Is Bi-vocational Ministry A Compromise?
My other job at Gordon College has been busy lately, so I haven’t had time to blog with Advent coming up, so I thought I would repost Fitch’s article since it was quite thought provoking. What do you think about his post?
From Why Missional Leaders Need To Get Over White Man’s Angst:
Young white males, coming out of seminary, can’t deal with the identity crisis they get when they are asked to pursue another skill or vocation alongside the pursuit of ministry. Somehow, to dive in and learn another vocation for the long term that shall feed into one’s vocation of ministry – is a compromise.
Fellow pastor Geoff Holsclaw and I were talking about this yesterday and he called it “the white man’s place of privilege.” We (white males) are used to being masters of our own destiny. We are told we can do anything if we work hard enough. So to pursue a vocation other than ministry that shall be part of ministry is a compromise. It detracts from a singular focus on ministry. It throws open the future. It disrupts the question “will this job fulfil me?” because there is no way this question makes sense anymore when we enter into Kingdom life in this way.
And yet this is exactly the path I believe many of us are called into when looking at the church through the eyes of post Christendom.
