Feature Department: Spring 2012

Pastoring God's People

Bivocational pastoring

by Michael A. King

Those of us meeting with the Seminary Committee of the Eastern Mennonite University Board of Trustees were pondering how many pastors the bad economy had frozen into assignments beyond which they might otherwise have moved. Wondering what effects this might be having on denominational pastoral openings, we did an online search. The results caught our attention: many part-time openings; precisely one full-time opening. The search seemed at least to yield an important hint: This is not a time to count on full-time pastoring.

That highlights how important it can be for pastors to have bivocational vision and skills. I'm no scholar of bivocationalism. I've only been a seminary dean long enough to watch one cohort of graduating students seek pastoral assignments. But I've pastored most of the past 30 years—and have never not been bivocational. Plus I've learned from watching bivocational colleagues. Let me pull a few tips from this mix of experiences and impressions:

1. For many, it's bivocationalism or the highway.

Like it or not, many pastors have no choice: They must, to follow the apostle Paul's time-honored example, develop tentmaking skills. This is not to denigrate full-time pastoring and its great contributions. It's simply to take seriously that one important response to too many pastors chasing too few full-time jobs can be the ability to blend pastoring with other employment.

2. Bivocationality offers gifts to celebrate.

Even as bivocationalism may often be imposed, it can offer treasures. One is the ability to consider a wide array of assignments. The bivocational pastor has choices, flexibility, multiple ways to put together a thriving career.

This can lead to a second gift: lowered risk of feeling trapped in a pastorate. Bivocationality can help me trust that even if I were to lose my pastorate, in the end I'd be okay—so maybe I'm free to be who I'm called to be.

A third gift is complementarity. Occupations will vary in degree of difference from pastoring, but many will offer refreshment by using muscles different from those needed for pastoring. Or we may achieve a happy blend. I did some of my most vibrant preaching during the years I combined pastoring with janitorial labor. While I vacuumed hallways, cleaned toilets, and took out trash I reflected on sermon texts and themes at lengths and depths I've rarely achieved since.

3. We can cast wide the bivocational net.

An amazing number of occupations can blend well with pastoring. I myself have combined pastoring not only with janitorial work but also home repairs, book editing, and owning a publishing company.

My pastor friends have flourished as truck drivers, owners of landscaping and other companies, teachers. The 2007 Mennonite Church USA Bivocational Handbook for Congregations/Pastors mentions dozens of "good jobs to pair with ministry," ranging across professional, business, skilled labor fields, justfor-starters.

While I vacuumed hallways, cleaned toilets, and took out trash I reflected on sermon texts and themes at lengths and depths I've rarely achieved since.

4. It's worth thinking bivocationally from day one.

Again I don't mean to discourage those whose gifts and callings take them to that other important destination, which is full-time pastoring. And let me at least touch on bivocationality's shadows, which can include the potential to feel caught between competing commitments, overwhelmed by too much variety and complexity, or sidelined from assignments requiring single-minded focus.

Nevertheless, many of us will find it pays off to develop bivocational openness from the start. I didn't start out with a bivocational vision but was blessed to be called fresh out of seminary to part-time pastoring. That forced me to think bivocationally—and taught me from the first day to combine pastoring with multiple occupations. At its best, cultivating lifelong bivocationality can be winwin; pastoring can provide the foundation upon which to experiment with various occupations, and the alternate jobs can contribute energy, variety, and income to sustain lifelong pastoring without burnout.

But let those of us who have found bivocationality a blessing also extend this invitation: Try it! You just might like it.

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Michael A. King is dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He attends Salford Mennonite Church in Harleysville, Penn.