“Do you want to stay bivocational? I know a church that would call you full-time and I’d be happy to recommend you!”
I often receive such questions from fellow pastors and ministry friends. I don’t resent their asking. In fact, they almost always deliver the queries in the spirit of affirming my ministry calling and expressing their trust in me.
I am convinced, however, that at least for now my calling is to bivocational ministry. I don’t propose bivocationalism as the only form of pastoral ministry, but I do offer it as a valid model that can reap eternal benefits.
I also do not claim that anything I’m writing is original to me. A quick Google search of “bivocational” produces 15 pages of results. My working title for this article was “Bivocational on Purpose,” but my friend Jason Lowe had already used that one. What I do offer, though, are my reasons for being purposely bivocational in my specific context.
I am a high school teacher and adjunct professor who served as pastor of a local church for seven years. I am currently a Kentucky Baptist Convention campus ministry leader and church planter. Bivocational ministry works for me for the following reasons.
Capital
Money is likely the first consideration people associate with bivocational ministry.
The belief is that bivocational pastors must have another job because their churches cannot pay enough to support their families. This is often correct. I served such a church from September 2016 to February 2024. God blessed my time there, and the church could possibly have afforded a full-time salary toward the end of my tenure.
I did not pursue it, though. My secular employment had brought community connections that led to much of our growth. I did not want to give those up.
In my context as a planter, money is a consideration because my career in education will allow me to take a lesser salary as we begin. We will need to establish a budget, determine average attendance and monitor growth. We will need to include other staff.
Eventually, we will need to build! My teaching career allows us to set funds aside for that purpose.
Connections
My secular career allows me to be involved in my community.
I have become an unofficial chaplain among my colleagues, often immediately available to pray with them as they approach me with their needs. During difficult times, I have been called on to pray with faculty members. One of these prayers for a colleague’s child, along with a hospital visit or two, led her and her husband to join the church where I pastored, bringing their elementary and preschool children along.
I have had multiple opportunities to preach at baccalaureate services, teach at FCA and First Priority and participate in prayer events with various athletic teams and other extracurricular groups. Students will share their family’s prayer needs with me, giving me innumerable opportunities to minister to those families. Several of these have borne gospel fruit.
Calling
I often tell people that God called me to ministry, and I am not afraid to go wherever He calls. He has given me a love for this place alongside lots of influence.
We know that 81 percent of people in my county are not involved in a church on any given Sunday morning. These are not abstract numbers to me; they represent my students and their families, the members of the local gym where I gasp for breath on the treadmill, those who shop alongside me at our local Wal-Mart.
I have another calling I do not want to overlook. Ordained as a deacon, I was a lay preacher for several years. However, I did not believe the Lord would call me to the pastorate because of my calling to the classroom.
He had given me a ministry at the school, but I was wrong in assuming He would not also call me to pastoral ministry. His plan for my life has included both, and He has made both fruitful.
I hate to consider what I might have missed if He had not made both callings clear.
The Conclusion
Bivocational ministry is neither easy nor the only biblical model. It is, however, one such model, and God has called me to it.
I can’t help wondering if He might be calling others.
Has He given you a desire and gifting to teach and preach? Has he given you a love for God’s people and for those who do not know Him? Has He also given you a career that might complement ministry? Might He be calling you to serve His church in bivocational ministry?
William Dooley is a teacher, campus ministry leader and church planter. He is the chairman of the board of directors of the Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network (BSCLN).
