"Good Job God!"

One of my passions in the church is the children....of all ages.

• They love to talk about God
• They invite EVERYONE to church.
• They will sing as loud as they can

• They will pray the sweetest, most innocent prayers.
• They will thank God, praise God and worship God.
• They are so excited about everything!

I have taught children of all ages (from birth to teens) at our church. I currently teach the pre-school class on Wednesday nights. I feel like the earlier we reach out to them the stronger their faith will become.

Children do not hesitate to Praise God. One of my favorite praises came from one of our two year old church boys. His mom was showing him the beautiful sunset and was explaining that God made it, when the little boy looked up in the sky, gave thumbs up and said “Good job God!” The little fellow was praising God and did not even realize it.

My husband does a Children’s Message every Sunday morning that goes right along with the regular message. Over a year ago, he had a memory verse learning contest and even though that is over, the children all continue to learn new memory verses every Sunday and he allows them time to recite their verses in the microphone. It is amazing the verses that even the pre-school children are learning.

Many lessons can be learned from our children. Their eyes have not been clouded by “experience”. They are innocent and honest and use every opportunity to Praise God! My challenge to you is to stop and observe the children. Oh, if we could only have the faith of little children.

Bi-Vocational----NOT Part-Time

Contrary to popular believe, Bi-Vocational does not mean Part-Time. Bi-vocational means that you have two full-time jobs and you must be creative to be successful at both.

In my fourteen years as a bi-vocational minister’s wife, I have discovered that since our church is bi-vocational, I must really put into action the work of a “help-mate” because my husband needs my help. Bi-vocational churches have the same wants, desires and needs as a full-time church…they just have less funding and they also have less members to help do the work.

Being bi-vocational means we have to find ways to stretch our time, energy and work. Also, being bi-vocational means that you do not live in the “church parsonage” and if you are like us, your home is over thirty miles from church. (We live in Rhea County. Our church is in Roane County.) The hospitals that our members attend are in Knox County, which is even further from our home.

Creativity is the key to success. We can not always “be there” in body but we can:
• Make sure our members feel loved all the time.
• Make phone calls
• Send e-mails
• Send text messages
• Send cards and/or notes

Bi-vocational churches still have hurting members, sick members, dying members, marrying members, etc. so there is always hospital visits, funerals, weddings, etc. We are fortunate to have a congregation that understands and forgives us if we are not there in body all of the time. We are always there in spirit and try to be there in body as much as possible.

Two years ago, Bro. Ray Gilder asked our daughter, Kacie to give her testimony at the Appalachian Bi-Vocational Ministers Conference and tell everyone what it was like growing up in a bi-vocational minister’s home. She pretty much summed everything up. She said….”whoever said that Sundays were a day of rest, lied. That is the day that bi-vocational ministers do a lot of their visiting and ministering.” Our children learned to do a lot of traveling…and not usually to places they really cared to go. Through it all, they learned how to:
• Visit in homes that did not always have children
• Visit people they did not know
• Eat food that they were not particularly fond of
• Visit hospitals
• Visit the elderly
• Visit nursing homes
• Visit funeral homes.
• Truly Love People
It was just a way of their lives!

Bi-vocational ministers work 8-10 hours during the daytime at their secular jobs and the evenings and weekends are spent doing “church work”, while making time for our own families. My husband and I do the work together and while our children were at home, we did it as a family. It wasn’t always easy, but it was certainly worth it.

Being a bi-vocational family is very challenging, yet rewarding ministry.
Joshua 24:15 “…As For Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord!”

God Uses Ordinary People

While we were dating, Roger told me he felt that God was calling him into the ministry. I cried when I got home from that date. My dad was a minister and that was fine and good, but I did not think that I wanted that for my life. I wanted for us to be active in the church, but I just wanted a “normal life”. At the time, Roger assured me that God was calling him into the ministry, but he did not feel he was suppose to pastor, especially at that time. Whew….that was a relief!!!

We went ahead, got married after seven years of dating and together served God in many areas: Bus Ministry, Children’s Church Ministry, Puppet Ministry, Youth Leaders, Teachers, etc. My husband served as Youth Minister, Minister of Music, etc. for seventeen years. During this time, Roger would fill the pulpit when asked to, so it was not unusual that Whites Creek Baptist Church would call him to supply that cold Sunday morning in January 1997.

The first Sunday we were at the church, they had twelve for Sunday-School and thirty-two for preaching and we were four of those! The youngest deacon’ at 77 years old, praised God that Sunday morning for the large crowd they had for the visiting minister. (I might add that the church building was brand new. The state changed the two-lane to a four-lane and got the old church, so we were in a very nice, but empty church.)

After several weeks of “filling in” as pastor, the deacons came to my husband and told him that God was leading them to call him as their bi-vocational pastor.

We prayed and prayed about it. I was scared to death. We both felt that was where God was leading us. I kept telling Roger that I did not know “how to” be a pastor’s wife. I told him that we had sat under "good pastors" and "bad pastors" so he had something to go by. I could not think of ANY pastor’s wife that was "anything like me", so I just did not know how I could fill those shoes.

After lots of praying, God revealed to me that he was calling Roger and me to the church. He did not want me “be like the other pastors’ wives, he wanted me to be ME! Isn’t God Awesome!!! For fourteen years, he has used ME as a pastor's wife...and

• I do not play the piano, except "a hunt a peck."
• I can not "sing."
• I am not "Ms. WMU."
• I am not "Ms. Fashion Queen."
• I am not full of "Great Wisdom."

I am just “Kathy” and God has used me more by just being me. He called me and He does not make mistakes. He knew that even though I did not fit the “normal characteristics” of a Pastor’s Wife, He could use me and has for the past, almost fourteen years. (I will address my roles in the church in later posts.)

Are you allowing God to truly use you? Are you being true to yourself and being “You” so he CAN use you? He wants us to be ourselves so He can use us. He made us all special and for a purpose.

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Beauty of Fall

Just Plain ‘Ole Me

I am very humbled and honored to be a part of this talented and spiritual writing staff. I do not feel worthy or adapt in joining it, since I have never “blogged” before, but Lana asked me. I prayed about it and God said “do it”. Who am I to argue with that?

I will give you a brief bio; which is a joke in itself. I am a very detailed person and my husband is a very “to-the-point” type person, so he is constantly telling me to go ahead and "birth the baby…he does not need the nine months of pregnancy". Smile. I am sorry, but in this blog, you will get just plain DETAILED me in the nine month version.

My name is Kathy and I am a bi-vocational minister’s wife. I have been married to Roger Britton for thirty-one years. We are both originally from Alabama however we have lived in Dayton, TN for a little over sixteen years. God has blessed us with two beautiful Christian children, a Christian son-in-law and a Christian girlfriend. Kacie is a Math teacher and is married to Chase. Cody graduates from college in December and he is dating Melanie. Some people have grandchildren….we have grand-dogs; Fanny, the Australian Sheppard that belongs to Kacie & Chase and Lady Bird, the Jack Russell that belongs to Cody which he shares with his girlfriend, Mel. As my husband says, “We are having fun practicing on our grand-dogs. One day we will have real grandchildren and the dogs will become just dogs.”

I taught school for six years and then was a stay-at-home mom for a total of 17½ years. When our daughter was a senior and our son was in the 8th grade, God blessed my husband with a secular job where he could work from home. (He is a computer guy.) I went back to college to get re-certified after 23½ years and have been teaching in the public school system for eight years, where I currently teach Technology/Computers to 6th Graders. (God has a sense of humor....I learned to type on a manuel typewriter!!)

I have been a pastor’s wife for almost fourteen years, but I will address that in another post.

When Lana first approached me about being a writer for the TN PRIME RIB Blog, my first thought was…why me? I am just plain ole Kathy. I don’t have anything to share. Who would want to read what I write? And then God spoke to my heart. He created me in His own image because of this…I am not just plain ole Kathy and with His help, I will attempt to share my heart in these blogs.
Psalm 139:13-14. 13” For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

A Totally Unrelated Additional Question

Okay Ladies, I am sure you can tell there is a lot going on right now at the Vinson house. It seems as though my days just run together with tasks, big and little. God is blessing and teaching so much to all of us along the way. I have had to learn to make myself stop multi-tasking and just focus on the moment. However, this is not one of those moments.

It is looking like I will be hosting the Vinson family Thanksgiving dinner this year. It is only my second time to host and I am extremely thankful for a father-in-law who will smoke more turkey than we could possibly begin to eat. Everyone brings a dish or two and I know it will be a great time.

So, because I know that Thursday will be here before we know it, and I don't think I am blogging again in time, I would love to know what holiday dishes, traditions, and decorations that have become a part your Thanksgiving days. Are there special spiritual components that turn your family's focus back toward God? Having small children, I am always looking for new ways to point them back to their Heavenly Father.

I am hoping that asking this early will give us all an opportunity to try something new this Thanksgiving. Who knows, maybe it will become another family's tradition?

An Apology and a Question

Is it my turn already? Please forgive me ladies for not posting earlier this week. I know you can all relate when I say that it has been one of those weeks. I should have double checked the schedule earlier in the week. I am sorry.

Believing you to all be gracious and forgiving, I now have a question for you:

What are you reading?

Is it fiction? Non-fiction? Spiritual? Secular?

Are you reading magazines? If so, which ones?

What other blogs do you follow? Websites?

I enjoy a good read and would love to know what sparks your interest. I am always looking for something new.

Right now I am looking through two secular mags, Family Fun and Real Simple. I have just begun Ted Dekker's novel Green (I finished Black, Red, and White a long time ago). This year, my husband and I are reading through the Bible together. This week we read Lamentations and have begun Ezekiel.