Me 0:09

Hello. Hi, is this pastor Jamie?

Jamie Bates 0:12

Yes Hi Reagyn. How are you?

Me 0:14
Hi. I'm good. How are you?

Jamie Bates 0:16

So good I’m excited to talk to you.

Me 0:22
Me too.

Jamie Bates 0:24

So are you in school right now?

Me 0:25
Yes, I am.

Jamie Bates 0:28

Oh how fun. So what is this project you're doing?

Me 0:30
So I am in a class called Prosper Career Independent Study. And basically I get to study the
career that I want to go into. And I get to find a mentor, and shadow them on some of their work
days and kind of have conversations with them. And I knew that you did missionary work in the
past, and that's what I want to go into. So

Jamie Bates 0:53

That's amazing Oh, my goodness, that's so cool.

Me 0:57
Yes, so I have a few questions. If you're able to answer them.

Jamie Bates 1:03

You got it. I'll try my best.

Me 1:05
So what is your official job title? I know this but for the interview I need it

Jamie Bates 1:12

The one not when I was a missionary, right, like my current one.
Me 1:14
Yes. Your current one

Jamie Bates 1:15

Lead Pastor.

Me 1:17
Okay. What would you say your daily job duties are?

Jamie Bates 1:22

Oh, good question. Okay. My daily job duties would be a lot of meetings. And a lot of study, like
so I study like what I'm going to teach on. So I do a lot of like, prayer, Bible study. And then like
writing, like my messages or like teaching, like doing my curriculum is not the right word. But
like, does that make sense?

Me 1:22
Yeah, yes.

Jamie Bates 1:22

Like doing like study to in order for events and then other than like, and then a lot of the times I'll
teach, so sometimes I'll teach like two hours. Some weeks, like in two weeks, I'm teaching 16
hours in one week.

Me 1:22
Oh, wow.

Jamie Bates 1:22

In Montana, but this week, I'm not teaching at all, so it kind of like fluctuates, you know? But
yeah, so sometimes it's like heavy teaching and then other weeks it's like heavy reading so but
yeah, mostly Teaching study and prayer

Me 2:26
Okay, um, so that kind of answered my other question, but would you say your workdays are
similar or diverse? Would you say that they're more similar? Are they more diverse?

Jamie Bates 2:38

They're very diverse. Okay, okay. Yeah, very diverse. It's kind of like, whatever is on I wake up
every day and I look at my calendar and it could be anything from like, Oh, I get it. I get to talk to
Reagyn or I'm going to funeral like you justI never know.

Me 2:54
Right, right. Um, what would you say the most rewarding part of your job is?
Jamie Bates 3:02
I think seeing people grow and seeing people fall in love with God and get healing and peace. I
think just like people is definitely the most rewarding part for sure. Okay. What would you say to
people and seeing people grow?

Me 3:25
Okay, awesome. Um, what would you say the most challenging part of your job is?

Jamie Bates 3:32

I don't know. It's challenging part is that people can have a lot of pain. And it's hard for them
because being a pastor is, you know, like being a part of people's lives, like kind of like
sometimes the parts of their lives that not everybody gets to see. Sometimes I can get a little
sad for people. Yeah. If that makes sense. Like, I'm an empath, an empath and so I kind of take
on people's like sadness. But I think the most challenging part is just like still going home and
being like a happy mom and I had to like go and be at a funeral and cry, you know, an hour
earlier. So I think that's probably the hardest part.

Me 4:19
Okay. Um, which skills do you feel are particularly more important to your job or like something
that was like necessary to your job before starting in?

Jamie Bates 4:30

I think emotional intelligence is a really big one. You've got to know how like, how to make
people feel comfortable. And you got to know like, if somebody isn't comfortable, how to help
them like feel safe. Yeah, so I think emotional intelligence and I think empathy so that you're not
like judging everybody that you talk to, you know, because everybodyhas a variety of problems
as do I. So I think just like having empathy and not being like judgmental, and then you got to be
able to read like reading kind of like study and be able to be able to like spend time like learning
yourself. Right, like continuing education. I guess.

Me 5:23
So what coursework or preparation do you think was most helpful for preparing for your job? So
this can be from like a college class that you took or just like, if it was like a Bible study that you
did that just really helped you or like anything in ELC just like anything basically.

Jamie Bates 5:40

I think the courses that help prep me is it's called an Old Testament survey class, where you
learn all about the Old Testament, the Old Testament survey, and then the other one is the New
Testament survey. And then only those two things helped best prep me for like teaching. And
then personally, I think probably the best thing that taught me was like, trying to think just
learning how to I'm trying to think of like, because I go to a lot of conferences, you know, where I
like, learn. But like and if anything is something that was specifically taught me how to like talk
to people, you know, probably just like a whole lot of practice, like talking to people and you
know, making people feel comfortable but I can't think of like, one specific thing. For sure just
like a lot of experience.

Me 6:53
Yeah. Okay, so I have a few more questions. And these are specifically based on like, being a
missionary and like going to like seminary and things like that. Yeah. So would you say that you
had to continue getting any like schooling done or like like it the college that I'm looking at? They
said that there's like further certifications as you go throughout like, seminary and things like
that. So would you say that like those were difficult or was it something that like, it was
something that like wasn't nerve wracking to go into?

Jamie Bates 7:26

Um, yeah, I love to learn. So for me anytime I can take a class or do something extra I love it. I
would prefer to be like with my nose in a book than in meetings. Right? You know? Like I just
came out of like a three hour meeting at the church with like all of our staff is like I love that but
like put my nose in a book and like all get lost for hours. For me, I've never minded that. But I
never actually went to seminary I went to college for like something completely different. So all
of my Bible training has been like other things not actually like college, which is kind of cool.
Yeah. So I think I would say it was very vital for me to like, do those extra things, and it wasn't
nerve wracking at all.I am way more nervous about social things that I do, you know?

Me 8:23
Would you say it's better to work within a like missions company or to like, kind of find them on
your own and like, choose your own adventure kind of thing?

Jamie Bates 8:33

Oh, that's a really good question. Okay. I would, I would, if I was starting, I would definitely go
with a missions organization. For sure. Yeah. Because it can be so challenging like culturally,
and there's just so many unknown. I think, even if you don't stay with the mission organization,
starting with one so that you can learn everything you need to know about the culture, the
country that people how to dress, what you're going to eat, how to talk. You know, like all those
things. I think a mission organization can cut like, years of work off because they already can
prep you.

Me 9:12
Right Would you say that this was something that was kind of like new territory or was like the
Bible study things that you learned, able to kind of prepare you for going into, like speaking to
people about the gospel and things like that.

Jamie Bates 9:29

Oh, so you know what, no, no, none of the Bible study stuff helped me with missions. That's
more about that, more helping me with pastoring with missions, girl I just like didn't know what I
was doing. I literally signed up and went and learned on the way as I go right in the country I'm
learning so I was very roge in my I did not have a bunch of tricks other than like, how to present
the gospel. I learned that you know, I knew like how to put on the gospel and I learned some like
basic language, skills, and then other everything else I learned on the way.

Me 10:07
Okay, so one last question. So because this is a job that has you seen people in very like
difficult times of need, whether that be like poverty, addiction, things like that, even like not being
a missionary just being like a pastor, would you say that you've received like training on that or
is it something that's like kind of come with the job of like, how to deal with that.

Jamie Bates 10:28

It comes with a job. Okay. Yeah, I did not receive I wish I had more formal training, honestly.
Yeah, most of it is just again, kind of like a thing with missions. Like I just kind of learned as I
went

Me 10:40
Yeah. Okay, well, I don't think I have any more questions. I think thats it

Jamie Bates 10:47

That's so cool that you're doing this and you want to go into missions. Yes, I do. That is Do you
know, like an area that you like are drawn to?

Me 10:55
Not really I know that I like I don't think doing missions for like, my entire life is gonna be maybe
where I want to go but I know that I want to go into nonprofit work. At some point and hopefully
do like pregnancy resource center stuff. So a lot of like pro life advocacy and things like that. So

Jamie Bates 11:13

That is so cool. I love it. Well, you know, I did missions for maybe five or seven years before I
married Dustin. And so we still go on mission trips. I was actually just talking to boys this
morning about I want to take you to Thailand, I want to take you on a mission trip. So it can
definitely be a season of life, but you get the chance it will You will just fall in love with it. It will
be the best time of your life. And it's so amazing. That's so incredible. I'm very excited because
then you can use it to a nonprofit later, like, all together.

Me 11:44
Yeah, that's, that's what I'm most excited for is that it's not just something that like, you learn this
stuff, and then it only fits into like one field of like, a career you can like use it for like anything,
so

Jamie Bates 11:56

Oh, totally. Oh yeah. Well, I'm so excited. Thank you for asking me to talk. That's like such an
honor.
Me 12:02
Yes, of course. Thank you for doing this. Yeah.