The Bi-Vocational Pastor

I’d like to start by looking at the word, bi-vocational, which means “two callings”.  While I’m not trying to be picky, I have to point out that I disagree with the premise that any pastor or any disciple has “two callings”.  I have one calling from God on my life, to build up the body of Christ, which I sometimes pursue behind a pulpit and other times in an office.  I think if we get that fundamental issue settled it will bring a lot of clarity to the rest of the discussion.

I think we all agree that God has a unique calling on every person’s life, and I’d hope we all agree that in most cases that calling does not mean to quit their job and work for a church or ministry.  But in most of the really great churches that I’ve attended and under some really great pastors with whom I’ve served, there was a subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle implication that to be “in the ministry” (which at the core meant “living off people’s tithes and offerings” since many lay-people put in 40 or more hours of participation in their local church each week) was more holy and commendable than to work in a job where you were producing value that the world recognizes and compensates for.

Part of what drove me to become a church planter in the first place was to create a church where people who were passionate about a calling on their lives to be a nurse, or be a businessman, or be a teacher, was fully validated and encouraged. 

As a small business owner, I got really frustrated by comments like, “You know, companies only care about money, they don’t care about people.”  Every small business owner I know looks at his employees as his family and would do anything in reason to take care of them.  In fact some of the finest “pastoring” I’ve ever seen was done by managers in the workplace.

Part of the way that I do that is by continuing to very deliberately engage in for-profit work.  For several years my primary marketplace involvement was as a realtor.  Leigh Anne has recently taken over our real estate practice and I am focusing on running a website design business with three full-time employees. I can say from the bottom of my heart that I’m not doing these additional things because I serve money, but because I have learned how to make money serve me.

Having for-profit work brings me into contact with people that I wouldn’t get to interact with as a pastor.  I regularly spend hours at a time with Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. I have good friends outside the church who are bankers, lawyers, and politicians. They give me an understanding of what people “out there” really think and need.

The biggest challenges are time-management and avoiding conflict of interest.  I don’t solicit business from my congregation, nor do I encourage other business owners in my church to do so.  But in reality, every pastor has to deal with managing his time and making sure he doesn’t put his personal needs ahead of his duties and calling.  With sincere respect to all the pastors who aren’t involved in the for-profit world, I feel that being in business makes me a much better pastor and that my congregation benefits from my participation in the for-profit world.

As a little kid, one of my favorite shows was "The Partridge Family".  I know how that dates me.  But I love music and have loved being in many different types of bands and musical groups over the years, so the idea of a family of kids travelling all over the country playing music really appealed to me.

As the Partridge Family travelled all over the country, they'd run into a different problem every week.  (You can't have a story without conflict.  That in itself is a whole 'nother blog.)  No matter what the problem was, whether it was a lonely old man on Christmas Eve, or racial conflict in the inner city, there was always only one solution.  "Lets sing songs and put on a show!".

(Oh, now I see where he's going with this.)

In church, whether we're looking to evangelize, teach, pray, disciple, or almost anything else.  Our natural inclination is "We need an EVENT for that".  We need a meeting, or a service, or something with music and advertising. 

We've also come to look at salvation, the filling of the Holy Spirit, deliverance, and most aspects of Christian growth as events, rather than as a process or a relationship.

Events aren't wrong or bad.  It's healthy to sometimes have milestones, revelations, and "a-ha" experiences with the help of a large group of people, a band, and a sound system. 

We like events because once they're over we can go home and get back to our "normal" lives.  Of course, that is the very reason that events are only marginally effective in true life change.

When I look at Jesus and the disciples I see a different kind of process and relationship.

Jesus focused on a small group of people in a concentrated, deliberate relationship.  They got into each others lives and business.  Crowds came and went, sometimes because Jesus deliberately ran them off.  But the 12, and especially the 3 (Peter, James and John) were there through the sucesses and the failures, through the encouragements and the rebukes.

If we're "going into all the world and making disciples of all nations", is the vehicle for doing that events, or is it something else.  What does that something else look like?  I think we're just starting to find out.