We tend to see a pastor as someone who is on call to preach, teach, baptize, counsel, organize, rally, perform weddings, funerals, etc. He needs to be on call 24/7. If this is the case, how could anyone be bivocational? How could you be on call 24/7 AND work another job. We believe bivocational ministry works once we redefine the role of the pastor. Redefining the role means developing scenarios where a bivocational person can execute the pastoral role in a 10-15 hour work week.
The key to this is a team of ministry leaders. A great example is our Sherbrooke campus. We launched this campus 6 months ago with 60 people from our Downtown campus and Gracepointe Church and it has grown to 300 people. We have 7 bivocational pastors and ministers partnering to make this church flourish. We currently pay 4 of them part-time and 3 aren’t paid by the church at all. They divide the pastoral duties and everything it takes to make church happen.
Each team member is responsible for overseeing ministry areas like: worship, first impressions, assimilation, missional community, students and kids. They do this by following Paul’s advice in Ephesians 4:12 to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.” In short, they follow the Biblical role for any pastor or ministry leader by empowering people to do ministry and build up the body of Christ. The bivocational pastor oversees the team and is freed up to preach, teach and shepherd.
Bivocational ministry works when everyone is on board and doing their part and when the role of the pastor is redefined. It’s a sustainable model, and we have pastors at Family Church who are living proof!
Coming Soon Part III: BIVO Church, A Sustainable Model