Barnabas File

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 chu...