Balancing Life, Work, & Ministry

As a bi-vocational pastor for the last 4 years, Gabe Cabrera has a lot of practice balancing family life, driving an 18-wheeler full-time for his “day job,” and serving as pastor at First Baptist Church in Osceola. Driving a truck full-time means many long days on the road. “Legally I can drive up to 11 hours per day,” says Pastor Gabe. “I’ve learned how to serve in my role as a pastor while I’m on the road. I make a lot of phone calls and quite a few Zoom meetings.”

Training for Ministry

A lot of time on the road also provided the opportunity to develop as a pastor through listening to audio. Online learning has been essential as Gabe pursued theological education while working and ministering. “God was gracious to me by ‘rewiring’ my mind from being a visual learner to being an auditory learner.” Last year, Gabe completed his Bachelors in Christian Studies with an emphasis in Biblical Studies at Grand Canyon University.

New opportunities with online theological education made it possible for Gabe to pursue his Bible degree. Gabe’s entire degree program was completed online while somehow still working, pastoring, and maintaining a healthy family life with his wife Amy and their 2-year-old daughter, Aria.

A Path to Ministry

Gabe’s path to becoming a pastor has God’s sovereign handiwork all over it. Gabe grew up in Osceola but moved away for quite a few years after school. Gabe put his faith in Christ at age 19 after attending his grandfather’s funeral in Juarez, Mexico. After trusting in Christ, he quickly became involved in ministry and missions work. Within one year, he moved down to El Paso, Texas to serve with an independent Baptist mission. He crossed the border every day to join a team doing food distribution in Juarez. They filled up a van with overstock and “ugly” food from local grocery stores and distributed the food to needy families in the area. It was during that time that Gabe felt a clear calling from the Lord. “I knew that God was calling me to be a pastor so I decided to take the next step to get my theological education.”

Several years passed, during which Gabe was deployed to Iraq with the military. After returning from Iraq, Gabe continued to pursue his theology degree and served as a deacon at his uncle’s church. “A lot of prayer went in during that time. I wanted to know what the scriptures had to say about the qualifications of a minister. I want to be a faithful servant, realizing that no one can meet the qualifications perfectly, outside of Christ.” It took several years from when Gabe received his call but, eventually, he was asked to serve as the interim pastor in Osceola.

Ordained for Ministry

Gabe was working in Nebraska which provided opportunities to visit his old hometown in Osceola and reconnect with the people at First Baptist Church. “One of the ladies from the church, Sister Debbie, kept calling me saying, ‘We still don’t have a pastor here and I think you should be our interim.’ I was still working on my degree but I discussed the possibility with the search committee and said, “If you’ll let me, I’ll apply for interim pastor.’”

After being “grilled” on his theology by the search committee, they voted in July, 2017 for Gabe to serve as the interim pastor for a period of 6 months to one year. Somewhere during that time, Gabe became the official, permanent pastor of the church.

Even though Gabe has been serving as the pastor for the last four years, because of the tentative way that his ministry at First Baptist grew, Gabe was never formally ordained. Due to little long-term pastoral leadership during the previous 15 years, the church was hesitant to commit to anything long-term, preferring to take things slowly. “Whenever I’d discuss plans that were more than 6 months or a year out, I would often hear the reply, ‘Yeah, if you’re still around.’ Though I was eager to move forward, I wanted to wait for when the Lord would put it on their hearts.”

A Vision for Discipleship

“My vision for First Baptist is that our ministry would be truly discipleship-oriented. We have been focusing on growing theologically so that we can become a discipleship center,” said Pastor Gabe. Rather than developing a collection of life-stage programs, over the last few years, Pastor Gabe and his leadership team have been developing a disciple process To WIN people to Jesus Christ, TRAIN believers to become disciples, and SEND disciples out to impact the world. Fortunately, First Baptist is not alone in their emphasis on developing a discipleship process. “I’ve found it remarkable that so many pastors are getting a discipleship-centric vision for their churches like we are. It’s exciting and encouraging.”