Stories tagged with: bivocational pastors

• 'Very very stressful': Bivocational pastors losing income during COVID-19

  by Diana Chandler, posted Monday, April 20, 2020 (4 years ago)

  

  iStock

  EL PASO, Texas (BP) -- Bivocational missionary Jesus Galarza financially supplements his ministry in El Paso and northern Mexico by coaching volleyball, but he can neither minister nor coach during the COVID-19 pandemic that has stymied livelihoods across the U.S.

  The Baptist General Convention of Texas will continue to pay Galarza as a contract employee through the end of the year and will include him in an economic relief program for bivocational ministers. To further compensate for his loss of income as a volleyball coach, Galarza will rely on savings and the economic supplement the U.S. government is sending taxpayers through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Read More

• Balancing pastorate, marriage aim of conf. resource

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, August 30, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  BSCLN photo

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Happily wed to his new bride Pennie, Joe Wright didn't want to travel without her in his role as executive director of the Bivocational & Small Church Leadership Network (BSCLN).

  "When I interviewed with the BSCLN and they offered me the position, I shared with them, 'This is a burden on my heart. A lot of ministers are struggling. I'm a newlywed, I'm happy and I want my wife to go with me,'" Wright told Baptist Press in describing a new BSCLN conference for pastors and their wives. Read More

• Bivocational pastors encouraged to persevere

  by Shar Walker , posted Friday, June 21, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Featured guest speaker, cartoonist and preacher Joe McKeever encouraged bivocational pastors in the rewarding and challenging work to which God has called them during a luncheon in Birmingham, Ala.

  The Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network hosted the Bivocational Pastor's Luncheon, held June 12 in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. Read More

• Small church, bivocational group offers free education

  by Diana Chandler, posted Monday, August 27, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo.

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- As Joe Wright Jr. and his wife Pennie worshiped with a Southern Baptist congregation of 12 members in the Tennessee Delta just a few weeks ago, the pastor's participation was noticeable.

  "We sat there and watched the pastor open his hymnbook and without a piano, he led those 12 people in about three songs," said Wright, in his fourth month as executive director of the Bivocational & Small Church Leadership Network (BSCLN). '"When he was done, he shut the hymnbook, and he said let's pray. And he prayed, and he said, 'It's time for the preaching.' And he opened the Bible, ... Read More

• #MeToo confronts small churches, bivocational pastors

  by David Roach, posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Photo by Matt Miller

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Amid the #MeToo movement, conferences and seminaries have heightened their focus on training pastors to prevent and report sexual abuse.

  But associational leader Sean McMahon worries those training efforts are leaving out a sizable group of pastors: small church and bivocational "heroes" who "work 55-60 hours a week in their normal job," serve 20 hours with the church and "never take a Sunday off."

  "Most bivocational pastors don't get to go to conferences," said McMahon, executive director of the Florida Baptist Association in Tallahassee. "Most bivocational pastors never set foot on a seminary campus.... To be able to get some real training in their hands" on abuse prevention and reporting "is huge." Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: A normal Baptist church

  by Randy C. Davis, posted Wednesday, April 25, 2018 (6 years ago)

  Randy Davis tells of visiting a "normal" Baptist church in a "normal" rural community led by a "normal" bivocational pastor. But churches like First Baptist Howell are "pretty exceptional in my book," Davis writes. Read More

• Factory or horseback, bivocational pastor thrives

  by Sue Sprenkle, posted Thursday, January 04, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Photo by Sue Sprenkle

  AUGUSTA, Kan. (BP) -- Each workstation is a flurry of activity. Plastic bottles stream down the conveyer belts. Hands reach out to adjust each bottle to face the same direction before they go to plastic wrap. Across the floor, someone shouts above the rickety-racket to shut down one of the machines and reload.

  Don Mayberry walks through the factory's maze of machines and activity, stopping to talk to each person. He asks about family, the latest sports event or simply how their day is going. His conversations with coworkers inevitably end in smiles, laughter and lighthearted teasing along with his trademark fist bump or the occasional side-hug.

  It's the same at the cowboy church Mayberry pastors in Augusta, Kan. Read More

• Special ops good prep for bivocational pastor

  by Roger Alford, Kentucky Today, posted Tuesday, August 15, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  NEBO, Ky. (BP) -- Retired Army Maj. Tim Morgan spent 24 years as a soldier serving his country. Now he's focused on serving others as a bivocational pastor.

  Morgan, pastor of Silent Run Baptist Church in western Kentucky, now seeks to bring the same courage and tenacity to his ministry that he was decorated for as a special operations helicopter pilot delivering Delta Force soldiers and Navy Seals into hot spots around the world. Read More

• Bivocational pastor's careers require intentionality

  by Alex Sibley, posted Tuesday, May 30, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  Photo by Adam Covington

  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BP) -- Whether serving as pastor of Indian Nations Baptist Church, a bus driver, professor or certified professional coach, Scott Tafoya strives to make disciples in whichever sphere he finds himself.

  The unique opportunities of a bivocational pastor, he says, "are, in some ways, no different than for any other Christian."

  "Though we need to 'leave our work at the office' at times," Tafoya says ministry is "tied to life as a whole and really cannot be seen as completely separate." Read More

• Bivocational minister refuses to turn over sermons

  by Diana Chandler, posted Thursday, October 27, 2016 (7 years ago)

  

  Photo from First Liberty Institute

  ATLANTA (BP) -- A bivocational lay minister and physician is refusing to give the state of Georgia copies of his past sermons in a legal suit alleging the state fired him as health director because of his religious beliefs.

  Eric Walsh will not comply with the district court's request for his sermons and relevant notes because he believes the court has exceeded its authority in the request, he said in an Oct. 26 press release from his counsel, First Liberty Institute. Read More