The Bi-Vocational Pastor Assembles His Staff

A friend in Georgia who had read these articles on church staffs raised a good question: “How do do you begin to build a staff when the pastor is the only employee of the church, or even when you are bi-vocational?”

I sent the note to a friend in Alabama who knows all about the bi-vo business. While working full-time for a government agency, Bo has another full time job: pastoring a Southern Baptist church. And, a growing one at that. In fact, Bo’s church is sufficiently large to have two or more ministers on board full time. And yet, he and every member of his staff are bi-vocational.

A word about definitions. Bo called my hand on saying he is part-time at the church. “Hey, no minister is part time! No matter where you are, and no matter what you are doing, you are a minister of the gospel. There is no such thing as a part-time minister.” Good point.

So, how does Bo go about assembling a staff? Before telling you what he said, let me point out that he seems to have a great concept of whom to hire. The times I’ve preached for him, I’ve been impressed by the quality of the leadership of his team.

All right. Here are the eight principles that guide this bi-vocational pastor in seeking staff members….


Bo emphasizes, incidentally, that he just threw these together, so I assume this means they are not in order of priority or importance. I’m editing his notes just a tad for clarity. (Please note that my occasional comment following Bo’s will be in italics.)

1. First and foremore, I look at why they left their last position.

I’m not worried as to whether they were fired or not, unless it was over an ethical issue. It does matter if they caused turmoil, or openly opposed the pastor. If they created strife there, they will here. I know there are exceptions to that, but it is still to be considered.

This means, of course, that you will want to know everything you can learn as to why they left their last position. Then you can decide how much weight to give to what you learned.

2. I look at their passion.

I’m willing to take heat for someone who is giving everything they have. You cannot teach or demand a “called” life. I want them to be as passionate about their area of ministry as I am about the entire church. This might cause strife at some point in staff meetings, but that is not always a bad thing. “As iron sharpens iron….”

Great point. It’s easier to try to rein in some race horses than to build a fire under lazy ones.

3. I use a search team to help me.

Members whom I select for the search team will be people whom I personally know to love God’s church, support their pastor, and have a rooting interest in the job at hand.

It’s always easier and quicker to make these decisions alone, but I guarantee that a new staffer will feel much more secure coming in to a church if he has the endorsement of a team of church leaders. After all, what if the pastor leaves? Even so, the search team should follow the pastor’s lead.

4. I’m looking for loyalty in a staff member.

I search for someone who, after we have talked, I sense will be loyal to me their pastor. This is not an ego thing, but rather a team concept. There are two kinds of people within the church: those on staff and those who aren’t. That is a permanent rule to always be understood. Therefore, the team God builds will need to be loyal to one another. A deflected bullet never hurts as much. 🙂

I once knew of a pastor whose church was looking for a minister of music. While guest-speaking in a church in another city, he interviewed the worship leader there, a man with whom he had been impressed. However, when that staffer began criticizing his own pastor, the visiting minister quickly ended the conversation. He correctly concluded if the man was disloyal to his own pastor, he would be disloyal to a new one.

5. The new minister will need to click with existing staff.

If I believe in the team God has already given us, that I’m going to have to guard them from a new personality that would wreck our unity.

Honestly, I had not thought of this until Bo mentioned it. However, some years back I recall our ending negotiations with a minister whom we had brought to visit our church for the simple reason that he and his wife were social climbers and I felt they would not fit well with our team.

6. I’m looking for a staff member who would never consider himself to be part time.

It’s impossible to do ministry part time.

Bo was picking at me a little on this. But he makes a good point. A danger I’ve encountered in hiring seminary students–they’re always (ahem) part-time or bi-vocational–is some will see the employment as a meal ticket and not want to devote themselves to this ministry. Any pastor considering a seminary student or someone with a 40-hour job elsewhere will want to know how the individual sees his ministry.

7. Include others in the interview.

Talk to people around whom you respect, who can help you in making a decision about the candidate. Include them in the interview process. You might have a minister from another area whom you love dearly, who would sit in on the interview, or at least be a prayer partner and a counselor for you.

Again, I’d not thought of this. Great suggestion.

8. Believe and do not compromise.

Small churches will often settle on the first available person. Better to believe that God is a Big God and will bring in the person you need. Do not be afraid to say ‘no’ to a hire.

In the early 1990s, when my church was looking for a minister of education, we interviewed a number of candidates. In 2004, when I became director of missions for metro New Orleans, Freddie Arnold was the associate in that office. One day, he told me he had interviewed for our church vacancy a dozen years earlier. I said, “That’s strange. I have no memory of that at all.” He laughed, “I had to call you to ask where you were in the search because I wanted closure.” I said, “And what was the answer?” He said, “That the Lord was leading you elsewhere. That’s the same conclusion I had come to for my own ministry.” He ended up in a far superior spot, ministry-wise.

Bo ended, “I can probably think of more guidelines, but that’s it in a nutshell.”

Which incidentally is the title of George Lindsey’s autobiography: “Goober in a nutshell.”

Thanks, Bo. Good stuff.

2 thoughts on “The Bi-Vocational Pastor Assembles His Staff

  1. In one church I pastored, running about 325 with several staff members, we hit on the idea of “coordinators.” We made them age group coordinators as lay people: adult, youth, children, preschool. This enabled us to have some excellent people devote time and creative energy under staff leadership. For example, our youth coordinator was able to round up 100 kids for a fall hayride and carry it off nicely with the help of the paid youth director, who also had other staff responsibilities.

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