Note: We LOVE to highlight some of the wonderful things that come out of our Network from both pastors and the people in Ecclesia communities. Do you have something you’d like to share with the rest of the Network? Let us know!
Like many of you, I’m a bi-vocational pastor. I have a love/hate relationship with being bi-vocational but we continue to sense that God has called us at New Denver Church to live out our bi-vocational callings. To that point, I’ve been serving at New Denver Church since 2010 in a variety of roles and am the operations and community pastor. I had a great part-time gig at the Denver Art Museum until they laid off staff, me included, due to a three-year renovation. That left me questioning the whole concept of bi-vocationalism in a booming housing market like Denver. How could God call us to live in an expensive city (Kairos Hollywood eye roll here) and be bi-vocational?
I could sit around all day pondering bi-vocationalism but that wasn’t gonna put groceries on the table, so I started a small woodworking business out of my garage workshop that sold several products in the first week. And then, no joke, didn’t sell another single thing for months. So I shut it down. Went back to the drawing board.
In late 2018 I started sensing a need in our local network of churches for an honest, affordable, and hardworking company that would provide business and administrative services for churches and nonprofits. I kept seeing leaders trying to do it all – things they don’t enjoy – and let’s be honest most people don’t enjoy administration!
I started Hopewell and have developed a small team where our mission is to empower church and nonprofit leaders to thrive by providing exceptional business and administrative services. That’s it. It’s nothing fancy. It’s nothing new.
Hopewell is here to serve leaders who are getting eaten up by the administrative side of ministry.
We feel called to do the behind-the-scenes administrative and operations work that you dread. We wake up excited about it. We love systems, spreadsheets, HTML, and emails. We love empowering leaders to thrive.
I still haven’t resolved the bi-vocational tension (personally or organizationally) but the “gig economy” forced me to get creative. And I’m grateful because I think I’ve found a really healthy combination of doing something I love while helping others. (go Google Ikigai sometime)
Dan Snyder is the Community and Operations Pastor at NDC. He’s from Denver but doesn’t ski or drink craft beer. He does, however, love all Denver teams (go Rockies, Broncos, Nuggets, Avs, and Buffs!) and the Baylor Bears. If you can’t find him he’s probably reading a book, telling really funny jokes, hanging with his wife Britt, daughter Sutton (born in November 2016), and son Sloan (born in December 2018), practicing yoga, working in his wood shop, and/or listening to sports radio. Dan has diplomas from the University of Northern Colorado (BA Criminal Justice) and Denver Seminary (MA Pastoral Counseling) but has no idea where they’re stored.