By Darrell Fletcher
Field Strategist, VBMB
Whenever I think about bivocational ministry, I remember a pastor friend of mine. For several years he pastored a country church along the Clinch River. At the same time, he milked cows twice a day, and did all the other chores related to operating a farm, some 30 miles from the church. Later he accepted the call to pastor a mission church and sought to continue his education as a full-time student at a Bible college 110 miles distant. He would stay on campus during the week, drive home on Friday afternoon, make visits and then do some farm chores as he still had some cattle, though not milking now.
When he graduated from Bible college, he started delivering trucks for a local manufacturing company to supplement the meager income he received from the church. I remember a story he told about picking up a hitch-hiker. As soon as the fellow got in the car, he asked what he did. My pastor friend responded with a little pride that he was the pastor of a Baptist church. The hitch-hiker responded, “Well, do you work anywhere?”
I think Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said it well when he spoke to a bivocational ministries meeting in July. He said, “This convention could have never gotten to where it is today … and has no hope of getting to where it wants to go tomorrow, for the glory of God, without bivocational pastors and ministers.”
John Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, echoes this sentiment. “Bivocational ministers stand strategically at the intersection of the church and the marketplace. Not only do they proclaim the good news of Christ from their pulpits, but by virtue of their personal experience rubbing shoulders with co-workers who are unchurched, they advance the kingdom of Christ by keeping the church relevant to the hurts and needs of the world.”
In several of the associations across Virginia, as many as 90 percent of the churches are pastored by bivocational ministers. Across the SBC, the numbers are somewhere in the 40 percent range, yet even that number would be much higher if we used the right method of counting these valiant soldiers of the cross.
We all agree that the “preacher” who works downtown during the week, at a “regular job” qualifies as bivocational. But what about the student pastor and the retired pastor who lead churches unable to pay a full-time salary? These are not usually counted as bivocational. Or consider the church whose pastor’s family depends on “Mom working outside the home” to help meet the family’s financial needs. This, too, should be considered bivocational ministry. Many in those three categories never consider that they, too, qualify as being bivocational.
Dale Holloway, who served for a time as the national consultant for bivocational ministers with the SBC’s North American Mission Board, had a wonderful way of expressing the importance of bivocational ministers. He once wrote, “Bivocational ministers and the churches they serve are one of Southern Baptists’ most effective areas of ministry. Though often neglected, they are vitally important. A study of bivocational pastors and churches in the Southern Baptist Convention notes that the churches served by bivocational ministers have a higher ratio of baptisms, other additions, Sunday school enrollment and attendance, and Discipleship Training enrollment.”
Bivocational ministry is older than the carpenter’s bench in Nazareth. The mysterious Melchisedec had two good jobs: he was king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. Amos spent more time gathering Sycamore fruit than he did performing prophecy, but we count his ministry as being effective.
In the New Testament, our Lord’s guardian, Joseph, was a carpenter; Martha was a housekeeper; Zaccheus and Matthew were tax collectors; Barnabas a landowner; Luke a doctor; and Priscilla and Aquila were tentmakers.
The greatest prototype of a self-supporting witness is Paul the tentmaker. When he and Barnabas were sent out from the church in Antioch as missionaries, they paid their own way. He describes his self-supporting witness to the Ephesian church with these words: “I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:33-35, NIV).”
I sat recently waiting for an evening worship service to begin. I had not seen the pastor upon my arrival, and although the service was now 15 minutes late, he was not visible anywhere as I scanned the audience. No one seemed anxious but me. About that time, he and his wife entered and the service began. During his opening remarks, he related to the congregation how they had been visiting the hospital, 30 miles away. He had been there all afternoon with a hurting family and the only preparation he was able to give this message was while his wife drove from the hospital to the church.
No one complained about him being late for services to start, and no one had a negative comment about his message preparation time. They all knew he was putting in long hours on a “regular job” all week in order to be their caring pastor and friend. By the way, he did a great job with the message, too.
Our bivocational ministers today are brick masons, truck drivers, farmers, factory workers, hospital workers, nursing home personnel, fast-food managers, ranchers, students, retirees, telephone linemen, power company employees, and most every other honorable job you can imagine. They give 40 hours a week in a vocation and then serve a church congregation another 20-30 hours as their minister.
One reason for the great success of this type of ministry is the connection it gives to the people and the respect it gives to the minister. The congregation will be more likely to help him and his family for they know he is giving it his best and they will do the same in return.
Virginia will be hosting the 2006 Bivocational Ministers Celebration on Sept. 22-23, at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Bristol. Bobby Welch will be among the speakers. This is a combined effort of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the state conventions of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, along with support from the NAMB, LifeWay and schools in these states.
Special to the Herald
