Life as a bi-vocational pastor is very interesting. Although I don't really feel it is the first time doing this as my first six years as a youth pastor were also spent working in our Christian school as the athletic director/coach/teacher.It really was exhausting and looking back there were times when we grew and didn't grow because of it. Of course while I was in the middle of it I didn't know any better.
When we got to about year five I could begin to see the trend. Our last year there I actually began to focus half of my day on youth and the other half on school. I didn't put as much energy into the sports as I previously had been doing. The results: we tripled our growth over that year.
This week I've been burning the candles at both ends and it is paying off. We have over 35 people that have said they are coming to our next core meeting. We also have many others who are with us but their schedule cannot coordinate with our meeting.
And to think that we will soon be doing this every Sunday.
Exhausting??? sure... Well worth it??? YES!!!
Are there any others out there who are bi-vocational burning both candle ends?
5 comments:
My pastor is. He's not only the pastor, he's the Streets and Sanitation Superintendent for the town of Waynesville. As well, he's somewhat of a general handyman "on the side". Great guy. Works hard. Highly appreciated.
http://crossroads-baptist.com/wordpress/?page_id=2
Thanks for stopping by my blog, by the way :)
Jack of All Trades....maybe we could get him on Dirty Jobs as well.
Thanks for the comments Bernard
I use to be bi-vo. It was exhausting, for sure... but most rewarding. If you think about it, leaders who are bi-vo often times have WAY more interaction with those who don't know Christ than fulltime pastors who are most often entrenched in the Christian bubble.
Terrace...I so agree...working in a secular workplace this past year has allowed me to connect back to people outside of the church. It is easy to say you are doing that as a pastor but when you work you are immersed in a secular culture.
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