Dave Funk on Growing Up as a Pastor’s Kid, Prioritizing Church Health, and His Experience in the Lead Pastor Fellowship
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In this conversation, Jordan sits down with Dave Funk, lead pastor of Abbotsford Pentecostal Assembly and a peer facilitator in The Pastorate's Lead Pastor Fellowship. Dave and Jordan connect about both being pastors’ kids who went on to pastor under their fathers. Dave opens up about what it has been like raising his own three teenagers in the front row of church, while reflecting on his own upbringing in the church.
From there, Dave traces his journey into pastoral ministry, including growing up assuming pastoring was "his dad's thing," a season of surrender to God’s call on his life, five years serving as his father’s assistant pastor, and then the decision to leave and pastor elsewhere rather than to succeed his dad. He and his wife, Rebecca, discerned that call together, first at Bethel Church in Penticton, a declining, aging congregation they helped bring back to life, and later in Abbotsford, where he arrived in the middle of COVID to a church recovering from a difficult leadership transition.
In the back half of the conversation, Dave discusses his leadership philosophy, that compounding health in the life of the church has the power to build a consistent and healthy congregation over time. He reflects on his experience in The Pastorate's Lead Pastor Fellowship, first as a participant, now as a peer facilitator for its second intake.
Jordan and Dave discuss:
What it's like to raise pastor's kids in the front row, and the pressure Dave tries not to pass on to his own three teenagers,
Growing up under his dad's leadership without ever sensing a gap between who his dad was on Sunday and who he was at home,
Serving five years as his dad's assistant pastor, and the bullets his dad took for him that he didn't learn about until years later,
Why he chose to leave rather than succeed his dad,
Walking into a declining, aging church in Penticton and, later, a church in Abbotsford recovering from a difficult transition,
and his return to The Pastorate's Lead Pastor Fellowship as a peer facilitator for its second cohort.
Dave Funk
Dave Funk is the lead pastor of Abbotsford Pentecostal Assembly in Abbotsford, BC, where he is passionate about leading a healthy, vibrant church community. Dave has been married to his wife Rebecca for 17 years and is the father of three. Outside of pastoring, he enjoys fitness, coaching volleyball, and spending time outdoors with his family. He values working closely with his team and believes the local church is healthiest when leaders serve with humility, consistency, and joy. Dave was a participant in the inaugural cohort of The Pastorate's Lead Pastor Fellowship and now serves as a peer facilitator for its second cohort.
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