"But I don't want to be bivocational." That was the declaration of a young man whom I recently talked to. He was nearing graduation from seminary and felt led to do ministry in a lesser-reached area of the nation.
Vermont, which is the least churched state in America, definitely fits the bill for being lesser reached. As the Vermont director for the efforts of my denomination, I have plenty of openings in which he could fulfill his calling to a lesser reached area. But when he found out that most evangelical churches in Vermont have less than 100 people in worship on a typical Sunday morning and that few could sustain a fully funded pastor, he was discouraged.
I can certainly understand his frustration. After all, he had invested a significant amount of time and money in seven years of schooling in order to gain his master of divinity degree from an accredited seminary. In any other field, such an investment of time and money likely would produce a lucrative career. But if a person feels a calling to ministry, and wants to do that ministry outside the Bible belt, the likelihood of finding a fully funded position drops significantly.
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New Book: Developing Leadership Teams in the Bivocational Church
Unfortunately, the "Bible belt" presents the same situation for Reformed Anglicans. The choice is to either reject Anglicanism and become a Presbyterian or go bi-vocational and plant a theologically conservative and reformed Anglican congregation.
ReplyDeleteThe Presbyterian option is increasingly less appealing since the PCA and the OPC are contaminated with the church growth theology of the Pentecostals, theonomy, reconstruction, and an ecumenicalism that is indirectly compromising the reformed confessions and distinctives.
Peace,
Charlie