The Time Has Come For Bi-vocational Ministers and Staff
I have served in many churches over the last twenty-five years in a bi-vocational capacity. Only at the time I had not heard the terminology nor realized that it was what was needed in the churches. I had been saved and mentored under the ministry of full time or vocational pastors. Consequently, when I received my call to ministry, I naturally assumed that a pastorate meant a full time career. After all, did not God set up a full-time priesthood in the Old Testament? Did this not seem to be confirmed in the New Testament? Did it not seem to be the accepted practice throughout the history of the Church? With all those things being answered in the affirmative, I spent many years seeking a full time vocational ministry.
In those years, I have run across many things that tend to create more John Marks than create Pauls or Peters. I have had many questions and did not realize that I was creating a small database that would suddenly click when I ran into some folks who spoke of "key" churches and bi-vocational or part-time ministries. I am about to create some furor as I share some of my experiences and why I believe that the time of bi-vocational ministers and ministries has come.
Actually, bi-vocational ministries have always been around. Prophets often came and went only showing up when the God needed to straighten out priests and kings. They came in, did their job and we are not always told what they did after that. We know that Amos was a shepherd and a picker of sycamore fruit until God called him in for a specific mission. (Amos 7:14) We are not told that the king or the priests killed him though I am sure that crossed their minds. We can reasonably assume that he went back to his flocks and trees. Lord knows we could use a few good part-time prophets today!
The apostle Paul worked to provide a living for himself and others while he ministered when his support levels were low or to accept support from others when the situation seemed best to not accept support from whom he was ministering to. (Acts 20:33,34; 2 Cor 11:7-9) Did he quit preaching during those times? Hardly! He became a bi-vocational missionary/evangelist. There are currently many countries where no vocational missionary can enter with missionary on his passport. There are organizations that assist people in obtaining secular jobs in those countries. They are then trained to evangelize and start churches, disciple and train national pastors. The day may come soon when that will be the only way to answer the call to the mission field.
You can also find throughout history many preachers that were part-time. In fact, many of the full time ones tried to have these preachers part from time completely since they were not fond of the part-time preacher’s sermons. Some of the Anabaptist groups still exist. Many, if not all, of the Amish and Mennonite pastors are full time farmers and pastors part-time.
Among the Black and Hispanic groups that I have had the pleasure of ministering to and being ministered to by them many have bi-vocational pastors. One Black pastor that I know is not only a supervisor for a Government agency, but has a funeral parlor. I asked him how he manages that and he told me that he had good elders and deacons. In other words, he had a good part-time staff.
Some white churches have part-time pastors. Many others have part-time pastors, but do not know it because they call them interim pastors. Now, if the interim is retired he may seem more like a full time pastor, but depending on health and other variables, he may only be functioning as a part-time pastor. One area church has an interim pastor that retired from a church after forty years of service. He told them that he did not want a permanent position. He has been there two and a half years. That his more permanent than many full time pastors. The average stay of a vocational pastor is three years and a youth pastor a year and a half. Of course, since the average member is only staying two years in any church those tours of duty for the ministers seem long in comparison.
Most churches that I have ministered in have never used the interim pastor approach. They did call in some supply preachers during the search, but the Deacons/part-time staff maintained the fort until they called a pastor. An interim pastor can be a good thing. I have taken some training myself to be an interim. The problem arises when an interim stays too long. Of the pastorless churches, that I have visited the average length of stay for an interim is eighteen months. That is at least a year too long and some have had an interim for far longer. One church has been using an interim/supply pastor for over three and half years.
Any wagers on how well these churches are doing in growth? Save your money. They are not growing. I was at a business meeting where they were hoping to refinance their mortgage in order to have funds to support a pastor. They also extended the contract of the interim and will have to refinance again if there are not enough people left to even pay that lower bill. They would do better with a bi-vocational pastor.
Few people join a church with an interim pastor. Interim equates to temporary to most people. Although temporary can be years as I have explained. Some may join to have a voice in who is called as pastor. If the process is delayed, they will lose interest or hope and move on. If a visiting couple hears that there has been an interim for an extended period they are going to wonder what is wrong with that body and move on. Better a bi-vocational pastor that is committed and permanent than a part-time temporary pastor that does not stay temporarily.
Some will say that it is difficult to find a good pastor. In some respect that is a true statement, however, there is certainly no end to the supply of men available. We crank out thousands every year from the many Bible Colleges and Seminaries across the land. I once sent a resume to a church in Minooka, Illinois. I guarantee that few folks have heard of Minooka. They received one hundred and twenty-one resumes. I sent resumes to a church in Arizona and one in Denver and they both received over four hundred. I know for sure that there is not a shortage of men. We have two nationally known seminaries in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex as well as many smaller bible colleges and seminaries. Yet, there are thirty-eight pastorless churches in Dallas and approximately twenty-five in the Fort Worth area within the SBC. I do not know how many in the other Baptist groups or even other denominations are pastorless.
Contrary to the view of some, many of these churches need to merge with some others in the area. I once spoke at a Baptist church that was only a mile from another one of like faith. All of the members drove in from other areas. When I asked why they did not merge with the church down the road or join churches in the area where they lived all I received was silence. They did not have a good reason other than some had attended that church since they were children.
It would have been better for the kingdom had they turned the church over to a Black or Hispanic congregation since that was the makeup of the neighborhood and used their experience and talent to help that group or add it to another congregation elsewhere. God is very logical, but sadly His people are not. The building could have also been used as an educational center or a homeless shelter or soup kitchen or any number of possibilities rather than being used for a few hours a week by twelve to twenty people.
Yes, I know tradition is strong and Grandma is buried in the back. Well, if is tradition is truth, treasure it, but if tradition is just tradition, then trash it. If Grandma being buried in the back is holding you back from logical and fruitful service then dig her up and move on! It is time for the Army of God to make better use of its manpower and resources than to maintain museums/mausoleums and cater to the egos of a few individuals.
Sadly, many of these churches were formed by splits or built when twenty to thirty miles was a long way to go. Well, most people drive further than that to work on a daily basis, so thirty miles is not a big thing. I have been a member of a couple of churches where we had folks that drove an hour to worship with us. Some spent the day in the area and others made two trips on Sunday as well as the Wednesday night trip. Hmm, some folks won’t even go ten minutes, so I suppose distance is really a non-issue.
As to the splits, many folks probably do not even know why the church split unless it happened very recently. We are called to heal wounds, not cause or preserve them. It is time that some leaders vocational or bi-vocational start healing those wounds. I can look at many of the doctrinal statements of those churches and find them to be word for word of all the other churches. Therefore, they either do not believe what they have on paper or the need for the separate congregations is past. If they were founded on anything other than doctrinal differences they were most likely built on sand and it is amazing that they are still standing at all. It is time to get spiritual or shut the doors. Lost people laugh and the Spirit weeps at such nonsense.
Many love to count the number of “churches” in their particular fellowship. Three thousand churches with twenty people may sound impressive on stat sheets, but in reality it is a terrible waste of manpower and money since most of the money goes to maintenance and administrative costs instead of outreach and ministry. Often these churches become the extended classrooms of the seminary. A lad shows up to get a year or two of experience under his belt before he can move on to a bigger church and more stature among his colleagues.
They do not come to stay and the neighborhood and the congregation feel their temporary or short-term commitment. Personally, mentoring by a pastor and an assistant/associate pastorate of a larger church might be better resume material than pastoring a church of fifty that went down to twenty under your inexperienced leadership. Besides, I am not sure that God calls men to bouncing ball or ladder climbing ministry. That sound like more of a man thing to me.
It would be better for the minister’s welfare to be bi-vocational because most small companies have better health care and life insurance benefits than even some big churches. Retirement plans are better. I read of an evangelist that was speaking to the janitor of a fairly large church who at one time had been the pastor. The church did not provide a very good retirement plan and now this pastor subsisted on his job as janitor and a very small Social Security check. The worst thing is that he was probably better off than some other men were.
Think of what could be done with the money spent on salaries and benefits for all the full time staff. Yes, if you have a school, you need full time teachers. If you have a very large church, you need at least a full time pastor, but many churches do not need a full time pastor. If the saints were doing their job instead of passing the load to the full time priesthood, the pastor would be studying and preaching and would not need forty hours to that. Instead, what happens is that everyone throws their duties on one vocational pastor and there are not enough hours in a week to accomplish all that needs to be done. Therefore, you have one burnt out pastor and many missions unaccomplished.
Imagine if even a church of twenty people tithed their time, talent and treasure. They would be serving and learning a minimum of 16.8 hours a week. They would become bi-vocational ministers and with a bi-vocational pastor they could accomplish a great deal more than they are now doing by giving a tithe and say four hours a week in service and learning. Too many members give their 16.8 hours a week to their television and Internet account. They will say that they are spending time with their families, but they are not. They could turn their tithe time into family service time and see their family grow spiritually. We could have a new saying, “The family that serves together, stays together.” Let’s do the math. Allowing for travel time, 48 hours a week for work, 56 for sleep, 17 for service still leaves you 119 hours a week for yourself. And we say we never have time for ourselves. Go figure. Looks like we just need to manage it better.
Is the way you are currently spending your time benefiting your soul and family? Maybe you need to work less and serve more if the above numbers do not match your calculations. The trinkets you want now won’t mean anything in Glory and you may even get to Glory sooner struggling to get them. Maybe you need to get your children serving with you and teaching them to earn a good name rather that make sure that they are wearing the right name on their clothing. If you are addicted to the TV or PC, throw them out and get addicted to ministry. By the way, that is your calling, if you check out Ephesians 4:12.
I was recently reading a book about the house church movement. The lad was absolutely sure that house churches would solve all our problems within Christianity. I have no problem with house churches I just do not see them as the “silver bullet” that will slay all the dragons. Neither do I propose that switching to bi-vocational ministers as the only solution to all our problems. I just see that it will solve some. In fact, the author of that book is in reality supporting the bi-vocational concept since a house church of twenty or thirty would be as hard pressed to support a full time Pastor, as any traditional church would be. The only difference is that the house church would realize it and be fine with it. The traditional churches cannot seem to grasp the concept.
One church that I visited on a Wednesday night had two couples that were in their seventies, the part-time interim pastor and myself in attendance. When I presented my resume and stated my purpose the man I presumed to be the head deacon informed me that in no way were they interested in calling a part-time pastor. Now, the interim had been there for awhile and he was a full time peace officer. My guess is that he is still there as interim because they could not find a full time pastor willing to take the church. They will accept a part-time interim, but not a part-time pastor as their congregation dwindles. Hardly logical and surely not a decision made by the Spirit’s leading. They had a nice building in the middle of a residential neighborhood, but they will die because of their position. They could call a bi-vocational pastor and youth pastor and grow or die waiting for a full time pastor. What would your church choose?
I challenge you to look at your church. Do you need to merge with another church? Do you need to consider bi-vocational ministers? Do you need to serve more as the bi-vocational minister that God called you to become? Do you tithe your time and talents or just your money? Do you even tithe? The time has long since past that we should be children playing with the childish things of this passing world. It is time to grow up, accept our responsibility and serve the Lord! Our full time job should just pay the bills while we fulfill our calling. What will you do?
