My sacred space is a cafe. It’s the cafe where I work three shifts a week, serving coffee, tea, smoothies, and baked goods to the variety of people who come through our doors. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s one of the local independent cafes in our part of Pittsburgh that attracts the graduate students, the internationals, the professors, and the eclectic and eccentric assortment of characters who inhabit Squirrel Hill. And it’s sacred space for me precisely because the people around me there aren’t all other Christians. In fact, most are unchurched or de-churched. And I love them. As one who experiences God when I’m engaged in mission, I see the Holy Spirit at work when I’m around people who are just starting to get to know Jesus. The cafe becomes sacred space for me every time I have a deep conversation with a coworker or listen to a regular customer share their life-story. The relationships I’ve been able to develop with co-workers and customers are sacred relationships. Some people talk to their barista they way one does to the proverbial bartender, and at times I feel like taking off my shoes because I know I’m on holy ground when someone opens up to me.
I’m a pastor, but I sometimes say the place where I do the most real ministry is the cafe. On the surface, I’m “bi-vocational” (working half-time for our church and part-time at the cafe), but I don’t really see any separation between my two jobs. There’s been some good conversation recently in the PC(USA) about tentmaking, or bi-vocational ministry, as a viable option for more and more pastors and congregations. The reason most often given seems to be financial: a church can’t afford a full-time pastor, so the pastor gets another job. I applaud other pastors who do this, but I think the conversation needs to get beyond the financial reasons for tentmaking. Here are the reasons why I chose to be bi-vocational: (1) Mission – As a new church development pastor, my “second” job gives me an entryway into the community. Every day I meet people who would normally never set foot inside a church. And wherever I’m meeting them is exactly where I’m called to be. (2) Leading by Example -Working a second job that’s not explicitly a “ministry” vocation also gives me an opportunity to teach and model for members of my church how we as disciples can find meaning in our “ordinary” jobs. Our churches are filled with people who are discontent with their work and who rarely think of their jobs as places where they can participate in the Kingdom of God. How much of that disconnect is the result of an over-professionalization of clergy? What would it look like to really reflect in our lives the truth that almost any job can be used to serve God?
Early this morning I met my co-pastor and another friend for coffee in my sacred space. This afternoon I’ll return and work for four hours, looking forward to whatever conversations God brings my way. In between I’ll do a little “church work”, but in reality there’s no separation between the two – each job complements and enriches the other. Whether on church time or cafe time, I work and pray, and I look for Christ’s presence in the breaking of bread and the pouring of coffee.
About Chris Brown
Great post. I think you are right in that the Tentamking/BiVoc model needs to be seen, not simply as a fiscal response, but one that my indeed be good for a particular community regardless of fiscal realities. Peace! – Bruce
Great post, Chris. I think the bivocational model has many advantages over traditional pastoral leadership.
It is a serious mistake to have pastors, whom one would hope to be among the most mature, knowledgeable, and passionate Christians, isolated from the outside world.
Also, employing a full-time minister is a huge burden for many churches. I have served for a year in a congregation with an average worship attendance of about 50. I think this a great size for a church, but in denominations with professional clergy, churches this size struggle to find and pay a pastor.
The need to pay clergy also contributes to churches’ excessive focus on money–a huge stumbling block for many people.
I especially like the point about leading by example. Professional clergy do reinforce the idea of a separation between normal life and serving God.
Unfortunately, in the PC(USA) at least, there are many barriers to bivocational and tent-making ministry: churches without a full-time minister are presumed to be unsuccessful; the process of calling a pastor discourages development of leadership from within; the massive investment of time and money that seminary requires makes it less than ideal for those who don’t want to make a career out of the ministry. What can be done about these things?
Chris, thank you! You beautifully state the essential reasons why I chose to do ministry in this way. I’ve been serving as a bi-voc minister for four years now, since graduating PTS and love every minute. My “tent” is teaching in the local public school district full time and then I serve a church part time (the only pastor, ecumenical ELCA/PCUSA, meet in rented space). Like you, I see no separation between my vocations, it is living a life of mission – wherever vocation may lead.
It is so great to know of other bi-voc’s out there with the missional mindset. I can’t say it has been easy, but the sacred space…it is so worth it. There just seems to be so few of us.
As a full time teacher most of my thoughtful time is spent in the educational realm so I do not have a lot of time to reflect on ministry practices. Have you or other Presbymergents thought about a continuing discussion regarding purposeful bivocational/tentmaking ministry and the theology and issues involved? I’d love to continue the conversation with others from the missional perspective!
I once served almost six years as a tentmaker out of economic necessity. My tent was the circulation department in a local library. I would never go back to that experience because it nearly ruined my health. It turns out I was in the wrong tent for me, and the congregation’s power brokers expected nearly full time pastoring from a part time pastor.
I believe God called me to that pastorate, though not to stay. The congregation and I learned a lot during our time together. We each grew in awareness. I believe God wants us to apply our gained awareness, though now in separate ministries.
Edward raises the important point that not all tents provide opportunity for traditional ministry practices. Let’s look at it from another angle and suggest that not all tentmakers are called to employ all traditional ministry practices. Perhaps that’s why they’re tentmakers, because their skill set doesn’t — and shouldn’t have to — include all pastoral leadership skills traditionally associated with full time pastors. Rather, the church needs the skills they have, gives thanks for the skills they have, and doesn’t grumble about the skills they don’t have.
I add to that my concern that presbyteries work with congregations to help them come to a more realistic understanding of tentmaking and shared ministry. Part time ministry shouldn’t mean a minister covers all ministry areas in half the time as a full time pastor. It should mean that the minister and the congregation are matched with complementary skills. For instance, perhaps the minister focuses on nurturing congregants’ spiritual growth, while the congregation attends to local outreach ministries.
I would consider another experience of tentmaking if it was truly bivocational, that is, if I could fulfill my calling equally in both tent and parish. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for such an opportunity to arise for the simple reason that the PCUSA doesn’t appear sufficiently interested or adequately equipped to help match ministers and congregations for this form of ministry. I could be wrong, but that’s how it looks to me right now. I’d like to be proved wrong. Like Edward, I’d like to see some more substantive, out-of-the-box conversation about these and other issues related to tentmaking.
Yay! I wrote similarly a few months ago at http://presbybug.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-am-going-to-be-tentmaker.html … i am not yet “there” (still in seminary) but am honing those tentmaking skills. I’m thinking about really literally making tents (i have a non-pastor friend who does make them) but also about continuing work in the natural food world – small-scale organic farming or the like. But if i do the tents… one of my more clever friends asked if I would then consider myself bivoac-ational =)
This is a really interesting and encouraging thought. Having received my MDIV from Fuller (and the debt to boot!) last year, now working full time as a youth director, and supporting my wife working on her PsyD, I feel like part time ministry and part time work else where just could not pay the bills. But I dream often of part time youth ministry and another vocation – a cook, bar tender, or a teacher are at the top of my list! But I am just unable to move past the financial impossibilities! I wish the church would be more supporting of ordained pastors as well as non-ordained church leadership to be able to do something like this. It might narrow the gap between church leadership and laity, as well as the churched and the unchurched.