Wesleyan Ecclesiology and
the Bi-vocational Pastor
Jeffrey T. Barker
Friday, June 21, 2013
9:00-10:00am
Wesleyan Ecclesiology and
the Bi-vocational Pastor
This workshop will describe the current climate of
bi-vocational pastors, articulate current
assumptions about the pastor’s job, and offer a
Wesleyan ecclesiological framework for
reconsidering the relationship and roles of pastor
and congregation.
Complexity of the Topic
• Absence of a standard model of bi-vocational
• An underdeveloped ecclesiology
• Economic realities (both church and personal)
• Rising health insurance costs
• Nazarene polity
• Other??
My Topic Says a lot about
Me
• My father served as a bi-vocational pastor for
nearly 25 years.
• I serve as a bi-vocational pastor.
• Student debt and prospect of bi-vocational
ministry
• Numerous bi-vocational pastors have shared
their struggles with me.
Current Climate of BiVocational Pastors
Nazarene Research Center has been tracking bivocational ministry through purposeful sampling over
the last 15 years. The pattern has remained steady.
About 33 percent of pastors identify as bi-vocational.
A couple characteristics:
The majority of bi-vocational pastors cite finances as
the primary reason for their status.
The vast majority of these bi-vocational pastors serve
churches with a worship attendance under 100
Current Climate of BiVocational Pastors
Anecdotal evidence from my own district (New
England) suggests that nearly 3 of 4 pastors serve
in a bi-vocational model of ministry.
Current Climate of BiVocational Pastors
While the term bi-vocational is expressed through
a myriad of ministry models the basic premise is
clear: the congregation is unable to financially
support a full-time pastor.
Is bi-vocational anything more than a
“financial” marker placed upon the
pastor?
Clergy Studies
Most of the literature in the field of clergy studies
and, in particular, studies exploring clergy burnout
and attrition focus on the pastor.
Clergy Studies
Pastor
Assumptions about the
pastor’s “job”
Core Pastoral Tasks
Administrative
Tasks
Assumptions about the
pastor’s “job”
Core duties of the pastor are: to pray; to preach the Word; to equip the saints
for the work of ministry; to administer the sacraments; to care for the people by
pastoral visitation, particularly the sick and needy; to comfort those who mourn;
to correct, rebuke, and encourage [parishioners], with great patience and careful
instruction; to seek, by all means, the conversions of sinners, the entire
sanctification of the converted, and the upbuilding of God’s people in the most
holy faith; to administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at least once a
quarter; to nurture the call that people feel toward Christian ministry and to
mentor such persons as are called; to fulfill the expectations of God and the
Church for a program of lifelong learning; to nurture his or her own call through
the years of ministry, to maintain a life of personal devotion that enriches his or
her own soul, and, if married, to guard the integrity and vitality of that marriage
relationship. See Manual, Church of the Nazarene 2009-2013, Kansas City:
Nazarene Publishing House, 2009, p. 189-190.
Wesley’s Church
Article XIX of the Articles of Religion of the
Church of England:
“The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of
faithful men [sic], in which the pure word of God
is preached, and the sacraments are duly
administered according to Christ’s ordinances in
all those things that of necessity are requisite to
the same.”
Wesleyan Ecclesiology
Wesley spent very little time on the subject of
ecclesiology, for he was not interested in
setting up a new church.
Wesleyan Ecclesiology
Early Methodism became a means of grace, a
religious community in which people could
experience the power and presence of God’s
love, the part of the Church that was
experiencing what the Church was intended to
be.
Heitzenrader notes that “the most basic
element in Wesley’s ecclesiology was a focus
on God’s grace.” The Church is because of
God’s grace.
Wesleyan Ecclesiology
Wesley’s ecclesiology, though on the one hand
traditional, was also flexible, functional, and
pragmatic. The point was that the church itself
was to be a means of grace. If this wasn’t
actually happening then the form needed to be
adapted so that it does happen.
Wesleyan Ecclesiology
The starting point for a Wesleyan ecclesiology
is that the purpose of the church is to be an
instrument of God’s grace -- that it must in
actual fact serve God’s mission in the world by
being a Spirit-filled community of God’s grace,
visibly embodying Jesus Christ.
Church of the Nazarene -Article XI
We believe in the Church, the community that confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, the
covenant people of God made new in Christ, the Body of Christ called together by
the Holy Spirit through the Word.
God calls the Church to express its life in the unity and fellowship of the Spirit; in
worship through the preaching of the Word, observance of the sacraments, and
ministry in His name; by obedience to Christ, holy living, and mutual accountability.
The mission of the Church in the world is to share in the redemptive and
reconciling ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit. The Church fulfills its
mission by making disciples through evangelism, education, showing compassion,
working for justice, and bearing witness to the kingdom of God.
The Church is a historical reality, which organizes itself in culturally conditioned
forms; exists both as local congregations and as a universal body; sets apart
persons called of God for specific ministries. God calls the Church to live under
His rule in anticipation of the consummation at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Contemporary
Pastor/Church Relationship
Pastor
Congregation
New Way of Conceiving of
Pastor/Church Relationship
Pastor - Congregation Relationship
exists in the arena of God’s grace
Pastor-Congregation
Relationship exists in the
arena of God’s grace
• The relationship between pastor and congregation
is to mirror the relationship between Christ and the
Church; a visible expression of God’s grace in the
world.
• Bi-vocational isn’t just the pastor’s concern.
• Pastors and congregations must to the hard work
of discerning what is the most faithful model of
ministry for their context.
First Steps
• Both the joy and challenge of bi-vocational
ministry must be shared throughout the
denominational structure.
• Pastors and congregations need to establish
more honest means of communicating
without suspecting the worse in the other.
• Pastors and congregations need to conceive
of their relationship through the lens of
covenant.
Wesleyan Ecclesiology and
the Bi-vocational Pastor
Jeffrey T. Barker
email: jeffrey.barker@enc.edu
twitter: @jtbarker310