Here is a great article! Let's discuss this as it relates to the Church.
1.The BiVo Challenge - The financial realities of planting leads many planters to be bi-vocational. Let me say that I am a big proponent of bi-vocational ministry. But, that is generally not the goal of most church planters (though I think more should consider it, but that is not this project). Employment presents a unique set of challenges for planters and families. For many bi-vocational planters, fulfilling the work for their full-time position becomes the necessary priority-- you need to be a faithful employee. Outreach, ministry, and service, however, are also important and are limited as a result. A fully-funded lead planter is generally assumed to be the goal and most would say that it is best for the church and the planter when possible. I would say it this way: if the plan is to have a full-time pastor, it is best to start with a full-time pastor, if you have a plan and resources to get to full-time status before running out of full-time funds. We have some good statistical evidence that there are some positive outcomes with full-time pastors starting churches using this approach.
2.Tension Over Talking/Teaching About Giving - Tom Nebel and Gary Rohrmayer tagged this one as "Church Planting Landmine #7" in their helpful book, Church Planting Landmines. Often with good intentions, they overreact to the perceptions of lost people. No doubt, money issues need to be handled differently in church. So with those concerns they avoid talking about money at all (which robs people of the giving experience). Conventional wisdom is that people new to church do not give much during the early years. But you have to wonder if one reason they are so slow is because church planters overreact on this issue.
Read more at http://www.edstetzer.com/2011/01/exponential-blog.html
As a church planter and bivocational pastor, I know all about the challenges of balancing an outside job with the ministry. I have found that the key is to train other people to serve alongside the pastor (call them "lay pastors" if you want to). Delegation is vital or you will go crazy. But delegation is hard because we tend to like to do it ourselves. But when we learn to release, it is a great thing.
ReplyDeleteThat is not to say that being full time is a bad thing. Obviously it is a lot easier. But in some situations, it will take years for it to happen and in other situations, it will NEVER happen. Such as in urban church planting to disadvantaged people or first generation immigrants who might lack work visas.
As for the issue of asking for money from the people coming to the new church, just teach what the Bible says and let the Spirit convict people. Learning to give is no more difficult than learning other spiritual disciplines. Therefore, there is no reason to avoid teaching on it in a balanced way along with other Christian disciplines.
For practical help on how to build a leadership team in the church, consider the book:
"Developing Leadership Teams in the Bivocational Church" published by CrossBooks.com and also available on Amazon.com.
Here is a link for that book:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crossbooks.com/BookStore/BookStoreBookDetails.aspx?bookid=58188