Back to the Future: Bivocational Ministry

Chuck Strong, former biprofessional pastor
of Olive Branch Fellowship

In a recent article, United Methodist Bishop Ken Carter shared three New Testament models of stewardship: the beggar, the patron, and the tentmaker. He asked, “Can we re-imagine these roles for a new age?”

The one that caught my attention is the “tentmaker,” also known as the bivocational or biprofessional approach. Carter points out that about one-third of UMC churches have 35 or less on Sunday mornings. Some are served by ministers with two or three charges, but many are also served by ministers whose primary income is from another source.

In my work with Baptist churches affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention (now the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board), I found that out of 3000 churches almost two-thirds had bivocational pastors. One observer wrote, “About 10,000 bivocational ministers were working in the Southern Baptist churches in 1998. By 2004, that number had doubled, to 20,000.” This is almost half of the churches affiliated with the SBC. This trend seems to be true in other denominations as well. Over half of Mennonite pastors are biprofessional.

Although some of these pastors lack formal theological education, many have advanced degrees. In fact, one article points out that the October 2017 issue of Colloquy, the newsletter of the Association of Theological Schools, reports that 30 percent of graduating seminarians anticipate entering into bivocational ministry.

Although some may see this as a step back, this model was very common in the nineteen century in rural and frontier America and has never really gone away. Some of the most effective pastors that I have known made their primary income in other professions.

Carter notes, “Rediscovering the ancient-future practices of a missional movement, and re-imagining the roles of beggar, patron and tentmaker in our own time, may help us to support and sustain the renewal of our congregations and institutions.” I think this is particularly true when it comes to bivocational pastors.

How can churches make the best use of their bivocational pastors and how can seminaries support them? We will look at that in the next two blog posts.

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