Bivocational?

School teacher? Don't y'all only work 180 days a year? That's half-time! :laugh:

I drive a bus for an agency that works with the developmentally disabled. I have a contract route which has me running the shuttle service for the local college. As the senior pastor there is no such thing as half-time or part-time.

Twice - in the same week - last summer, I drove from 6:30 to 9:30 AM, went home and changed, drove to the funeral home, preached a funeral service followed by the burial, changed back and made it in time for the 2:30 - 5:30 PM run.

The folks understand if they want a pastor available 24/6 they're gonna have to step up to the plate - the offering plate that is.... :wavey:

 

I work on and drive locomotives with the Railroad. :thumbsup:

 

Was a tv/stereo repairman for many years but electronics changed so much I could not find work so took a part time janitor job that turned into full time and finally maint. manager. Did a lot of maint. while janitoring as well.

When they contracted out my job to a company that hired illegals I was six months from Social Security so "retired." I looked for work but noone would even talk to me when they saw my app. Over educated, over qualified, over experienced and over the hill. Still fill pulpit as opportunity strikes.

Mostly did interim work for churches that could not pay much if anything.

 

I am a Calims Assistant for the VA. So far, I haven't been needed during the day. The deacons have assured me that the church will be understanding about my work schedule. That may change "when the need arises".

 

I'm a tool & die maker in my day job. The youth guy is an art teacher/basketball & track coach. (Also a strange combination for a teacher/coach)
Mike

 

Profesional nerd during the day.

Computer Systems Admin/Computer Engineer

 

Tutor at a local college. But may have to "suck it up" and try to get by on my salary this fall as I will start a Master's degree program.

 

Been there, done that. In my experience only, few churches (if any...none I've served) have grasped the concept that you can't be there some times. The most ridiculous, if you will, was when I was asked to preach the funeral of a member's neighbor's cousin's neighbor. No, I'm not kidding.

The hardest churches...and these are growing in number...are the churches that are not accustomed to Bivo guys. They've had FT pastors for 100 yrs, but now the offerings are down or the building fund payments are up, so to save money.......you get the picture. But their expectations are still what they are.

And to an extent, almost all bivo churches are like this. When they want/need you, you're expected to be there. But the reality is most of us don't have jobs that allow for this. The salary must equal the expectations. Any church that has three services is asking for a FT guy.

Don't get me started......well.....I guess I already did....so I'll stop now.

 

LOL! I was bi-vocational in my first church. When I went to my second church it was full-time and I've been full-time ever since. Want to know the difference in my work load between the bivo church and the full-time churches? NOTHING! I've found many if not most bivo churches want full time ministry for part time salary.

 

As a kid most of the Baptist churches had bivo pastors around where I was brought up down here. My wife in Ky., that is all they had or have today, something in their teaching.

I was brought up in a Presbyterian church and dad use to say the world will go in a hand bag when the Baptist preachers want the pay of our preachers. Our church could not have paid what the pastor was paid but the pay was filtered down and he said Baptist don't do that, each church is independent.

I was a pastor for 20+ years and only 6 of those years wasn't bi vocational. Salary didn't enter the picture.

 

I have never been bivocational. I am wondering if the church and prospective pastor go over the expectations before a call is extended and accepted.

It seems that both would need to have a clear understanding of their expectations of the other.

Maybe some of you guys who are bivocational can answer this for me.

 

Bi-vocational Pastor for many years in many small churches but praise God (2) years ago the church I am at grew to the point I went full-time. I have always been fortunate, I have never served in a church that did not understand the need for me to work at another job.
What difference have I seen. Church expectations have not changed but my wife has certainly increased the size of the honey-do list.

 

Of course, this really cuts both ways. I have a good friend in the ministry who has stated for years that when a church hires a full-time pastor (after having a Bi-vo), they will be getting 10-15% more work for 2 to 3X the price. I have seen this truth many times. This is certainly not always the case, but we sure have a lot of hard working part-timers and more than a few lazy full-timers out there.

 

No offense, your friend is nuts. :tongue3: Churches that have been bivo and gone FT have had some issues with expectations, but they had those anyway. Over time the expectations rise perhaps. Some FT churches are less maintenance than others, but that's not an indicator of laziness in my mind. At any rate, we don't see this much anymore. Probably been at least 20 yrs since I saw it happen. Churches by the droves are going in the other direction intentionally to save $, and pastors are asking to do this so they can stay in their cushy jobs and big salaries.

I went from pastoring a church in Bible college to a FT church after graduation. The churches were not all that different in size, but the expectations were different. That's key.

I grew up that way too. It gave the pastor something to preach about, those fancy pants preachers who don't work for a living and have a huge salary. You still hear it to this day. I've always wondered about guys doing that (or, not) and then saying they won't go FT because they can't give up their great job. Funny to notice...at our association meetings, the FT pastors drive the clunkers while the Bivo guys pull up in Lexus, BMW, Infiniti....just sayin :laugh:

I hear you. I'm just saying that many churches want their cake and want to eat it too...repeatedly. Too many churches don't have a clue that they are asking a man for 30-40 hours a week (Minimum) while he's working 50 hours a week already. They at least need to understand this.

Any church, bivo or FT and their pastor should do this. But there are written expectations and unwritten ones. And expectation agreements go out the window when a member feels you should've been there or done that and weren't / didn't, regardless of the reason.

A church called a prayer meeting on 9/11 to be held that evening. The pastor was at a hospital bedside of his dying sister who was in a coma and who could go at any minute. The pastor stepped out in the hall, called a deacon, and asked him to call his fellow deacons and get the phone-chain started to announce the service. Later at the service, the pastor is cornered by one member who was appalled she did not get a call from the pastor himself. When the pastor told where he was, the member turned on her heels and said "THAT'S NO EXCUSE!"

I wish I was making this up.

 

Tom, I've never heard a preacher putting down a full time pastor, but I didn't live where you do.

As far as automobiles go most of the pastors down hear drive a Ford or Chevy or some middle of the road to lower end car.

 

I'm bi-vo and I drive a 1991 Mazda. Oh, and it's a Miata so I guess that makes me a high-roller! :laugh:

 

Yes, big time!!!

 

Did I mention having another that I use for parts and that I do all the maintenance myself? I'm filthy rich! :laugh:

Seriously, I enjoy bi-vo work. It opens doors in the community for me that might not otherwise be opened.