Business & Ministry

Our value for pairing up business and ministry began to emerge during a time of financial stress in Muncie Alliance Church's history. As the community fluxed and changed in the early 1990s, Senior Pastor Guy Pfanz was forced to take a pay cut that led him and his wife, Judy, to start their own business. Guy had long held in interest in all things related to coffee, and so it was a natural step for him to begin selling espresso machines and setting up coffee houses as a supplementary income.

Over the course of a few years, the community of believers increased dramatically, and the need for a larger building and staff became painfully apparent. However, the budget growth wasn't matching the other areas of growth in the church. The Lord had built in an interesting ratio into His Body: fifty percent were college students.

Through this time of owning a growing business and shepherding a growing church body, Guy began to recognize the benefits of being a bi-vocational pastor. His world increased beyond the borders of MAC as he met and worked with people through his business. He was also able to relate to the Muncie community not only on a spiritual level, but also on a business level. Finally, as a working man himself, he was able to better understand those in the congregation who were also out working in the "real world."

At the intersection of needing more staff, not having any more money, and seeing the benefits of bi-vocational ministry, the value for bi-vocational staffers emerged. Currently, all MAC staff are paid for part-time work at the church and also hold other vocational positions. While some of the jobs the staff hold carry over into the church a bit more than others - for example Guy's coffee business - everyone does something different. Jobs run the gamut from music, writing, website development and carpentry. At this point, this value is so a part of who we are as a body that even if the finances at MAC were unlimited, we would still value the staff being bi-vocational.

Business and ministry also plays a central role in our training internship. As the Lord laid upon Guy's heart the desire to train young men and women up in the ministry, he wanted to see it realized in a way that would allow them to not incur debt and be financially free to serve wherever the Lord called them. Again, the church's budget could not support interns and so the coffee roasting business emerged as the way for interns to support themselves as they learned about ministry. Now all interns study the Word of God and learn about ministry in the morning and support themselves by roasting coffee and learning about business in the afternoon.

From the start, no one planned on have a bi-vocational staff, and no one planned on the interns learning about business alongside ministry. Those were both outcomes that weren't foreseen, but that God wanted to bring about. He has woven this interconnected web. Now when MAC plants a church, it begins in a coffee shop, where those who are leading the ministry have learned business and can support themselves while engaging their surrounding community as they watch God build His global Church.