SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Pastor Joedy Zapara leads Natomas Vineyard Church, a small congregation in northern Sacramento with his wife Kendra. The two have been married nearly 30 years and have three adult children. He is also an official overseer for the Vineyard USA denomination, a ‘pastor of pastors’ in Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area. As a bi-vocational pastor, he also owns and operates a successful home remodeling business.
How do you define the role of a pastor?
In addition to his pledge to be available in times of crisis, Joedy sees himself as a devoted cheerleader for spiritual growth.
“I would say a pastor is someone who chooses to pay attention to other people, chooses to ask questions and be interested in the health and well-being of someone else -- as followers of Jesus we are asking people about their walk with Christ. ‘What is it looking like today? How is it changed? Are there areas that you need support in and encouragement in to continue to grow as a person of faith?’”
What surprised you about the job?
Pastor Joedy has been in church leadership for 25 years.
“One thing that has become clear to me over the years is that the Church is just made up of people; at times easy to be with it's fun, we do things and accomplish things that are fulfilling and I like that part of pastoring -- and then people are messy and people are broken… just being able to hold that tension has been something I've had to grow into.”
What is your favorite part of what you do?
Spiritual transformation and healing keep him engaged in the rigors of ministry.
“Seeing people break out of their shell into something new -- it's one of my joys of pastoring. It’s one of the things I love seeing happen… you'll just walk with somebody for a season and they just seem to kind of be a one version of themselves, and then Jesus will do some healing or some thing in their life and they just blossom into something else. I love seeing that happen. It’s one of the reasons why I still pastor after all these years.”
Challenges to his work include vigorous daily discernment of what God wants to do here and now.
“It's a work of discipleship and patience, and I see us today looking for what the Holy Spirit's highlighting and going after that.”
What’s the best way for church members to show appreciation for your work?
Pastor Joedy loves to hear verbal thankyous from his congregation, but there is something he values much more:
“I think one of (a pastor’s) unspoken desires is just to see people get involved -- that could be defined a hundred ways -- so I’m always asking people to get involved. One of my requests to them is ‘where can you connect your faith with action?’ Whenever that does happen it's encouraging to me… I'm constantly kind of pulling on people's strings and just inviting them -- not to build the ‘kingdom of Me’ -- but just something that will allow them to experience the Lord working through their life in a way that maybe they hadn't before.”
Pastoral impact can be measured in many ways he admits, including tithing levels or weekly attendance; but for him, regular testimonials of faith-in-action encourage him most of all.
“I love to see people following Jesus in ways that produce stories. If I can just see that from time to time, and more often the better, then the other parts of ministry -- the other parts of pastoring that are hard -- I have more patience for those. I have more grace for the hard times.”
“It's a good measure for me when I see people telling stories of the way that the Lord used them in other people's lives.”
Click our conversation below to hear how Pastor Joedy answered: “Have you ever thought about quitting?”
