Contrary to popular believe, Bi-Vocational does not mean Part-Time. Bi-vocational means that you have two full-time jobs and you must be creative to be successful at both.
In my fourteen years as a bi-vocational minister’s wife, I have discovered that since our church is bi-vocational, I must really put into action the work of a “help-mate” because my husband needs my help. Bi-vocational churches have the same wants, desires and needs as a full-time church…they just have less funding and they also have less members to help do the work.
Being bi-vocational means we have to find ways to stretch our time, energy and work. Also, being bi-vocational means that you do not live in the “church parsonage” and if you are like us, your home is over thirty miles from church. (We live in Rhea County. Our church is in Roane County.) The hospitals that our members attend are in Knox County, which is even further from our home.
Creativity is the key to success. We can not always “be there” in body but we can:
• Make sure our members feel loved all the time.
• Make phone calls
• Send e-mails
• Send text messages
• Send cards and/or notes
Bi-vocational churches still have hurting members, sick members, dying members, marrying members, etc. so there is always hospital visits, funerals, weddings, etc. We are fortunate to have a congregation that understands and forgives us if we are not there in body all of the time. We are always there in spirit and try to be there in body as much as possible.
Two years ago, Bro. Ray Gilder asked our daughter, Kacie to give her testimony at the Appalachian Bi-Vocational Ministers Conference and tell everyone what it was like growing up in a bi-vocational minister’s home. She pretty much summed everything up. She said….”whoever said that Sundays were a day of rest, lied. That is the day that bi-vocational ministers do a lot of their visiting and ministering.” Our children learned to do a lot of traveling…and not usually to places they really cared to go. Through it all, they learned how to:
• Visit in homes that did not always have children
• Visit people they did not know
• Eat food that they were not particularly fond of
• Visit hospitals
• Visit the elderly
• Visit nursing homes
• Visit funeral homes.
• Truly Love People
It was just a way of their lives!
Bi-vocational ministers work 8-10 hours during the daytime at their secular jobs and the evenings and weekends are spent doing “church work”, while making time for our own families. My husband and I do the work together and while our children were at home, we did it as a family. It wasn’t always easy, but it was certainly worth it.
Being a bi-vocational family is very challenging, yet rewarding ministry.
Joshua 24:15 “…As For Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord!”
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