facility, Special Events, and New Staffing) and it certainly was and wasn't what I was expecting. It was a challenge right off the bat and one that I was willing to accept.

I think in a way I was a little bit like the people that I previously mentioned when thinking about what work really needs to be done at a church? Maybe thinking how hard can this be? I knew it was a job that I felt called to, but I had no idea about all the inner workings of ministry until I came on staff. There are so many things that the average church goer doesn't see as a regular attender and volunteer. Example, I had no idea how much focus and planning goes into each message that Bill puts together. Hours and Hours of him pouring into the message throughout the week, counseling various resources. And after it is all over he is drained. Dave has tons of preparation and working with other people to get a set and band ready for each Sunday morning worship set. On top of the other duties that he has at the church.

And then there is me...

What do I do? Do I just sit in the office and goof around and answer phones? Do I go out and get Bill coffee?(Not all the time but occasionally hahaha) No, I am in charge of our Service Oversight and Assimilation. Then when we have special events I have a big part in planning them. Now the great thing about my job is that I find it to be a combination of all the other life experience that I have had (School and previous jobs) With assimilation and event planning I used to work at a YMCA doing a lot of similar things. With Service Oversight I had been volunteering at Calvary for over 3 years before coming on staff so I knew some of the inner workings of what it takes to make a service happen. And then I got some great on the job training from Mike Tolerico before he felt called to go back to Colorado. And then there are some of the fun little videos that we get to make around West Hartford and the office. I used to do some video production in college and also I grew up with a camera in hand making lot's of fun little films. (Check out our Youtube page just search CalvaryHartford for our videos)


If you had asked me a year ago when I was getting laid off from the YMCA "would you ever think about a career in ministry?" I don't think I would have said yes. So what changed? I thought and prayed about this long and hard during the interview process for Calvary. Mark Driscoll says "appoint slowly and terminate quickly" when discussing the appointing of Elders in his book "Vintage Church". I think the same can be said for church staff hiring.

During that time I felt that I was truly feeling the call for a bigger role at Calvary, but I knew that if it was what God willed it would happen in his time. During this process I was working at a pool supply store selling chemicals, pools, and spas, and thinking to myself there has to be more to my life than this!

And then I was hired at Calvary! And so far it has been an awesome ride working alongside a great staff and a great church body. And even now as I am sitting in the office finishing this post Dave is just sitting across from me listening to a new song he is learning for our services. He is just playing his guitar and learning the song by listening to it (I can't even comprehend this). And that is part of why working here is great. God has surrounded me with some great people with a great vision. "Revolutionizing lives through the Revelation of God"

-C-