For more than half of the state’s Baptist ministers, the 8-to-5 grind of their nonchurch-related job bleeds over into nights and Saturdays of visitation, study and preparation for a packed out Sunday schedule.
Such is the life of a bivocational pastor.
It is estimated that 51–53 percent of the pastors in the state’s 3,200 Southern Baptist churches are bivocational, said Lee Wright, an associate in the office of LeaderCare and church administration for Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
Many churches cannot afford to pay the salary of a full-time pastor, so they have a bivocational pastor, he explained. While some bivocational pastors may be retirees, others are serving in the ministry in addition to holding a secular job.
‘Very busy life’
The advantage of being bivocational is that the pastor isn’t solely dependent on the church for his livelihood. The disadvantage is that the bivocational pastor may be the only ministerial person in the church, Wright said.
The bivocational pastors who are also employed “have a very, very busy life” trying to juggle family, job and church, he noted.
In addition, some bivocational pastors live 40 miles or more from where they serve, Wright said.
And between the responsibilities of job and church, many may not get a day off.
“There are some, I don’t know how they do it,” Wright observed. The bivocational pastor tends to have “an amazing dedication,” he said.
David Reed is pastor of Underwood Baptist Church, Montevallo, in Shelby Baptist Association. He is also a correctional officer in a juvenile facility, working the overnight shift by choice so that he can be with his family in the afternoon and evening and at his church for Sunday services.
When Reed gets off work in the mornings, he makes hospital visits and prepares sermons before getting some sleep.
“I have to keep a pretty rigid schedule,” Reed said. “… The time with my family comes through a schedule. … It’s a delicate balance you have to watch all the time.”
His rotating work shift sometimes means he is on the job all night Saturday, preaches Sunday morning, naps that afternoon, preaches again that evening and then goes back to work that night. On those weekends, Reed does what he calls “creative sleeping.”
“God enables me to do what I think I cannot do,” Reed said of these points in his rotation.
Rare are the occasions when he is not in the pulpit.
“I do what I do until I need some time off,” Reed said. “My deacons are real flexible to work with me.”
And they help minister when he isn’t available.
Wright said delegating and drawing on the abilities of members is a good thing. It strengthens the congregation by involving the individuals in ministering to needs.
Trying to work a 40-hour-a-week job in addition to ministering to a congregation can be a great load, said Don Hillis, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Toney, in Madison Baptist Association, who also works for a contractor for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
“At times, it’s very hard. It’s very stressful,” he said.
Getting a day off from pastoral obligations isn’t easy. Hillis has found that he gets a day off here and there — “when it happens.”
When his children were young, he made a point to be with them at sporting events and other times. Hillis said he made clear to the churches he served that he would be supportive of his family and valued his family time.
At Calvary Baptist, Hillis said there are men who can step up and help minister and “they are tremendous blessings.”
That wasn’t always the case at other churches, though. He said there were times that the men in those churches weren’t able to help out because they worked, too.
But Hillis seems to know his limits, and when he begins to feel inundated, he steps back and replenishes.
Harold Rogers, pastor of Lighthouse Bible Baptist Church, Enterprise, in Coffee Baptist Association, has learned about backing off, too. In fact, for him, it meant changing jobs.
During the years that he was an assistant principal, Rogers would get home many nights at “dark-thirty,” leaving little time for personal devotionals and family. In addition, those long, sometimes 14-hour, days affected his ability to minister and prepare sermons.
When he took a position as an educator of children with learning challenges, Rogers found that he had time to be with his family, study, minister or just relax and watch an “Andy Griffith” episode.
“It is such a reward to have time to devote to sharpening the ax,” he said.
Rogers is also enjoying a “rich” walk with God that he didn’t have during the five years in administration because his time was so limited.
“I was missing that a lot and did not know,” Rogers noted.
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