Over time, this perception of bivocational ministry being second-class has resulted in a negative social stigma being attached to the concept of bivocational ministry. Some bivocational pastors may not even want to think of themselves as bivocational because of the perceived stigma attached to the term. I have heard many pastors declare that they are not bivocational, they just work a second job. They deny the reality of what they are because somewhere along the way someone told them that being bivocational was something less than being fully-funded. I want to challenge that notion and proclaim to everyone that being bivocational is not a bad thing.
People will occasionally refer to bivocational pastors as part-time pastors. This is a misnomer because all pastors are on call twenty-four hours a day. Therefore, there are no actual part-time pastors. What we really have in bivocational ministry are full-time pastors who are only being partially compensated for their work and therefore have to seek additional employment in order to support their families. Do not insult a bivocational pastor by referring to him as part-time. He deserves more respect than that from the people he serves and from his fully-funded peers.
Being bivocational is not something to be looked down on. The Apostle Paul was bivocational. Down through the centuries there have always been bivocational ministers. Sometimes the percentage of bivocational pastors has been higher, and sometimes lower. This has resulted in many waves of bivocational ministry ebbing and flowing as the situation dictated. The wave of bivocationalism that is currently sweeping North America is a combination of a weak economy, a lack of commitment to stewardship within the church, and a new understanding of the importance of bivocational ministry. Bivocationalism is here to stay, so let's stop thinking poorly about it and start rethinking how we can use it to grow the church of Jesus Christ.
This is an excerpt from the book Developing Leadership Teams in the Bivocational Church. I wrote
I did not realize people had these attitudes. Thank you for writing this. The pastors who have second jobs deserve our respect and prayers.
ReplyDeleteBetty,
DeleteYou would be surprised how some people treat pastors who are not fully-funded. It is especially bad for pastors who do not have a formal theological education. Keep praying for such pastors.
Good article and true!
ReplyDeleteSomething that perpetuates this is the idea among churches that bivocational experience is less experience than fully funded experience.
ReplyDeleteA good word that needs to be said again & again! . . . Great job Terry . . .
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words Mike.
DeleteThis is the very subject that I'll be passing along the testimony of a "homegrown bivocational"(his own self-description) in my February "Back at the Barn" article for directors of missions, assonciational missionaries, and church planter catalysts for the SBC Bivocational/Smaller Church Leadership Network. You can see it at www.bivosmallchurch.net . Thank you, Terry, for your continued advocacy for us smaller-church guys!
ReplyDeleteKenny,
DeleteGlad you will be able to use this to encourage men in your area. Blessings!
If you want to really be looked down on, try being a bi-vocational intentional interim pastor, or as a good friend once put it "part-time interrupting pastor". During my 4-year stay as interim at one church, I was not allowed to vote for my church in associational meetings. This, of course, was not true of the "permanent" pastors who spent a year or two at other churches in the association before moving "up and out".
ReplyDeleteWhile my peers may have lacked tact at times, the members of the churches I served always showed their appreciation. That is the only thing short of "Well done" before the Bema Seat that matters.