The Need For Bi-Vocational Preachers
The following excerpt is by Clifton Fox, a bi-vocational preacher in Cedar Grove, Tennessee, from his thesis, Tentmakers and Goat Herders: The Men God Called to Preach.
Throughout history, the vast majority of men God called to preach were skilled in various secular trades in which they made their living prior to being called of God. Many of them continued in those trades even after their call to preach. Their secular work provided them a source of income, enabling them to preach as bi-vocational ministers. Many of those men worked their trades as a primary source of income, while fulfilling their true calling to lead and teach God’s people. They were goat herders, farmers, carpenters and tent makers by day and preachers of God’s word by night. As such they were bi-vocational ministers, not part-time preachers. The Apostle, Paul, is the most outspoken of all of God’s bi-vocational preachers throughout history, [...] He was a tentmaker God called to preach unto the gentiles (Gal. 1:15-16). [...] Paul never saw himself as a part time preacher or an inferior apostle because of his secular employment.
Satellite schools enable the local to church to equip and train bi-vocational servants. It offers those who are most gifted in the congregation an opportunity to train and be taught at home rather than being sent away to accomplish that purpose. Now a bi-vocational preacher-in-training can be instructed and equipped without uprooting his family and raising support because of having to quit his job. Furthermore, they are able to grow while working with the local church, which blesses the congregation with growth in return. Satellite schools are idea for today's world and become a means to help reproduce today's church.
