Bivocational and Beyond

Mainline denominations in North America are experiencing a rapidly growing wave of ministries with less than full-time pastors. These individuals are often called “part-time,” although a more accurate label is “partially funded,” which reflects the reality that these pastors generally feel that they are full-time pastors that are paid less than a full-time wage. That labelling is just part of the challenge that Bivocational and Beyond: Educating for Thriving Multivocational Ministry seeks to address, a helpful new collection of essays edited by Darryl Stephens. Many mainline denominations preference full-time congregational clergy in a number of ways. That is the norm by which many (including fellow pastors) evaluate others and to which seminaries teach.  However, this educational approach excludes many and does not help to fully equip graduates for the realities they increasingly encounter.  The book cites a recent Canadian study revealing that a significant proportion of clergy holding one non-church job will likely have more than one. This phenomenon was so pronounced that the projectname was changed (from bi- to multi-vocational) and alerts pastors and educators to the complexity of the subject.

Stephens gathers contributors from a wide variety of Protestant traditions to explore different aspects of the new partially funded reality and how it impacts congregations, pastors, and the academy. As different scholars argue, partially funded ministry, approached in a thoughtful fashion, need not be simply an economic last choice. It can be a form of ministry that more fully empowers and expresses the gifts of all participants. This new expression of ministry calls on different preparation for both congregations and clergy. Attitudes of clergy and congregants are crucial to the vitality of less-than-full-time pastorates. Where clergy see themselves as the sole or primary producers of ministry and congregants adopt the position of consumers and (sometimes) supporters, partially funded ministry struggles to succeed. Stephens and his collaborators provide the resources to begin that reimagining, particularly at the level of clergy training.

While surveying the landscape of partially-funded ministries in formerly mainline traditions, the chapters by Jessica Young Brown and Jo Ann Deasy (chapters 4 and 5, respectively)  an extremely useful introduction to the Black Church experience which is largely unfamiliar to mainline church educators and offer different and helpful challenges to assumed norms.  Bivocational clergy have long been the expectation and norm in many Black, Latino, First Nations and other racial minority churches, as well as in more evangelical traditions. Focussing on Black churches, Young Brown and Deasy begin the process of opening up the wealth of experience from which the mainline can benefit as they move into this new ecclesial landscape.

The third portion of the book, “Learning,” analyzes a wide range of topics that seminaries and colleges need to consider. Employing Paul’s image of the body of Christ in a more fullsome way than is generally encountered, Kathleen Owens (chapter 13) challenges us to transform our churches into communities that truly “discern, equip, and support” (222) a wide and diverse range of ministries. In turn, Stephens gives us detailed insight into how Lancaster Theological Seminary moved from merely noting the need for specialized education for part-time and bi-vocational ministry to actually implementing it (chapter 14). Supported by an In Trust Centre grant, the Seminary explored a variety of questions. For many institutions the challenge may initially be, “do we adapt existing programs or create new ones?” (228). Both paths are attested to in the literature. Regardless of the decisions an institution finally makes, leadership will be well-served by attending to the range of components and constituencies the LTS study addressed.

Phil Baisley’s chapter, “Preparing to Teach a Bivocational Ministry Seminary Course,” is filled with useful, and sometimes hard-won, knowledge about the needs and assumptions instructors will want to consider when introducing such courses into the academy. In a similar vein Anthony Pappas, Ed Pease, and Norm Faramelli trace the developing characteristics of the bivocational congregation in a piece that provides an interesting longitudinal view (it was originally penned in 2009, but given a 2022 epilogue). The characteristics the authors named remain valid today and the case studies they discuss, which focus on the different ways that congregations are or become bivocational, are instructive. The two chapters together frame the educational endeavors that need to be undertaken.  It is not enough to train clergy for bivocational and part-time ministries if the congregation(s) have not considered the implications of the form (both challenges and opportunities).  This section of the book might have been strengthened by an inquiry into how judicatories need to rethink their roles and expectations to accommodate this growing reality. To give one example, if the tradition’s polity depends on the availability of parish clergy to serve on regional/national policy- and decision-making bodies, how will those processes be altered to accommodate the more restricted availability of part-time clergy? In our research, less than 50 percent of partially-funded clergy participated in the other levels of church governance, posing a signficant governance challenge. 

For mainline Protestant churches—and particularly those charged with training clergy leadership—Bivocational and Beyond offers an insightful and solidly researched entrée into the strange new landscape of part-time and bivoctional ministry, not as an indicator of failure in the metrics of numbers and money, but as a rich, new possibility for calling forth Christ’s people in God’s mission.

Rev. Dr. I. Ross Bartlett is the United Church Formation Director at the Atlantic School of Theology.

Ross Bartlett

Date Of Review:

April 29, 2023