The Truth About Being Bi-Vo

Several months ago, I decided to be a bi-vocational pastor.

I have pastored for over four years as a fulltime pastor because of many supporting churches and a great association that has contributed greatly to my salary. As I have seen this little quant Baptist Church grow form six members to just under thirty members. I have experienced great high points of ministry with many lives forever changed while also having very low points of ministry where I was deceived and/or never understood what the truth was.

I still have heart ache when I relive many conversations in my mind with people who are now gone. As I have seen this Church stay consistent in its average attendance for more than two years; I felt the leadership of the Lord leading me to go bi-vocational.

Five months have passed since I have been in secular employment while pastoring a

church and raising a young family with our third child expected to be born in just three weeks. I traveled five hours away to be trained for eight weeks for this employment. I have worked as many as sixty-two hours in a week since I have begun. With many exhausting days of hard labor in the frigid cold and now the sun with temperatures in the high 90's this spring.

My change in schedule has not only been tough on me, but my wife has felt like a single parent. I have an opportunity of a new position that became available in this secular company with the promise of better hours (but of course less pay) that I have decided to take. We will see in the next few weeks to come if the time requirements ease. I am telling you all of this to say...

1. Mid-Week

Getting to church on Wednesday evenings (on time) is the hardest part of my week. Which

then makes me feel like a hypocrite because I urge folks to be a part of our biblical studies

while at the same time, I secretively want to have a glass of water sitting on my front porch

watching the sun set.

2. Sunday Mornings

Sundays are feeling more like a day of rest than a day of worship. During the classes at 10

a.m. and the invitation at 12 p.m. I can’t help but to think of the nap that awaits me and the

mind-numbing lounging that I will be indulging in later.

3. Person Time

My prayer time, bible reading, and personal studies seem almost non-existent. I set a time

every morning at 5 a.m. to spend with my Lord and I find myself sitting and starring off for 45 minutes and not even thinking about my blessed Savior. Some mornings are better than others, but the cold truth is my flesh is weak, but the Spirit is able.

Now let us look at the great benefits of being bi-vocational

1. Being Understanding

I have shared the gospel with more people in four weeks than I did in several months as a

full-time minister. It is amazing how I had convinced myself that I was doing a great job

with the gospel from behind a desk. The gospel is to be lived out and presented in the

highways and hedges of life, not from behind a desk.

2. Being Prepared

Working in a worldly-minded corporation has had me cornered, wanting to be gracious

between dealing with carnal minded individuals while also standing firm on the truth of

God. I have had to turn the cheek while being belittled, pushed for a reaction, and forced

to see and listen to sickening sinful propaganda.

I found that there is a comforter that abides with me when I am forced to stand alone. I found that there is strength available when I feel weak and want to react to disrespectful behavior.

3. Being Gracious

Near everyone at the church that I pastor has a job and works more than what is fair, also participates in children's activities and sports and being a caregiver to their loved ones

well-being on an everyday basis.

My secular employment while pastoring has put me in the church service, the discipleship class, and the out-reach program just as exhausted as them, just as unprepared as them, and just as motivated as them. I can now see what each one of the members are up against just to participate.

I am no longer discouraged when someone can't make it or are unprepared. I need grace when I am unprepared, and they need grace from me as well. I had forgotten how busy life can be.

4. Being Joyful

Being in a corporate world, building production, and heavily micro-managed industry as a

born-again servant of the Living God has allowed me to see just how much fellow

believers need one another. I am in a situation where I can pray with men I work on a

crew with. My boss will stop an enormous mountain of obligation to just praise our Savior

for His unspeakable gifts. True Christians need each other in this American Dream.

"Welcome to Life" is what I tell myself every day when I think to myself "what have you done, you had it so well". But the truth is I get to be used in the world rather than just in church. I no longer use hospital visits for affirmation of ministry.

When I put my arms around an unbeliever and tell him that I love him and so does Christ and pray with them, when I get teaching moments at work about parenting, marriage, and faith. I am affirmed that I am working for the King, King Jesus.

I am not perfect. I struggle with wanting worldly success. There are days when I want to be

noticed for my laborious efforts. Arguing with coworkers about a ridiculous point that doesn’t matter anyway.

John 9:5 "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

One Big Idea: You can be affective in secular employment.

Written July 2018

Joshua Hargis @ Elyria Baptist Church, Elyria Ohio