Bivocational ministry and education

When my first book was published a critic claimed that I, and the book, was anti-education.  Obviously, that was written by someone who doesn't know me or my story.  He based that comment on a section in the book that said that smaller churches are often much less interested in whether or not their pastor has a degree as they are in whether or not he or she can do the job.  I continue to believe that, and I've seen it played out in many churches.  Something else I believe is that the traditional ministerial education, a bachelor's degree followed by an MDiv, is not always the best route to take for someone who is going to serve a church.  At one time that was the primary degree offered by many seminaries, but there are other options available today that might be better for some people.

For those who do not know my story I will give you a brief history.  I began my pastoral ministry as the bivocational pastor of a small, rural church in southern Indiana.  I had no pastoral experience and no education beyond high school.  After several months I realized there was a lot about ministry I did not know so I began a search for a suitable place where I could get some education.  I found a two-year Bible school about one hour south of my home that seemed like it would meet my needs.  The problem was the I worked one hour north of my home.  Another problem was that the school only offered classes during the mornings, and I worked day shift.  I decided to transfer to third shift and enroll in school.  I would drive one hour north, work all night, and then drive two hours south to take classes.  I could only take about three classes a semester so it took me four years to complete that program, but I learned so much that I decided to begin my studies for a bachelor's degree.

I was able to transfer some of my credits to a university also located one hour south of my home so I began the process all over.  It took me seven years to earn my bachelor's degree, but I learned so much that benefited me and my ministry.  I completed that program in 1995 and stopped further studies until around 2002 when I decided to enroll in seminary.  By this time I had left pastoral ministry and was serving as a regional minister for our denomination.  The MDiv didn't appeal to me so I enrolled in a Master of Arts in Religion with an emphasis in Leadership.  Most of the classes I took through distance learning.  On my way home from graduating with that degree I felt the Lord encouraging me to enroll in the DMin program at that seminary, and in 2010 at the age of 62 I earned that degree.

The reason I share this is two-fold.  One, some who reads this blog may be struggling with a desire to further their education and believe it can't be done.  It can be done.  I did it while married with two children, working a full-time job, and serving in ministry.  You can do it!  I'm not saying it's easy, but you can do it.  I know that every class I took improved my ministry, even some of the college required classes that had nothing to do with ministry.  Can you serve a church without a formal education?  Yes, but I also believe you will enjoy a more productive ministry with an education.  You may not go as far as I did, but any education you complete will help you enjoy greater success.

The second reason I wanted to share my story is because many people think education is not affordable for them.  There is no question that education is expensive, but when you do it like I did most people can cash-flow it with little difficulty.  If money is tight you can always set out a semester and build up your reserves.  With so many schools offering distance learning options the expense is much less as well.  One often overlooked way of paying for school is through your employer.  My employer would pay the tuition for any course that had the potential of benefiting the company.  The company paid my tuition for nearly every course I took in college greatly limiting my costs.  Here is another advantage bivocational ministers can sometimes have over their fully-funded peers.  Not many churches will do this, but most large companies have some sort of program available to help fund their employees education.

A study I did in 2004 found a wide variety of educational levels among bivocational ministers.  Like me, many had no education beyond high school while a few had PhDs.  Most fell somewhere in between.  I'm not saying you need to go to school.  What I am trying to say in this post is that if you have felt led to do so you can do it.  Don't allow your doubts to prevent you from investing in yourself and your ministry.