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Home > Bivocational Ministry > Featured Articles > Article Archives > March 31, 2005
By Dale Holloway Bivocational Specialist Miss. Baptist Conv. Board
More than two legions of “double duty” Southern Baptist pastors proclaim on the Lord’s Day and manage ministry in the workplace during the week. Many people today, preparing intentionally to serve as bivocational pastors, feel a definite call to this unique ministry.
Perhaps most of us who work two full-time vocations have chosen bivocational ministry as a response to circumstances as they are. We are simply doing whatever it takes to work out the ministry to which God has called us. This special marketplace ministry — which is not as readily available to fully-supported ministers — is unique, effective, and convenient for bivocational ministers. We are fulfilling our Lord’s intention to “be in the world, but not part of the world.”
Bivocational ministers and the churches they serve are one of Southern Baptists’ most effective areas of ministry. Though often neglected, they are vitally important to denominational life. A study of bivocational pastors and churches in the Southern Baptist Convention notes that the churches served by bivocational ministers have a higher ratio of baptisms, other additions, Sunday School enrollment and attendance, and Discipleship Training enrollment.
Bivocational ministry is older than the carpenter’s bench in Nazareth. The mysterious Melchisedec had two good jobs: he was king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. Amos spent more time gathering Sycamore fruit than he did performing prophecy, but we can conclude that his ministry was fulfilling and effective.
In the New Testament, our Lord’s guardian Joseph was a carpenter. Martha was a housekeeper. Zaccheus and Matthew were tax collectors. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were supreme court counselors. Barnabus was a landowner. Cornelius was an army officer. Luke was a doctor. Pricilla and Aquila were tentmakers. Lydia was a purple die seller. Erastus was a city treasurer. The Apostle Paul was a tentmaker.
In more recent history, we notice all Anabaptists were bivocational. The most notable one, John Bunyan, wrote Pilgrim’s Progress and 10 other books with only the Bible as his resource. During the 12 years he spent in Bedford Jail, he supported his family by making lace.
William Carey — short of stature but long on mission accomplishments — provided his own support while serving as superintendent of an Indigo factory in Calcutta, India. John Bledsoe Taylor was a legislator in four states, served as a military leader in four wars, founded Baylor University, and held court as a district judge by day while preaching at night.
Some ask the foolish question, “What do bivocational ministers do for a living?” They do every honorable job, usually working 40 hours each week in a vocation that provides most of their financial support while serving 20 or more hours a week as a minister. These dual-role ministers serve throughout the Southern Baptist Convention, with the greatest density in the Southern states.
Their concentrations range from only one or two bivocational ministers in some associations, to an association in Kentucky where every pastor as well as the director of missions are bivocational. Approximately 750 bivocational pastors currently serve churches affiliated with the Mississippi Baptist Convention — about 36% of all the churches in the convention.
I identify with Paul’s testimony to Timothy, his “son in the ministry,” in 1 Timothy 1:12: “How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for choosing me as one of his messengers, and giving me strength to be faithful to him.”
God has called a few of us to be successful. God has called all of us to be faithful.
Holloway, a retired Mississippi educator and active bivocational pastor, can be reached at 1758 Florence-Byram Road, Florence, MS 39073. Telephone: (601) 845-2107 or (601) 845-6496. E-mail: bivoldr@aol.com.
