Would I be a bivocational pastor again?

I'm now at the age where people often reflect over the decisions they made throughout their lives. One of the things I've thought about in recent days is the question of bivocational ministry. I have spent my life serving churches and our region in a bivocational capacity. I've published books on bivocational ministry and spoken to dozens of pastor groups across the US and Canada on bivocational and small church ministry. But, would I serve as a bivocational pastor again if I was starting over in ministry? The answer is yes.

Bivocational ministry is not better or worse than fully-funded ministry. It is just a different way of doing ministry that meets the needs of a specific church. Serving as a bivocational minister has allowed me to serve a church that could not afford a fully-funded minister. It allowed me access into people's lives because they saw me not only as a minister but also as a factory worker, a business owner, someone who shared similar experiences that they had. Working in the factory let me see how challenging it was to be laid off and scramble to find other employment. As a business owner I learned about the pressure to meet payroll when business was slow. I found it easier to relate to people because I had shared in their struggles at different points in my life.

The church I served had been stagnant for a long time with a series of student pastors from a nearby seminary. When I became pastor there the average pastoral tenure was 12 months. I stayed 20 years which I may not have been able to do if I was not bivocational. One of the joys of my life was seeing that church accomplish far more than many would have thought possible. Not having to seek new pastoral leadership every year freed up the people to do ministry.

There have also been a lot of personal benefits to being bivocational. I never worried too much about church politics. If the church fired me, I would go to my other job the next day, our family would still eat and have a roof over their heads. I've known too many fully-funded pastors who are fearful of church controllers and the impact upsetting one of them could have on their families. I never experienced that.

My family did not have to worry about being uprooted if I accepted another church, Because bivocational ministry tends to be fairly local, it wasn't likely that I would be moving across the country. That was especially comforting to our children when they were in school. I know at least one of them was concerned about that when he entered high school. I was able to relieve his worry by committing to him that I would not move as long as he was in high school. That might have been a dangerous promise to make if I was fully-funded.

There were many more benefits to both me and the church I served, but this is enough for this post. The answer to my question is a very emphatic yes, I would serve again as a bivocational minister if I had it all to do over again.