Multi-Vocational Ministry: Part 3 - Profiles in Multi-Vocational Ministry with Rev. Natalia Terfa
Hi Everyone,
Welcome back to my musings on Multi-vocational Ministry. You can read parts I and II here and here.
In Part I, I shared a bit about my journey into multi-vocational ministry, and why I think this is such an important conversation for us to be having in the Church right now. In Part II, I delved a bit deeper into some of the background for multi-vocational ministry, how it’s sometimes used as an excuse to pay pastors less, especially pastors with marginalized identities. I also talked about what’s maybe the most complicated/difficult part of multi-vocational ministry: making it work financially, especially when it comes to benefits like healthcare and retirement accounts.
For the next few columns, I want to start sharing with you profiles of other folks who are engaged in Multi-vocational Ministry. Their examples will add depth and breadth to how we see multi-vocational ministry, and we can also see through their stories real-life examples of how people are living out these callings, as well as areas where they need more support and guidance.
I’m looking forward to sharing these stories and interviews with you! If you would like to be featured in this series, or if you know of someone I should profile, please send me a message!
And, as always, if you have a topic in multi-vocational ministry that you’d like to see addressed here, or questions and case studies, send those my way, too. I can always mix in more topical columns in the midst of our profiles.
Thanks for reading - here’s our first profile!
Multivocational Ministry Profile
Name: Rev. Natalia Terfa
Location: Minneapolis/Brooklyn Park, MN
Years of Ordained Ministry: 8
Years of Ministry (total): 20(+)
Official Job Title: Associate Pastor, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
Un-Official Titles: Project Manager, Church Anew; Podcast Host: Cafeteria Christian; speaker, teacher, presenter, convener; collaborator, dreamer
I’ve known Rev. Natalia Terfa for a few years now, but it wasn’t until we sat down together for this interview that I learned she was an author! And just that fact showed me that even those close to multi-vocational ministers often have little idea of the breadth and depth of their work. So much of multi-vocational ministry gets done behind the scenes, in the margins, with small, incremental pieces of hard-fought progress only much later on resulting in visible accomplishment and acclaim.
Terfa has seen that truth lived out in her own work and ministry, first following a calling into Children, Youth and Family ministry as a longtime Director of Youth Ministry at Prince of Peace, as well as a singer and musician in her own right as a member of the Morning Glories singing group. She then completed a Master of Divinity degree and became ordained to serve as a Pastor of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. While serving the traditional church, Terfa noticed that many people around her no longer felt comfortable in traditional church spaces, especially those who’d experienced abusive church cultures. She eventually teamed up with bestselling author and podcaster Nora McInerny to develop a ministry of their own to reach those very folks, called Cafeteria Christian, which started as a podcast in August 2018 and now boasts 241 episodes (and counting!), 5,000(+) weekly downloads, and an active Facebook group of more than 1,300 members - plus live events and community gatherings online.
Here’s what Terfa had to say about her life as a multi-vocational minister (answers edited slightly for clarity):
Q: How did you become a multi-vocational minister?
I would say … I got asked to write this devotion for our cancer support group (at Prince of Peace). It turned into a book (titled Uplift), which one of my friends gave to (bestselling author and podcaster) Nora McInerny. After that, she and I started meeting and having conversations.
One night, at a fundraising bingo event, she told me: “I came up with a name for our podcast!” Then, we did an episode together on the Alter Guild podcast, and it was just magic … we started Cafeteria Christian in August of 2018.
I’ve also been helping with Church Anew; I started writing for their blog first, and I ended up writing their #1 most-read blog, called An Open Letter to those who haven’t come back to church after COVID, which tells you something about where people are right now.
Since I went 3/4 time (at her pastoral job) in October of 2022, I’ve been doing more of that “side hustle” work, writing curriculum, organizing and managing projects like Stewardship in a Box.
Q: What has been the most rewarding part of being a multi-vocational minister?
I like expanding the view of what a pastor does. So often we think pastor = something at church. It’s fun to be like, “But we do this, too!” I really love singing with the Morning Glories. We just have so much fun singing. I get to show people, “Pastors do this, too!” It’s about widening the view of what ministry is, and helping people see that my only pulpit is not in the church.
Q: What has been the most challenging part of being a multi-vocational minister?
Definitely fitting it into all the time. Because of the expectation that pastors are working at church all the time, it was really helpful to go to 3/4 time in my pastoral call. That way I know: 1/4 time is spent doing this, and I can really give it the time and energy it needs.
One thing I learned on sabbatical (this past summer) is how good it is for me, and my family, to devote time and energy to that part of my life as well, and I don’t want to give that up.
When I first went to 3/4 time, I knew how much pay I was giving up, and I try to keep that in mind to make it up, like how many extra weddings I need to do, or how many articles I need to write. That part has gotten a little bit easier, though I don’t always make it all up. The hardest part too is that health care is attached to your job, and retirement savings.
Q: What’s your advice for others who are considering multi-vocational ministry, or who are doing it right now?
It’s really worth setting time aside from your steady income-paid job or call. I can’t believe I’m going to say that I’m grateful to have gone 3/4 time, but I am. I wish I would have been willing to do it on my own sooner. When I think about the things I love doing most each week, it’s recording the podcasts and spending time with “Cafeterians.” I wondered why I wasn’t giving those things the attention they needed.
I do really get the concept of golden handcuffs, and how everything is often tied to full-time work in a congregation. But there are ways to benefit your congregation through multi vocational ministry. Three-quarter time has been great for my church and for me; if you can set aside a chunk of time to work on your other vocations.
(Note: Pastor Terfa and her pastoral colleague went to 3/4 time in October 2022 for budget reasons. They each take one full week off each month to meet this new schedule).
To learn more about Rev. Natalia Terfa’s multi-vocational ministry journey, and follow her work, check out:
IG: @nterfa
And subscribe to Cafeteria Christian anywhere you get your podcasts.
Thanks for reading this edition of Pastor Angela Denker’s column on Multi-Vocational Ministry. 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.
Angela Denker
Angela Denker, author of Red State Christians: Understanding the Voters who elected Donald Trump (Fortress: August 2019), is a Lutheran Pastor and veteran journalist who has written for Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, Christian Century, and Christianity Today. She has pastored congregations in Las Vegas, Chicago, Orange County (Calif.), the Twin Cities, and rural Minnesota.
Twitter | @angela_denker
Facebook | @angeladenker1
Blog | https://angeladenker.substack.com/
Website | https://www.angeladenker.com
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