Eight Reasons Why Some Full-time Pastors and Staff Should Go Bivocational

Some of you reading this post may need to get a new job. At least you may need to get an additional job.

Without a doubt, many churches will always need full-time vocational pastors and church staff. I am not suggesting all of you, even the majority of you, should go bivocational. But I do believe more of you should consider this path. Allow me to offer eight reasons why:

  1. A secular or marketplace job will put you in the middle of culture on a regular basis. Opportunities to develop relationships with non-believers will be greater. Opportunities to minister to people who would not set foot in a church will be greater as well.
  2. Full-time pastors and church staff often get missionally stale in their “holy huddles.” Perhaps the best way to break out of that Christian-only huddle is to be employed in a secular position.
  3. Smaller churches are increasingly unable to afford full-time pastors or staff. I have written on this site a few times about the flow of people from smaller churches to larger churches. As resources depart from the smaller churches, so do their ability to pay a pastor or staff person full-time. But these churches still need pastors.
  4. The digital world is offering more opportunities for flexible secular jobs than ever. I recently spoke to an IT professional who is also a pastor of a church. He spends about 25 hours a week in his IT job. He has declined good full-time opportunities in secular jobs because he wants to stay a tentmaker. I spoke to another staff person of a church who is an entrepreneur in the digital world. Those kinds of opportunities are growing every day.
  5. More churches are moving toward multiple teaching/preaching pastors. What was once common in large churches is now becoming increasingly common in medium and small churches. Many of these teaching pastors are in churches that cannot afford a second full-time pastor.
  6. More churches would like to expand staff, but don’t have the resources to do so. This issue is similar to #5 above, but here it refers to bivocational positions other than a lead pastor or teaching pastor. By the way, this approach allows church leaders to “raise up” people within their own churches—people they know and trust.
  7. A bivocational pastor or church staff can have greater freedom than a person in a full-time role. One of the “secrets” of church life is that many pastors and church staff are hindered from leading because their jobs would be in jeopardy. That is an unpleasant but clear and present reality. If a pastor or staff person has a job with other income, he or she may feel the freedom to move forward without succumbing to such pressure.
  8. A bivocational pastor or staff person has transferrable skills. A number of full-time church leaders have never worked outside of vocational ministry. They don’t understand the business and secular world. Bivocational ministers have secular skills they can use in their churches. They also have skills to support themselves if they find themselves no longer employed with their churches.

Bivocational ministry is a clear and definitive trend in church life. Some of the reasons for its growth are not that healthy. But many are. It is a great opportunity to make a greater difference in this culture in which we live. It is really a great opportunity to be a missionary on the field.

What do you of think of this issue? What are you seeing in your church and others?

Posted on January 19, 2015


With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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143 Comments

  • Paul Michael Vacca says on

    I appreciate this article and the comments. I realize that this article is admittedly not calling for most pastors to go bi-vocational, but for some to consider the possibility. For me it comes down to calling. God has not allowed me to be bi-vocational. Early in ministry whenever I tried to do something outside of my calling, God shut it down. When I surrendered to ministry I was a Texas firefighter and EMT-B. I had a skill set that would lend itself to bi-vocational ministry. In fact, I wanted to be bi-vocational. But, God would simply not let me do that. His calling on me was something different. I applaud those of you who are called to bi-vocational ministry. God bless you and your efforts. That is just not my calling.

  • Mary Ellen says on

    My husband has always been in bivocational ministry and we wouldn’t have it any other way. This article is so affirming and right on. There have been people over time who have said he should quit his secular job and didn’t “have faith” because he would not do so. (sheesh) The biggest pressure is when he needs to officiate a funeral, as that can’t be scheduled on a calendar. I would only add to this list of advantages that no one can accuse a bivocational pastor of working only one day a week. One should not be afraid to be bi-vo as there are many, many joys of being among the lost and hurting on a daily basis.

  • All good points, but I don’t see bicocationsl ministry being a great option. I see burnout in the future. Trying to balance two full time jobs and family is too much.

    • Thom Rainer says on

      It is certainly not the path for everyone, Jonathon. But, as you see in these comments, some are doing well with this option.

  • Hi,
    Your article is excellent! I am a teacher and a pastor. I have been wrestling with the desire of going into full-time ministry since last year. I have presented this desire to the board because, like Andrew says, it has been taxing to do both. I love teaching, but sometimes I feel that I can’t give my students all they deserve. I love being a pastor, too, but at the same time, I feel that I’m not giving my best to what God’s people deserve. I feel stuck between the best of two worlds.

    I am blessed to have a substitute certificate also, and I’ll probably do that for a while. Please help me to pray about this.

  • Good article Thom. As a long-time lay minister in SBC (nearly 40 years), I have observed the declining spiritual condition of the average church member. I’m old enough to remember when the majority of church folks were humble, prayed, repented, and sought God’s face on an on-going basis! They were engaged in the communities about them and on mission for Christ to evangelize their neighborhoods. Their churches held periodic revivals (real ones) and lots of folks were won to Christ by church members! Their pastors preached with fire in their bones and mobilized their congregations to be on mission. Church members were equipped to do the work of the ministry and did it! Such places and people in SBC life are now rare and endangered species.

    Having said all that, I think reason #7 should be the major driver for considering bivocational ministry. Too many church congregations today exercise an unhealthy control over the message and messenger in our churches. If you allow someone’s weakness to control your strength, they own you. There is, indeed, more freedom in bivocational ministry to preach the truth in love … and to be led by the Spirit rather than men, while you continue to feed your family through tent-making.

  • Tom Kleinfeldt says on

    After 8 years bi-vocational and doubling church I led church to hire full time teaching pastor in early 30’s. Now some of my time is free on weeks he preaches. I am mentoring him to be Sr Pastor n move into more administration education missions role when I early retire in 4 years. I also find the secular world allows me to give offerings to the church that I had never been able to give as a staff member.

  • I think you are right that there will be, by necessity, more bivo pastors in the future, but I don’t know that that’s necessarily a good thing.

    1) Finding the perfect flexible job that allows you to support your family and be an effective pastor is just as much like hitting the lottery as being called by the big blowing and going church.

    2) In most cases, when you work two jobs (or serve two masters) one is going to take priority and 9 times out of 10 it will be the one that pays the bills.

    3) I have a family member who is bivo and was forced out of his church when he tried to make necessary changes (changes that the church initially agreed to). The fact that he had a full time job to support his family didn’t diminish the pain and betrayal he felt when the church turned on him.

    4) In most secular workplaces you see and interact with the same small group of people everyday so you’re still in a “huddle” so to speak.

  • Dr. Rainer –

    Great article. I think another point in this discussion is that full-time pastors with no real secular job option put a major financial strain on a local church body if there is a decrease in congregation size, or if the economy puts a strain on people within the church.

    That strain manifests itself in several forms. One form is a constant tension in the church centered around whether tithes and offerings were enough to pay the bills and pay the pastor and staff. This shifts the focus away from ministry and onto pure survival.

    Another form of this strain is possibly having to eliminate other full-time or even part-time staff positions just so the pastor can stay as a full-time employee. So other families suffer, and the church is impacted in its ministry areas.

    But the key is how to change this mentality for the thousands of people churning out of seminaries and denominational training programs every single year. Many are coming out believing that their personal investment in multiple years of school should result in a full-time position within the church. But there are a lot of those same folks out there with no paying church position years later, with thousands more joining the “pool of candidates” every year.

    • Thom Rainer says on

      It is s critical issue, Nathan. I hope to do my small part in addressing it in the days ahead.

    • The implication that full time pastors are selfish and even destructive to the church is very disturbing to me. People don’t go to medical school to be part time doctors, they don’t go to law school to be part time lawyers, my wife didn’t get an education degree just to be a part time teacher. Why is it wrong for men who invest years in seminary training to expect a full time position?

      • I agree. And God’s Word makes it very clear a church should financially support their pastor. Scripture doesn’t caution us against paying our pastors too much, but it does caution against paying them too little. (1 Timothy 5:17-18; Galatians 6:6; Luke 10:7; 1 Corinthians 9:4-10). Deacons were originally chosen (Acts 6:1-4) so that pastors could devote themselves whole-heartedly to prayer and the ministry of the Word. How can they focus on this with a second vocation? Or even worse, if their preaching is considered their secondary vocation?

  • My husband scoffs at the notion of bivocational ministry being some sort of dramatic/traumatic move, because he for decades has worked a full time secular job (and a half, at times) and done loads of volunteer ministry in his evenings and on weekends. He doesn’t understand why it’s so hard for pastors to think of doing a similar situation with their vocations. And don’t think it isn’t taxing for congregants to serve in ministry beyond their full-time jobs…..

    • Thom Rainer says on

      Thanks, Louise.

    • If your husband has never been a pastor, then he should avoid scoffing. How would he like it if his pastor scoffed at his work, and told him he had an easy job? We pastors feel the same way when laypeople make light of our work. If you’ve never done the job, you have no idea what it’s like.

  • Randy Chestnut says on

    Dr. Rainer,

    As it relates to church planting, I believe the vast majority should be bi-vocational for reasons #1-4. Just having “relevant teaching, great music and child-care” is not going to reach the lost. We must go where they are because they aren’t coming to us.
    I do think our tribe (Southern Baptist Convention) needs to embrace bi-vocational ministry more than it presently does. For instance…
    …Does the trustee bodies of SBC entities have a representation of bi-vocational ministers that closely represents the number of bi-vocational churches in the SBC?
    …What changes are SBC seminaries willing to make to equip graduates for bi-vocational work?
    … When was the last time we had a bi-vocational pastor preach at SBC annual meeting? State Conventions?

    Very timely! Thank you!

  • I began my ministry following seminary as a full time pastor. Since then I have pastured other churches full time, I have held a full time job and pastured bivo, now I pastor a church that pays me full time but allows me to work a part time job with a funeral home because they know the salary is not what it needs to be. I have learned a few things about God’s calling. We can’t limit it to a particular calling such as full time ministry. I also learned these churches need pastors. And lastly a person who has never held a full time job to support his or her family does not understand and can’t identify with what their members deal with on a daily basis. That is why #8 sticks out to me. Thanks for you posts. They are very enlightening.

  • Amen.
    My particular context includes bi-vocational ministry and team leadership/teaching (both of us pastors are bi-vocational). After talking with several solo bi-vocational pastors it seems this team approach alleviates a lot of the issues that can arise with pastoral burnout. Also, it really helps to have a supportive church!

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