Questions from yesterday's blog

There were some good questions raised after yesterday's blog appeared about my meeting with a church to help them transition from having a fully-funded pastor to a bivocational one. Let me try to respond to a couple of those questions.

One person asked if a current fully-funded pastor can remain as pastor if the church does transition to having a bivocational pastor. This is the plan of the church I met with Monday evening. Much of this depends on the pastor and the congregation. In some ways, this pastor will have an advantage as he has been at the church for some time and has developed a lot of trust with the congregation. If the church called a new pastor, it would take some time for this trust to develop. I have found that trust is a key element in a church that is required to make anything change possible. This pastor is willing to go bivocational, and I believe has already found another job. From his comments he also seems aware of some of the challenges he will face. I am hopeful that it works out well for him, his family and the church.

There are other times when such a transition will require calling a new person. I have met with fully-funded pastors who resented being asked by the church if they would consider going bivocational. Such people will not transition into that role well. Some felt bivocational ministry was beneath them. Others believed they did not go through seminary to become a part-time pastor (their words). With such negative attitudes, it's unlikely that they will transition into a bivocational role. In such cases, it's probably best if they move on and the church seek a bivocational minister to lead them.

A second question asked was about some of the hardest changes the church should expect. Two immediately come to mind. One is that the church may feel like they have failed and develop a poor self-image of themselves. Many smaller churches, especially those that were once larger ones, can develop serious self-esteem issues. They may feel God has abandoned them, wonder what they have done wrong, begin to blame pastors or others for the decline and struggle to see anything in their future. It's important that pastors of smaller churches address self-esteem issues with their congregations and help them get some wins under their best so they can begin to feel better about themselves.

A second challenge will be managing the expectations of the congregation. There will be some in the congregation who will still expect the same level of ministry from the pastor as he or she provided when they were fully-funded. That's why I emphasized to the church I met with that they would have to communicate over and over again to the congregation what the church now expected from their bivocational pastor and to protect him if persons began to demand more. As I told them, my experience has been that if those expectations are not controlled that the transition to bivocational ministry failed in every situation in which it was tried.