Bivocational ministry training

Last week I attended two events hosted by local funeral homes for the ministers in our area. One of the amazing things I noticed was that six of the ministers attending were either graduates of our region's Church Leadership Institute or were about to complete that program. The Church Leadership Institute (CLI) is a program that our region developed around 2002 to train lay leaders, but we found that several of our bivocational ministers also enrolled in the program. In fact, we added an additional year (five courses) specifically designed for persons serving in bivocational roles to the original two-year program. Today, we have a number of our churches being served by graduates of our CLI program. One of the things I am most pleased about of my time as a Resource Minister in our region was that I had the opportunity to lead the team that designed this program and served as the director of CLI until my retirement.

CLI was never designed to replace seminary training, but it does provide some of our bivocational ministers with basic ministerial training to enable them to better serve their churches. A number of lay people in our churches have also completed CLI helping them to more effectively serve their churches as well.

For many years bivocational ministers have struggled to find training opportunities designed to speak to their specific needs. That's why I began writing books that addressed those needs and began to lead workshops and seminars built around the information in those books. I was very blessed to have an Executive Minister, Larry Mason and later Soozi Ford, who allowed me to lead these events across the US and Canada for various denominational groups.

The need to train our bivocational ministers is still needed. Their numbers are growing in almost every denomination. While some have seminary training, many of them do not. They desire training, but it has to fit within their already tight schedules and it has to speak specifically to their needs.

While I was serving in my judicatory role I had to limit the seminars and workshops I could do, but now that I am retired I am free to lead more training opportunities for these bivocational leaders. There are several topics that have been well received by past groups. These would include my most requested seminar "The Healthy Small Church," "Bivocational Ministry for the 21st Century" and others. I've also developed specific topics that were requested by the host denomination to better train their small church leaders in those areas.

If you are a denominational or judicatory leader I would love to work with you to help equip your bivocational ministers and small church leaders. Just contact me and we can discuss how I might be able to do that. If you are a bivocational minister or a lay leader in your church and would be interested in having me speak in your judicatory ask your denominational leadership to contact me. I know that now is when many denominations are making plans for their 2020 annual meetings and scheduling other training events so this is the time to get me on your schedule. I would love to work with your churches and their leadership.