PLYMOUTH – I am on the search for disciplined, driven, disciples of Jesus Christ who believe that starting a new church is the next challenge for their lives. Are you one of them? Are you searching for that next level of performance in your life where working with a team of people would bring a spiritual-electricity to each day? I want to hear from you. Call or text me at (734) 770-0608, or email me at tlynn@namb.net.
During the 1980s, I was a fulltime student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky pursuing my Master of Divinity Degree and a full-time pastor in Sonora, Kentucky. I was surrounded by central Kentucky pastors who were appliance repairmen, crop farmers, funeral home workers, and agricultural insurance salesmen. All of us were bi-vocational; I had school and ministry, they had local jobs and ministry. My time of fellowship with some of my brothers leading churches was spent behind noisy tractors helping them gather crops on a Friday so they could spend more time on Saturday putting the finishing touches on their sermon or making pastoral visits to members of their churches.
What are the advantages of becoming a bi-vocational church planter/pastor, now? I can name four.
Access and Influence
For centuries, bi-vocational church planters/pastors have trended and made gigantic impacts in ministry. In Acts 18:1-4, we learn that Paul left Athens at the same time, a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla, left Rome. All three ended up in Corinth, and it was there that as friends the three became coworkers in the local market and in ministry making and repairing tents. Using your imagination, you can just see Paul, Aquila, or Priscilla pulling out their tent repair kits patching holes while visiting with a family, and sharing the stories of a risen Savior named Jesus Christ. Many local, respected bi-vocational ministers receive access and influence in local people’s lives. He is the first one they think of in times of need, and during times of deep questions. Local people think of the spiritual people, in their daily lives, who they know the best when they are looking for spiritual answers. Access and influence are powerful.
Resources and Reach
Ministers hundreds of years ago in North America, may have had access to a few written books plus their personal Bibles. However today, church planters and pastors can access classes, conferences, and curriculum from a laptop without abandoning their local community! Sermons and lessons can be written, edited, and archived by the local church planter/pastor as an ever-growing personal library. Classes, certificates, diplomas, and degrees of all kinds can be accessed through anyone’s personal home-office. Subjects like theology, history, counseling, Greek, and practical ministry training are a click away. And with the use of AI, Google Translate, and audio readers a minister’s message can be shared in different languages and on a variety of platforms. The unbelievable resources enrich a church leader’s preparation while extending his platform nationwide, or even globally through his writings, his audio trail, and even videos posted for worldwide consumption.
Communities and Collaborations
Every social media platform, organization, school, profession, and ministry has online communities and gatherings where various levels of collaborations take place 24/7 through posts, chats, online rooms, including international, encrypted, secure apps that can be downloaded to a person’s smartphone or laptop. It has never been easier to have targeted conversations and enthusiastic partnerships on a project than it is today!
While pursuing two post-graduate degrees and working in ministry, my education and my partnerships with other ministers did not start until I drove miles away from my local community to a central site to learn from professors, and to make plans with other ministers away from my church field. Rest assured, I believe like you, that there is a deeper synergy that takes place face-to-face, but being able to sprinkle into my schedule online meetings in between those face-to-face gatherings helps all of us make better progress, and to hold one another accountable.
Identification and Invitation
Reflect on this big item. Local people will more easily identify with a respected, local bi-vocational church planter/pastors who mix in with their day to day lives and who are worthy of their trust. That makes it more probable for the Lord to invite others to join the local army of redeemed people seeking the salvation and spiritual growth of their own neighbors.
The Old Testament stories and the New Testament stories actually describe the interaction between the Lord and day-to-day people much more than they describe men and their wives living out lives entirely supported by one local congregation.
Just reflect on the names. Adam and Eve were told to care for the world. That was a big job! Abraham and Sarah became nomads moving from one address to another. Joseph of the Old Testament was entrusted with household, prison, and national welfare care at the spiteful whims of others and what seemed like a life-out-of-control, but it was Joseph who said to some of his family members at a pinnacle moment, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good,” (Genesis 50:20).
In the New Testament, the Lord made use of the lives and testimonies of a physician, tax collectors, fishermen, business leaders, teachers, and a jailer! Locals more easily see themselves in the sterling reflections of admirable church planters/pastors and their wives who appear to experience life just as they do, but with one major additional component. The locals will ask themselves, “Why shouldn’t I try to live out that daily faith I see in the local pastor and his wife?”
Remember there are four advantages to becoming a bi-vocational church planter/pastor today. The question is, when are you going to contact me to explore that option for your life?
Access and influence
Resources and reach
Communities and collaborations
Identification and invitation
There are many places and many people groups throughout Michigan looking, waiting, and hoping for someone like you to serve in their community. Feel free to reach out to me for a no-obligation conversation over the phone, through an email, over a coffee, or during a meal. I am ready for you. Are you ready for what the Lord wants to do with your life? Call or text me at (734) 770-0608.
If you need more private research time and reflection, please let me direct you to tremendous resources at the following site: Bivocational/Covocational Church Planting/Pastoring – my trusted friend Dr. Brad Brisco is the curator of a lot of resources for those involved in living out ministry leadership in their local community. You can also find him on Facebook and X with links to ministry resources.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Tony L. Lynn is the Send Network Director for Michigan and the Language/Ethnic Church Planting Catalyst. Before coming on staff at the BSCM, Tony served as a lead pastor in Michigan churches and as an international missionary, along with his wife Jamie, in the Niger Republic, France, and Canada.
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