The Call to Ministry and Vocation

     Currently, a full-time ministry position is hard to find. Why? More and more, ministers are either moving from full-time ministerial positions to bivocational ministerial positions, or their first church employment is a bi-vocational position. Although these bivocational ministers may be paid on a part-time scale, rarely do these ministers do part-time work. “A recent survey of Louisiana Baptist Bivocational Pastors revealed on average 119 hour work week of the pastors that participated including a 40 hour secular job schedule. That left 7 hours a day to eat, sleep, and family time. This survey was very similar to two other SBC State Convention surveys.” (http://www.bivocational.org/BIVO/Job_Description/BivoDescription.htm)

Interestingly, even though churches are moving away from full-time positions, the church culture still promulgates ministers to announce their call to ministry as a call to “full-time” ministry. Think about it, when was the last time you heard someone announce their surrender to God’s call to the ministry and the person said, “I am announcing my call to part-time employed ministry!” Personally, I believe that we should redefine the call to ministry by separating the call to ministry and the call to a ministerial position because too many young ministers believe that their ministry and ministerial employment are to be in full-time ministerial positions at a church. Because of this terminology, I believe that we will see fewer and fewer ministers will accept bivocational positions because their understanding of their calling and their work do not match.

I believe that there are 4 areas that we can use to clarify the calling to full-time ministry. In seeing these 4 areas, my hope is ministers will better understand and fulfill the calling to full-time ministry. In doing so, I hope that more ministers will see bivocational ministry as a viable means of fulfilling their calling to minister full-time, and that ministers will not shy away from bivocational employment opportunities which God can use to make a difference in the world.

Here are the four ways that we can clarify the calling to full-time ministry:

      1.       Full-time ministry does not mean a full time ministerial vocation

All too often, we associate ministry with a title or position at a church. Interestingly, our go to passage for the call to ministry, The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, makes no mention of positions inside a church. The call by Jesus to His followers to minister is something that is to be done in every minute of every day, not just in a position at a church. A person who does ministry full time may not be an employed member of a church, but they are an obedient follower of Jesus. God’s call upon an individual’s life to ministry is not based on employment, but it is based on obedience to the Spirit’s bidding. A vocation is a way to do ministry, a vocation is not all the ministry we are to do. Likewise, vocations change as individuals age, their gifting changes, and God places them in unique situations to minister, but the call to minister never leaves the individual.

      2.       Full-time ministry is a call from God to always be on mission

You have probably heard someone say, “Let the missionaries do evangelism, that’s their job!” If you are anything like me, you want to fashion a Jesus-at-the-temple-whip and run that person out of the church! Although I get frustrated with their statement, I have to think about their statement and its importance to understanding why people do not minister as they should. For instance, their statement comes from an understanding that paid ministry equals an opportunity to do ministry. Tragically, somewhere in their Christian-life, someone sold them the lie that they can avoid ministering because there is someone paid to do said ministry. The Biblical evidence that contradicts this thinking is too abundant to mention here, but one example, the Apostle Paul did ministry in everything he did, rather he was making a tent or preaching, Paul’s obedience to God’s call meant that he was always on mission for God, rather employed or not. If we wait to do ministry until we are vocationally full time, we will miss the opportunities to be obedient to Jesus’ call. People need us to minister to them rather we are paid and employed in a full-time position or not.

      3.       Full-time ministry is more about a lifestyle than a situation

Doing ministry in everything we do means that our lifestyle is different than those who only do ministry because of a church position. People who live the lifestyle of ministry will share the Gospel with their waiter/waitress, see opportunities during their day to minister to people, create a Gospel culture around them, and take the Gospel outside the walls of the church. The person who makes ministry a lifestyle can take any situation and with the Lord’s working, make an ordinary moment into an extraordinarily Gospel-filled situation.

      4.       Full-time ministry is outside the walls of the church

No matter if someone is vocationally full-time or not, the call to ministry serves both the Church and the lost world. There are many ministers who view their ministry as solely to the Church while they are at church. Tragically, when the minister leaves the church, the minister acts no different than an average member of society; there is no attempt to minister to the community; there is no continuation of living out what they studied; there is no urgency to fulfill the Great Commission; there is no love for the lost person they will later meet. We would consider it a faulty marriage for a husband to neglect his marriage when he is away from his wife, but many ministers consider that they only have to minister when they are at church. A faithful minister ministers inside and outside the church because He is wed to both Jesus and the ministry.