Dear Readers,

Welcome back to the second edition of my column on Multi-Vocational Ministry!

I was so grateful to read the many responses you sent to the first column, as Church Anew seeks to open a space for us to talk about the many pressures, new ideas, and challenges of doing ministry in this ever-changing era.

In my first piece, I wanted to begin to expand our thinking from the more commonly heard “bi-vocational” ministry to see all of our work in the world as multi-vocational, a term that for me more accurately reflects the way so many of us ministers and leaders move throughout the world.

As part of my last column, I shared the many vocational roles that I’m balancing in my life, whether it’s working on a new book, writing my Substack, speaking about my previous book, preaching in my local congregations, and of course serving in multiple family caregiving roles as a spouse, parent, daughter, and sister. 

At least one of you reached out to say that initially as you read my different vocational roles, it made you feel a little bit overwhelmed, or like I didn’t fully grasp the financial challenges of bi-or-multi-vocational ministry. Even as you said you’d re-read the article to realize that it’s probably because of those financial challenges that I’m doing so many things at once (you’re right!) I still thought it was important to use this second edition to talk about the very real financial realities and challenges of doing multi-vocational ministry in a Church world that too often sees vocation in a narrow way.

Additionally, quite a few of you who reached out shared personal stories of marginalization and limited opportunities in traditional parish ministry work, and most of you who shared these stories occupy distinct identity spaces that have often been marginalized and even disallowed for leadership in the church. There’s a reason why many of us who are blazing new trails in multi-vocational ministry are women, LGBTQ+, people of color, and/or people with disabilities. 

For a long time in the history of America and most of the world, and still in many American Church settings, ordained ministry roles were open only to straight (or closeted) men. In my own denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, it’s only in the past 15 years that churches have officially been able to call LGBTQ+ people as pastors, and it’s still the case, again, in my denomination, that women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people have longer waits for parish calls than straight (or closeted) white men.

It’s important to acknowledge that, particularly for Mainline denominations in the U.S., the denominational push toward bivocational ministry came at the same time as pulpits were being opened to formerly marginalized folks.

As the Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath wrote to me on Twitter: “We see this happen in other professions as well. When it is painted as "a woman can do it," it becomes less valuable societally. The Church is not immune from it.”

Absolutely. I’ve traced similar trends in my other profession, journalism, which as it opened more to women and people of color, wages tended to increase and more job responsibilities fell onto journalists, who were soon expected to not only write stories, but also take photos, make videos, and post on social media. All for diminishing wages, of course.

So I think it’s important for ministers ourselves, as well as denominational and church leadership, to distinguish between a trend toward bivocational ministry as a solution to a financial problem in the Church, and the reality of multi-vocational ministry as the Church becomes de-centered in most communities and ministers find ample ways to use ministerial gifts inside and outside church walls.

Let me be clear: I don’t think bivocational ministry works as an urged strategy from denominational and church leadership. I don’t think pushing ministers to be bivocational is the role of church and denominational leadership. Rather, as we all know, vocation is a complicated discipline, resulting from deep discernment, within prayer and community, between an individual and God. Vocational choices are a response to the needs of the world and the leading of God, rather than a response to financial need, increasing health insurance costs, and dwindling church budgets. 

The results of pushing overworked parish pastors into “bivocational” ministry situations simply to pay the bills - rather than as a result of looking for ways their ministry gifts could be used in multiple vocational situations - are dire. I heard a few stories from burned-out parish pastors, many of them working in rural churches on a tight budget, who were sharing full-time positions with their clergy spouses, as well as parenting young children. They wrote about trying to hold down multiple part-time jobs as well as attempting to meet the needs of a church that in the past had been accustomed to a full-time, well-compensated pastor who had a stay-at-home spouse who often spent a lot of time volunteering in the church - as well as a large stable of likewise stay-at-home spouses (mostly women, of course) to fill volunteer roles at the church that, increasingly, pastors are expected to do themselves.

One woman pastor wrote: “There isn't much time left for family at the end of the day. Any ‘day off’ I might've had was filled with other jobs or sometimes vocations.  This constant 'going' leads to burnout, even when doing things I'm called to, and things that inspire and bring life. I seldom feel I have enough time to do anything well because there is always something else calling for my attention.”

Does this sound familiar to any other readers? This pastor shared a sentiment I’ve heard before from other overworked pastors, saying that she rarely felt creative or free on her “work” days, and thus had to move her sermon writing to her one precious “day off.” 

As everyone reading this knows, there’s no easy solution to these problems. Health insurance costs and benefits costs in general for clergy continue to rise, pricing out many small and rural congregations. Many clergy continue to graduate with seminary and educational debt, necessitating a paycheck that can afford basic needs as well as loan bills. And most churches still have expectations for a church that ran like it did decades ago, with requisite programming, despite large drop-offs in staffing, volunteers and attendance. 

Where does multi-vocational ministry fit into this mix? For my contribution, I think it’s important that we see multi-vocational ministry as a starting point - sort of a preexisting condition. Churches, leadership, and denominations should begin by seeing ministers as complete human beings with a variety of gifts to offer inside and outside the church, rather than sort of widgets to fill in to particular parish settings, while adding in a part-time job or “bivocational ministry” heading to pay the bills. 

And not only this, but people who are not “professional church leaders” or ordained clergy should also be reminded that they too are full, multi-vocational human beings, with many gifts and roles they play each day of their lives. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Church could take the lead in valuing the fullness of what human beings bring into the world, rather than just their capitalist-centered financial output?

Thanks for reading the second edition of Pastor Angela Denker’s column on Multi-Vocational Ministry. This column will be taking a summer break in July and August and will be back in September with more personal stories from multi-vocational ministers, as well as practical information, data, and trends about how to integrate multi vocational ministry and ministers into the Church at-large. If you’d like to be featured or share your story, or share an idea you’d like Angela to address in this column, please message her at https://angeladenker.com/contact.