Bi-Vocational Pastor? A Follow-Up Post

There has been a good response to my post on being a bi-vocational pastor.  I wanted to write a follow-up post to make a clarification, highlight a comment, answer one question, and link to a different take on the matter.

First, a clarification. I want to make it clear that I don't advocate for bi-vocational ministry mainly for the sake of extra income.  Many pastors might need extra income but I would hope that their congregation would seek to meet a majority of their needs if not all of them.  For me, working 15 hours a week at a retail job doesn't exactly bring home the big bacon.  All three of the pastors at The Vine worked very hard in fund-raising and that covers almost all of our needs for the time being.

I believe that many more pastors should be bi-vocational simply because leaders need to be leading on mission.  If we are not doing evangelism I can guarantee that our people won't either.  Having a 10-20 hour per week part-time job structures a context for evangelism into the life of the pastor and this will model a seriousness about the mission that will be infectious for his people.  Why not seek to make this a priority?  Could this not be a great way to inspire your people towards greater passion for evangelism?


Here was a good comment from Mark.  He writes:

I am not bi-vocational but my wife and I have spent 30 years making room in our lives for people outside the church and outside of the faith. It worked great when the kids were at home, but now we have had to find a new tactic, and that has been through her finding a part-time job nearby, in a context where relationships happen. It has been 7 years since we took this new course, but God is opening doors now and in new ways after 7 years. I would say pastors need to find a way to put themselves into significant long term relationships with people outside of Christ. It has been nothing but a fruitful endeavor for us. It certainly keeps my preaching from being prejudicial and stereotyping of unbelieving people, and has stirred my heart to prayer for conversions.

A question from Ethan:

I would love for you to share more thoughts on this subject.  What I would love to hear from you is how you balance your time between family, pastoral work, and your super cool job at the Apple Store. I imagine it is difficult to manage your time and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for asking Ethan!  Here would be some thoughts:

1.  We don't watch TV.  We ditched the TV a few months ago and have a computer so that we can watch movies from time to time, use Netflix, and try to stream sports when we can find it.  I don't miss TV at all.  Not having a gravitational pull towards the TV when I need to detach the brain for a few minutes has helped keep priorities where they should be.  Things like time with the family, reading, music practicing, exercise, etc.  

2.  My wife's main role is in the home and she does an amazing job leading our kids when I am at work.  She loves to serve our kids in hundreds of different ways.  I could never do what I am doing without her and all the gifts and abilities she brings to the table.

3.  Our church has a simple model.  We don't have a ton of programs (Sunday morning, small groups, and evangelism, that's about it) and we seek to be simple for the sake of reduplication and space in our lives for what we call, "missional margin".  In the past when I worked at bigger churches it would be easy for me to be at church three/four nights a week doing many different things that the church had to offer or I had to lead.  We want to have a much more simple model so that we have space for evangelistic priorities and as we plant churches we can be much more easily reproducible.

4.  I have an office at home so I am present in the home much more than I used to be in the past.  I can stick my head out of the office and deal with a parenting matter or simply wrestle with the kids for five minutes when I need a break.  I think this has made my wife and kids feel a bit better about the three jobs I juggle (church, retail, and blog).

5.  I don't preach every week.  We have three pastors and right now we spread the preaching out in thirds.  This might not always be the picture in the future but for now it works quite well.  There is no way I could be bi-vocational like I am now if I was leading this church by myself.  That would be insane.  But since we have a team model it really has worked great.  Whatever the model of church government, bi-vocational pastors will need to have strong people around them to help them lead the church so that they can have more space to model the mission.


Finally, Paul Shirley has written a post in response to my post that brings a different perspective.  I think we might be talking past each other a bit but it certainly is worth your consideration as well.