Transitioning to bivocational ministry

For the past 2-3 years our judicatory has seen a number of churches that need to move from having a fully-funded pastor to a bivocational pastor.  This usually occurs when the church is looking for a new pastor, but on rare occasions the church and current pastor has agreed for the pastor to find outside employment to supplement his or her income.  This is usually a difficult transition for these churches.  It raises questions of self-esteem for the church and causes them to wonder what has happened to them over the years to make this transition necessary.  Today, I am meeting with the leaders of such a church.  Their pastor will retire in a few weeks, and some initial conversations I've had with some of the leaders tell me this church will probably be looking for a bivocational minister.  I am meeting with all the board to see if everyone is in agreement with this change and what they believe will be the congregation's reaction to becoming bivocational.

There are several problems that occur when this transition needs to happen.  One is what I mentioned earlier: the church feels that it has failed in some way.  In most cases, the church has steadily lost members at the same time that the financial needs of their pastors and families have grown.  Health insurance cost is a big factor.  This decline in the number of church members usually happened over a long period of time, and while people realized their numbers were shrinking they didn't realize what a problem it was until they found they could no longer afford a fully-funded pastor.  Here is where the self-esteem problems come in.  Many in the congregation wonder what is wrong with them that people are no longer attracted to their church.

A second problem is that we have no good system for helping churches make this transition.  Our denomination has a placement system designed to assist churches find candidates for their pastorate, but it really doesn't work well for bivocational churches.  It is probably even less effective for churches transitioning from being fully-funded to bivocational.  One of my goals this year is to try to develop a system that will be more effective.

The third problem is that we do not have enough persons who feel called to bivocational ministry.  For a fully-funded church we can do a nation-wide search, but bivocational ministers usually come from the community where the church is located.  Few people feel led to move across the country and find a new job to pastor a church that pays $200 a week.  The ones who do are usually church planters, not bivocational pastors.  We simply must help identify persons God has called to this ministry, encourage them to accept that call, and provide them with training that will allow them to be effective.

The upside is that every church in my area that has made this transition has benefitted from it.  We're only talking about 2-3 churches so far, but they are actually enjoying healthy ministries and tell me this was a good move for them.  Right now I have two churches that will probably be making this transition in 2011, and I pray that it they experience good results as well.