Bivocational pastors needed for church planting

If the North American Mission Board's Send North America evangelistic church planting initiative is to succeed, it must include thousands of bivocational pastors who are willing to plant churches.

"We must leverage the laity to plant churches," said Aaron Coe, NAMB's vice president of mobilization, "and we need to do it through a bivocational church movement.

"There are thousands of men sitting in church pews listening to their pastors each week who more than meet the qualifications for being pastors and church planters. We need to mobilize them to be involved in church planting if we're serious about the Great Commission," Coe said.

NAMB church planting leaders and members of the SBC-wide Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network (BSCLN) have begun to explore ways for bivocational pastors to become involved. To read more, click here.

Bivocational pastors are also needed to plant Anglican churches in North America. As long as the North American Anglican Church limits its church planting efforts to areas that can support a full-time, fully-credentialed residential pastor, it will not be truly fulfilling the Great Commission. If North American Anglicans are to be faithful to our Lord's commission, they must be willing to make a very large place in their overall church planting strategy for bivocational pastors, lay ministry teams, and lay pastors. They must be willing to rethink how they "do church."