Time Wasted as a Pastor

Something is Wrong Here

In my early 20’s maybe late teens I grabbed lunch at the nearby Mexican restaurant with a pretty well known Pastor in our area. This Pastor led multiple churches in different counties and was considered by many of the surrounding preachers in our area as one of the best to ever do it.

As me and this Pastor sat and talked for an hour or so during my lunch break we got onto the topic of my future in Pastoral ministry. I had felt called since a very young age but was not enrolled in a Bible college or seminary. I was not an intern at any church(that was just for this time period, I had already done three internships before this conversation). I was not preaching regularly but in my private life I was devouring books on theology and ministry. In my own DIY way I was pursuing with all I had in the tank this role of Pastor.

At a certain point as we discussed my future I began telling this Pastor how I was really interested in the life of bi-vocational ministry. There was something unique to me about a Pastor who Monday thur Friday was in the world, working a secular job just like all his congregants. Though I would not be able to detail all the benefits at the current moment I was sure that in bi-vocational ministry there was something uniquely valuable there that the churches in my area of the country needed to be reminded of.

As I told this Pastor my immature desires to be a bi-vocational Pastor, he met me with bluntness. “I don’t know how anyone could do the actual job of Pastoring people and work another job on top of that. Pastoral ministry is an all-day everyday job. There’s no time for that and frankly there’s no one capable of that.”

To give a spoiler alert, I knew this Pastor was out of touch. But my immaturity on the subject and lack of experience at the time gave me little to pushback with.

That conversation happened over ten years ago.

What is Bi-Vocational Ministry?

Bi-vocational ministry is where a Pastor has a job/career outside of his ministry in order to support the work he is doing in his ministry.

Now before you scratch your heads at how all of this is possible, The National Survey of Religious Leaders Report says: “A remarkable fact about today’s clergy is that most entered ministry as a second career.”¹

What this means is that there is a good percentage of people in ministry who started working in ministry not as their primary vocation but as their secondary. They had a career and while in that career decided to make the leap into ministry without abandoning their career as they remained obedient to God’s call.

If you grew up like me though in a Southern Baptist/evangelical context where your church had a staff, then this may all sound weird and possibly demeaning to the call of ministry on one’s life. Should’t you abandon everything to follow Jesus and tell others about him?

We see examples of this time and time again throughout Scripture.

But what we also see is Paul the Apostle, the writer of 13 letters in the New Testament working a day job to fund the ministry.

And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.  And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.²

Paul was a tentmaker by trade while he was doing ministry.

N.T Wright explains this saying:

“Tentmaking” probably included the crafting of other goods made of leather or animal hair in addition to the core products of tents themselves. (We may think of tents as camping gear for leisure use, but in Paul’s world then, as in parts of the world today, many people moved from place to place for seasonal work, and even people who stayed put would depend on canvas awnings and shelters to enable them to work under the hot sun.)³

Paul’s craft of tent making was not a hobby. It was a serious trade with a wide market and a high demand. We can assume he was skilled in his craft because of the volume of the market itself.

The reality that we often just take for granted is that this bi-vocational ministry was the rule not the exception.

N.T Wright also makes the comment: “being a Torah student or teacher was not a salaried profession. Rabbi’s in Saul’s day, and for centuries afterward, earned their living by other means.”

John Mark Comer also comments:

Rabbis were itinerant, and most were unpaid.(Some worked their farms or ran businesses for seasons of the year, then traveled in the off-season.) They walked from town to town to teach in whatever synagogue would have them, relying on the hospitality of people of peace.⁴

We may live in a context where you are use to seeing Pastors making big salaries from big churches and to be honest even small churches going outside of their means to make sure the Pastor is more than well taken care of. But what you may be used to is not always what history has been used too. And the argument that I would like to make is not one that takes away from Pastors who are in “full-time” ministry. But to shine more of a light on the unique benefits of bi-vocational ministry that often gets diminished because of our context today.

The Benefit You Are Missing

1. Exposure: Tentmkaing was a traveling profession. And if you know anything about Paul it gave him the ability to move around from place to place and regardless of whether he was paid for his work in ministry or not, he could by way of his own means work to fund the ministry he was doing. The benefit of this traveling profession for Paul was his exposure to people of all times and all places. He continually would enter their world in a way that a Pastor trapped in the confines of their building may not. Paul says in his letter to the church of Corinth: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.“⁵
2. Freedom: In that same chapter in 1 Corinthians Paul is defending his rights to be an Apostle. There has been some accusations thrown around that he is not an Apostle but Paul stands firm on his encounter with the risen Messiah and with that Paul says in my own words “I am free to be paid for the work I do in ministry.” Paul is not a lazy man. He is working hard to share the gospel with the people God assigned to him. Yet, even though Paul acknowledges he in a sense deserves to be paid for his hard work in Kingdom building he also says: “But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.”⁶ There is a freedom in being compensated outside of your work in vocational ministry. That freedom is found in your proclamation of the Gospel to others. No one can say “oh, you only preach because you get paid to.” No one can say “it’s easy for you to follow Jesus because you get paid too.” The truth of the matter is that a bi-vocational minister has every excuse the layman does for why they should not be living out the truth off the gospel, yet they still show up. I had a mentor/friend who was bi-vocational and he said this line to me that has stuck with me ever since. My friend who worked a physically demanding job and was an Associate Pastor said: “I show up on Wednesdays to church because it shows to the congregation that sees me, if he can do it, so can I.” As someone who is bi-vocational I can attest to this. I am free from any accusation that I do this work because I’m compensated well. I am not on staff, I have not been paid for full-time or part-time work at a church. As my friend said: “I do this for the love of the game.”
3. Ability: Paul recognizes that if you preach the Word, you deserve to be compensated for your work. Just like a plumber deserves a paycheck at the end of the week for their work, so a preacher does for his work. Yet with that right, Paul says: “I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast.  For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.  What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.”⁷ Paul strategically uses his tentmaking to provide a way for him to preach the gospel free of charge. Paul would preach whether he was paid or unpaid. The reason why is because Paul feels compelled to preach. Charles Spurgeon would tell his students “If you can do anything else, do it. If you can stay out of the ministry, stay out of the ministry.”⁸ For the bi-vocational preacher, you have a reason you could stay out ministry. Your life is not dependent on whether you show up to that church week in and week out. But you show up because you cannot not show up. It’s in your blood. For me it reminds me of the doctrine of irresistible grace. The call of God on your life is so strong, so persuasive, so irresistible that you have to respond with obedience. For the bi-vocational minister there is an irresistible call on your life to preach the gospel and shepherd God’s people and even though you have a way out, you cannot stay out. Some people need to burn all their bridges, some people use those bridges to go further though. That is the ability the bi-vocational minister has that is a blessing not a curse on their life.

The Challenge

Bi-vocational ministry is hard work. You are a mere human with the same amount of time in a day as anyone else. What this means for you is that you cannot do this well without a gameplan.

One of the worst aspects of Christian ministry today is this horrible philosophy that encourages minsters and volunteers to “follow the Spirit” which from my own experience more times than not means “wing it.”

Winging it will lead you to failure and burnout. And when you are called to preach the gospel to his people and shepherd his flock, you have a high calling on your life that needs to be met with just as high of an attention to detail in order to give the proper respect to the work you are about to do.

As a high school student I loved Jonathan Edwards. I wanted to be like Jonathan Edwards. He was a passionate young man who had a resolve from an early age to die well. I want to die well.

I want to die knowing my life was used to its fullest to build Christ’ kingdom. In order to die well though you have to live with intention.

Jonathan Edwards in his fifth Resolution says:

Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

Joey Tomlinson modernizes this resolution by saying:

Resolved, never to waste even a moment of time, but to redeem the time to the best of my abilities.⁹

The common critique from full-time Pastors to the person pursuing or in bi-voctional ministry is the charge that “you cannot do everything and be everyone.” This is a good challenge from our brothers who care for our souls and fear we may burn out. I am one man. I cannot be everywhere, doing everything and being everyone.

But what I can do is approach the work the way God calls me to.

Every believer has a similar call on their lives that is the groundwork for all of ministry.

Jesus says to his students as he is sending them out into the world: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”¹⁰

Do you notice what Jesus calls us all to do?

Make disciples.

Do you know what a disciple is?

A disciple is an apprentice. We mostly use the word student today, but apprentice hits home a little more because when you think of a student you probably think of someone sitting in a classroom, mostly listening and occasionally taking notes and the goal for the student is to memorize in order to pass a test. After that test, the student graduates and never is expected to use the information again unless it is in a setting where your class actually pertains to what you plan to do for a career. But most of modern education has nothing to do with your career.

An apprentice though is someone who shadows a master. The master refers to someone who has literally mastered their craft. They are an expert in their field of work. And Jesus being the great rabbi he was, is a master at making disciples. He continuously brought people along with him to shadow him. And what these shadows would do is mimic everything he did. If he raised his hand, they raise their hand. If he walks with a limp, they walk with a limp. The apprentice in a Jewish context would literally learn to walk the way a rabbi did, because the goal was to eventually become the rabbi.

As Pastors, I fear we often forget what our goal is. Our goal should not be to do every job in the church. Our goal should be to train people up to do. every job in the church. There should be a constant passing of the baton and I fear we may have forgot that.

The challenge for the bi-vocational Pastor is that they are more pressed to train others up because the full-time pastor is right: “you cannot do everything.” The irony I have found though is that many full-time Pastors forget to train others up and pass the baton because they get paid to do everything.

Simply put, the challenge for us all is to train up all believers into leaders. Maybe the weight of ministry is so heavy today because we have been carrying the weight that God calls all of his people to carry.

So should the bi-vocational minister be guarded about trying to do everything and be everyone? Absolutely.

The other challenge I see though refers back to that Jonathan Edwards line about making the most of the time we have. I fear to say this because I do not want it to seem as if I enjoy picking on my friends in full-time ministry. I know some Pastors who work full-time, and I mean FULLTIME. They work hard. But there is also a problem with many “full-time” pastors who waste time. There is a problem when the men in the pulpit are not worthy to be in that pulpit not because they do not know their theology well or are poor communicators. But they are not worthy because they lack a work ethic.

I know some Pastors whose work looks more like a hobby than a commitment. There is no grind.

This again is not the case for all Pastors. But the challenge exists for us all. Regardless of if you have 15 hours to prepare a sermon or 4 hours, how do you use your time?

Joey Tomlinson again says:

To redeem the time is to be generally intentional and strategic about the time the Lord gives us. We are to be productive citizens of the Kingdom of God. This is how we combat the evil day. We are to put our hands to the plow and not delay our work(Proverbs 14:23). Productivity in God’s kingdom looks like a mustard seed that grows into a large tree(Matthew 13:31-32). Productivity in God’s kingdom is a leavening work(Matthew 13:33). This means that we see our investment as a long term one. Therefore, what we do matters, and there are no short cuts.¹¹

There is a lie that has been sold to us that to work hard means to work long. That’s actually not true. We all know this from experience. The person who goes to the gym and works out longer does not necessarily equate to them seeing the best results. You can workout all day, but if you do not take time to rest and refuel then all you are doing is destroying your body.

Or what about the worker who boasts about laboring for 60 hours a week. They see that as something to be proud of but everyone in their life can see the toil it takes on them. They are never present with their family because they are too exhausted for the limited time they are around. Their work is just that, it’s work. It’s not meaningful. It does not satisfy, it only takes.

For many of us in the church we have bought into the lie that more time, means more quality. But that’s not true. Just because you worked on a sermon for 15 hours does not mean you are a good preacher. It may actually mean the opposite it may mean you waste too much time.

Now what I need to clarify is that I do not mean to say you should rush your work. But there are two ditches we can easily fall into. One being our wasting time because of our belief that our time equates quality. The other ditch is to rush our work and not do our due diligence in giving time for the Spirit who is often slow to work in us.

We need to understand what good work ethic actually means.

Having a good work ethic means you make the most of the time you have. What I appreciate about the pace of work we have adopted at the cabinet shop that I work at is that it proves our time meaningful.

We get to the shop at 7am and knock off at 4pm. We have an hour lunch break from 12-1. Before that we take a coffee break at 10(which can go anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 easily). Most employers would panic at the sound of a 45 minute coffee break. Most employers would be saddened by the idea that their employees only work 40 hours a week. But on job sites, our work speaks for itself. When it is time to work, we work hard. We provide the best cabinets most people have ever seen. We have been called to replace cabinets from other cabinet shops because the quality of our work is so beyond what the other shops are doing that the people cannot resist. Our work is of such quality that we do not even compete with other shops. We don’t worry about bidding or if we will get that job or not or if to advertise our business. Because we dedicate our work to the Lord. And when you do that, every minute matters. And when every matters not only are you more productive but the quality of work increases as well and you will no doubt reap the rewards for it.

I believe churches have burned out many Pastors and volunteers by making them work longer hours and expecting better results. But a worker who is well rested is a better worker. A worker who manages their family well, is a better worker. A worker who prioritizes their spiritual wellbeing, is a better worker. How crazy is it that I learned this from a cabinet shop and not at a church?

This is why Paul says: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,  knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”¹²

Final Thoughts

A.J. Swoboda says:

I learned long ago that if I am needed to help resolve everyone else’s “emergency,” then I am discipling people to be more dependent on me than on God and even on each other.”¹³

I believe as Pastors we need to critically rethink how we do ministry.

If our immediate knee-jerk reaction to the idea of being bi-vocational is “what a stupid idea” then we need to step back and rethink what it is we are actually called to.

Are we called to build massive institutions that look more like businesses from our favorite entrepreneurs? Or are we called to build the Kingdom of God by making disciples who in turn rise up and make more disciples who then go on and make more disciples?

Is the church dependent on you? Are you actually working unto the Lord or are you working to make ends meet?

As a bi-vocational Pastor, I am not in this for the money. I am not in this to make a name for myself. I am not in this to build a church that relies solely on me and my platform. I’ll be gone one day when I am I want to die a death that blesses others more than hurts them.

The way I want to make sure I bless others in my death is by leaving having equipped “the saints for work of ministry”.¹⁴

May we all do that, whether we get paid to or not.

1. The National Survey of Religious Leaders Reporthttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/65417aab75d81771950d332f/t/67cb42e5cad1c1762527f317/1741374184941/NSRL-report-2025-clergy-in-america.pdf ↩︎
2. Acts 18:2-4 ESV ↩︎
3. N.T. Wright on page 15 in: ‘Paul: A Biography’ ↩︎
4. John Mark Comer in his book ‘Practicing the Way'(pg.4) ↩︎
5. 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 NIV ↩︎
6. 1 Corinthians 9:12 NIV ↩︎
7. 1 Corinthians 9:15-18 NIV ↩︎
8. Charles Spurgeonn in his book ‘Lecture to My Students’ ↩︎
9. Joey Tomlinson in his book ‘Serious Joy: Reflections and Devotions on Jonathan Edwards’ Seventy Resolutions'(pg.29) ↩︎
10. Matthew 28:18-20 NIV ↩︎
11. ‘Serious Joy’ (pg.30) ↩︎
12. Colossians 3:23-24 ESV ↩︎
13. A.J. Swoboda in his book ‘Subversive Sabbath’ (pg. 41) ↩︎
14. Ephesians 4:12 ESV ↩︎