Developing teams in the bivocational church

Over the past few years I have officially coached several bivocational ministers and worked with dozens of others.  At some point in those coaching relationships the problem of time has always come up.  I have yet to meet a bivocational minister who doesn't struggle with finding the time to accomplish everything he or she needs to do.  I've tried to address this in several of my books, and especially in The Healthy Pastor: Easing the Pressures of Ministry.  I also talk about it in a couple of the workshops I lead for bivocational and small church ministers.  While there are several things that can be done to help ease the stress of time pressures, one of the best ways to address it is by developing teams in the church to handle some of the ministry tasks that too many of us in bivocational ministry try to do ourselves.

When I began my ministry I really believed that I had to touch everything that happened in the church.  I was young and a self-admitted workaholic so that wasn't a problem for the first few years, but it eventually caught up to me.  I was close to burning out.  I was diagnosed with clinical depression that was due in large part to pastoring a church, working a full time job in a factory, attending a Bible school, and trying to meet the needs of a wife and two children.  When I write or talk about the dangers of living an unbalanced life it comes from my own personal experience.

At an annual meeting of our region I sought out my judicatory leader and told him of my struggles.  He explained that much of my problem was that I was trying to be the church.  I was doing it all.  He went on to say that I was also depriving the congregation of the opportunity for them to be the church.  He helped me understand I was cheating them out of the privilege of doing ministry.  The next week I shared with our congregation what I was going through and my conversation with this leader.  I also announced some changes in how I would serve as their pastor.  One of my challenges at that point was that I didn't know how to do anything other than what I had been doing.  It was a learning curve for me as well as for the church.

A resource I wish I had back then is a great book written by someone who is as committed to bivocational ministry as I am.  Terry Dorsett has written a book called Developing Leadership Teams in the Bivocational Church.  Bivocational ministers do not have to do everything in the church, and we shouldn't.  Our biblical role as explained in Ephesians 4 is to equip the saints to do the work of ministry.  Terry's book is one of the best I have found to help the pastor identify and train the various teams that a particular church might need.  He provides worksheets for both the pastor and the students to use as their work on various ministry roles in the church.  Evaluation forms are also provided so it can be determined how helpful the training was in these various roles.  This is an excellent resource that should be in the library of every bivocational minister, but don't just put it on your library shelf.  This is a resource that is to be used over and over again to continuously be training people how they can use the gifts God has given them to serve both him and others around them.

John Maxwell has a saying that "Teamwork makes the dream work."  I think that's true.  Most of us went into bivocational ministry because we sensed God was calling us to do so.  We began our ministries with wonderful dreams of making a difference for God.  However, for too many of us those dreams turned into nightmares as we allowed ourselves to become over-extended.  If we want to see those original dreams accomplished we need to invest ourselves into developing and training teams in our churches that will allow us to enjoy far more ministerial success than if we try to do everything ourselves.