Another Employment Update

It's been six months since I last wrote an employment update blog. If you are a new reader, I lost my church staff pastor job in June of 2011. Since that time, I have diligently worked at finding another full time position, a position that would allow me to use a lot of years of experience and education. I am happy to report that after 101 resumes, and 4 job offers, on Sunday, July 29, 2012, I will begin a new job as the Executive Pastor at Eastside Assembly in Tucson, Arizona. This is a position that will take advantage of my experience, education and church business certification.

This spring I wrote an article that was published in the Summer 2012 edition of  NACBA Ledger, a professional journal for members of the National Association of Church Business Administration. The title was Learning Lessons from Being Unemployed. I covered four areas, 1. You must leave the past and look forward to the future, 2. You find out who your true firends are, 3. This is a very difficult employment market, 4. God's Word is true, and His promises are meant to be stood upon. (If you would like to read my article, send me your email address to me and I'll send you a pdf copy. louiesalazar@sbcglobal.net)

I learned some tremendous lessons in this past year, and the greatest of them was that God speaks to us through His word in dynamic and timely ways. I cannot tell you how many days, in either my regular course of Bible reading, or spontaneous reading, a portion of God's Word spoke very clearly to me. God's Word helped me deal with the disappointment of submitting over one hundred resumes, and not hearing back a single word from over 50 % of the churches and organizations I had contacted. God's Word helped me deal with the disappointment of not hearing from people I had worked closely with, people I considered friends and fellow leaders. God's Word helped me deal with the fear of not being able to stretch our savings to bridge the gap, a gap we did not know how long would last. As opportunities became available this spring, God's Word helped Kathy and I make the right decision on which opportunity to choose. I can tell you this, it is very scary to turn down three opportunities without knowing if there would be another one. Here's how that played out...

The first job offer was from a large compassion ministry in St. Louis. While I know I could have helped this ministry with my experience and skills, not all the pieces were falling into place, and we decided this would not work for us, or them. The second opportunity was at a large Assemblies of God camp, retreat and conference center. Again, while I felt my skills would have been a good fit, I could not get a peace from God that this was the right position. I initially accepted an offer from a wonderful church in the St. Louis area to be their Music Director. As a lead up to my first week of employement there, I attended eight services. On the evening of the eighth service I attended, I could not sleep. While the job provided wonderful security, and was in the St. Louis area, I knew that this was not the position for me. This church's heritage and practice was very different from mine. While I know I could have probably adapted to a new tradition, I knew I could not engage on a personal spiritual level. I tossed and turned and did not sleep until I settled on the fact that I could not serve in this position. This is not a criticism of this church, it is a wonderful church, it simply was not a good fit, either for them or me. The position that Kathy and I have accepted is to be the Executive Pastor at Eastside Assembly of God in Tucson, AZ. I will be involved in a lot of church administration, developing ministry areas and helping to oversee an 11 million dollar relocation of the church. God saved this position for me, knowing that it was one that would use all of the experience I have had over the past twenty years. It would also take advantage of my church business administration education and certification.

This new position comes with some downsides. The biggest one is that we will leave children behind in St. Louis. I have been a basket case everytime I think about it, but God will help us. We also need to sell a home in a very difficult real estate market. As you have already read, God has a way of taking care of His business, so we're confident He will take care of this as well. The third downside is that we will be leaving behind some wonderful friends. People who have loved us, stood by us, helped us and have been there when we have needed them. In the final analysis, God did not promise us perfect lives, He did promise, however, to be there for us. His Word is true. I know, because I have lived it for the past year.