BiVo Podcast: Encouragement for BiVocational Pastors and Cell church Ministers

My guest on the BiVo Podcast this month Tobi Omotayo is another Project Manager. When I first met him in Kingston Ontario, as a Masters Student at the Queens University, I was impressed by his love for God and for the things of God.

Since then he has gotten married to his beautiful wife Egy and they have a son! He still loves the Lord very much and I am sure you will be blessed by his story.

My guest on the BiVo Podcast this month Cynthia Egbunonu is a busy Project Manager at her place of work. She shares how God has helped her work full-time at work, pastor with her husband, be a mom to three children and a wife to her husband.

Listen and discover her secret.

My guest today on the BiVo Podcast is a good friend. I have known him since 2010. Over the past 10 years he has completed his PhD and started his own company. His testimony would bless you.

Have you ever felt like a failure in ministry even when you are doing well at your workplace? On this episode of the BiVo podcast, I share my thoughts and experience with this.

What does it really cost to follow Jesus and serve as a pastor? On this episode of the BiVo Podcast, I share some personal experiences of the cost and benefits of being a pastor!!!

I picked this book from the public library in Cornwall, Ontario. I thought I would take a look at it and read it sometime later.

As soon as I started reading it, I knew that I would have to suspend the other books I was reading to finish this one.

It has been a very good and profitable read. I encourage you to pick up a copy. On this episode of the BiVo Podcast, I do a mini review of the book.

This book is filled with good stuff. However, if you are going to read just one chapter, read Chapter 2 – “What questions do I ask myself as a leader?.

Listen to the podcast to get the questions or better still buy the book!

When I first learned about the importance of having a God-inspired vision, I thought I had discovered something quite powerful. And yes it has really made a big impact on my life. What I did not learn at that time is that it is even more important to learn how to communicate my God-inspired vision with the right people. And again very important to communicate it often.

In this episode of the BiVo Podcast, I share what I have learned about communicating my God-inspired vision with the right people:

• How to communicate your Vision
• When to Communicate your vision
• With whom to communicate your vision

When I wake up in the morning and begin to run around doing what I have to do, I am often reminded that I need to be running the vision that is inspired by God not the one inspired by my ambition.

I am amazed at the amount of impact (positive or negative) that an individual can make these days. How a young man or woman can create a youtube channel and make videos that would have millions of subscribers and billions of views. With this, they could make millions of dollars in a year.

There are so many “shiny” projects and “not so shiny” stuff out there that we could be running after. How many of these pursuits are God inspired and how many of them are simply our ambition?

Don’t get me wrong. Having a God-inspired vision can look like having a big ambition. Think of Jesus’ great commission to His disciples to disciple nations.

I don’t think it is humanly possible for me to tell you or anyone else that you are following your ambition and not a God-inspired vision. What I intend to do on this episode of the BiVo podcast is to highlight some thoughts that can help you and I discern for ourselves whether we are running a God-Inspired Vision or just inspired by our ambitions.

Here are some thoughts:

• A God-Inspired Vision would be much bigger than you possibly can accomplish without God’s help
• It will draw you closer to God and make you more like Jesus
• It will be beyond you. You will need other people who would have to make sacrifices in order for you and them to fulfill the vision.
• It will draw other people to God and help them become like Jesus.
• You will face some serious opposition from people and otherwise.
• You will need to trust God for resources
• The vision will seem to impact you and your family more than anyone else.
• You would need God’s help always as you work on the vision
• You will become more humble as the work increases.

I came to Canada in December 2000 to get a Masters of Engineering in Electrical and Computer Engineering. How did I end up as a pastor? How did I decided to leave all that training to pursue Ministry? How then did I decide to continue to earn money on the side as a BiVo Minister?

In this episode of the BiVo Podcast, I answer the question of how to capture your God-given vision by sharing my own story.

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. Act 9:15

Our Lord Jesus Christ has a vision of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth and reconciling God’s lost children back to Him. It is this vision that we plug into.

Receiving your God-given vision is, therefore, finding out how you will contribute to this vision that our Lord Jesus Christ has. How do you see yourself in the big picture of what our Lord Jesus is doing?

Here are a few pointers

• Develop a deep-seated desire to please God with your whole life (Jesus has the original vision)
• Be convinced that whatever God desires for your life is the best that you can ever be.
• Spend time in Prayer and Fasting to verify and confirm the direction that you have received in your heart.
• Confirm the Holy Spirit’s direction with your spouse, other family members, pastor, and God-loving friends.
• Receive the courage to take the first steps as well as the courage to continue.
• Have respect for others who have gone ahead with a similar vision, and learn from them or their materials.
• Consistently spend time in Prayer and Fasting for direction as the details of the vision unfold.
• Enjoy the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as He works things out within the vision.

Vision is your conviction of what the future looks like! It is a glimpse of what your future or that of your team looks like.

Here are a few thoughts about vision for a BiVo Minister

We don’t create our vision, we receive it from God. – We find in scriptures that God has a good plan for His people, that God has a good and perfect will that we can know and that we are co-laborers with Christ – These scriptures show that we can safely seek and discover what our Lord Jesus has planned for us.

It is different from ambition, “a great idea”, something cool, “what ought to be done” or anything that is simply about you.

For the follower of Jesus, your personal vision is how you plug into the declared vision of Jesus. The vision of Jesus is that the Kingdom of God would come upon the earth. That the will of God will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.