The transition to bivocational ministry

Last night I was privileged to meet with a church and pastor who are transitioning to bivocational ministry. To my knowledge, this church has always been served by a fully-funded pastor so this is a major transition for them. The pastor is agreeable to the change, and, I believe, has already found other employment. I was asked to come in and discuss what the transition will look like and what problems to avoid. I was very impressed with the questions people asked and the desire of the church to be fair to the pastor and his family.

One of the things I explained to them is that bivocational ministry was the norm for most Baptist and Methodist churches until the 1950s. As people moved west their pastors were typically store keepers, teachers, farmers and others who were not usually trained in theology or ministry but who had a heart for ministry and felt a calling to serve their community. In the 1950s denominations began to move towards a more professional ministry, and churches began to seek a fully-funded, seminary educated pastor to serve their churches.

For the past several years we have seen this shift back to a renewed interest in finding bivocational ministers. There are several reasons for this. There are fewer fully-funded pastors available who are willing to serve in traditional churches. Many churches have shrunk in size since Covid. More and more people find the church irrelevant to their lives and simply no longer attend. A growing number of people claim to be spiritual but are not interested in Christianity. The list goes on, but the bottom line is that many churches are seeing fewer people which also translates into reduced financial support, and this often drives the move towards bivocational ministers.

I explained to this church that the transition will not be an easy one as some people will continue to have expectations of the pastor that he or she can no longer meet with a second job. The pastor relations committee will have to have his back when these complaints arise. There will need to be many conversations with the congregation about what his new responsibilities will look like, and lay leaders will need to fill the gap in the things he can no longer do. This can be a time of growth for this congregation, or any who makes this transition, but only if everyone steps up and uses their gifts to serve the congregation and the community.

Everyone present understood there will be growing pains during this change. It appears there is good trust between the pastor and congregation which will help, but all the planning in the world won't eliminate every problem. There will be times when it's necessary to renegotiate the expectations for both the church and the pastor, but I believe this church has the maturity to do that well. I pray this will be a successful transition.