Bi-vocational congregations: recipe for the future

Alban Institute explores the Bi-Vocational Congregation.

We believe the bivocational congregation (not to be confused with, but related to, bivocational pastors) offers a viable model for tomorrow’s church. A bivocational congregation is a local church that operates upon (and may even self-consciously understand) two callings: the calling of function and the calling of mission. We believe the bivocational congregation is more likely to survive into tomorrow to do God’s will and be God’s people because it is essentially organized around spiritual realities in tune with God’s redemptive work. These include:

healthy team functioning

a high commitment to place and to being a ministering presence in that place

a willingness to die to self, if need be, in the cause of serving others

an acceptance of this expression of the church as a full expression of the church, not a second-rate, temporary, expedient form of the church

a willingness to experiment and trust that a higher power has something wonderful in store for tomorrow

Does a congregation need to have a bivocational pastor to exhibit the positive qualities of a bivocational congregation? We think that, though it may help, it is not necessary. What makes a congregation bivocational and more likely to thrive into the future is the dual calling of the congregation to fresh understandings of mission and function—mission that is rooted locally, focused, and so primary that the church is willing to risk self in the cause, and functioning that is responsible, complementary, experimental, and not pastor-dependent, but lay-owned. Such a church, we believe, will warm God’s heart and serve its neighbors for years to come.

Read more here.

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