They staged an intervention when I needed it the most.
I’d reached out to a couple of friends for advice on how to build an online community to go along with my books. As a pastor who worked part-time to supplement my ministry at the church, I was looking for ways to build a side hustle that made sense.
They stopped me.
At first, they told me how they had built their online communities. Both have done a good job. Both communities are focused on helping people follow Christ. Both are growing. Both are making money.
I felt my interest growing. Maybe I could do the same, serving people and generating income that would support my pastoral ministry.
One of them paused. “You’re a pastor, right?” he asked. “Why do you want to do something that’s going to take so much of your attention from pastoral ministry? We need pastors who are focused on pastoring.”
Counter-arguments ran through my head. I needed to supplement my church-planting income. In other words, I was bi-vocational (or co-vocational, as they put it today). Nothing wrong with that. After all, Paul sometimes made tents to pay for ministry. Some pastors I respect work hard as accountants or builders to make money to serve in ministry. Lay elders often work full-time and fulfill their pastoral duties on top of their jobs.
As I lined up my objections, the second man on the call agreed with the first. “I agree,” he said. “You could build this community, but it would hurt your ability to pastor.”
The problem: the side hustle I wanted to build would demand too much of me. It would divide my energies too much. These friends knew how much work it would take to build an online community, and they knew it would rob me of the focus I needed to pastor.
I hung up from our call disappointed. One of my dreams died that day, and I’m grateful. These two friends saved me from making a mistake that might have damaged my ministry more than I realized at the time.
I learned two things that day.
First: we need pastors who pastor. Pastors should aim to give as much of their attention as possible to the work of pastoring. It’s a glorious, demanding work that will require more than you may think. We need to guard against distractions — even good ones — that take us away from that ministry.
Not every elder is vocational. Not every vocational elder is full-time. It’s okay to make money outside of ministry when necessary. In general, though, we need to free up pastor and elders to devote as much energy as possible to the work of pastoring.
Second: we need friends who help us know where to draw the line. I wasn’t wrong in looking for additional income. Our elders were aware. My salary was not a full-time salary. In fact, even after this difficult call, I continued to find ways to supplement my income. That wasn’t a problem.
The problem is that I’d drawn the line in the wrong place. I was about to launch an initiative that would rob me of the energy I needed to do the pastoral work to which I’d been called. After all, I was a pastor who was paid to spend most of my time pastoring.
I’m grateful for these friends and their advice.
Some pastors are vocational. Some aren’t. However we structure our lives and ministries, we must take care so that, as much as possible, pastors are freed to do the work of pastoral ministry.
Every situation is different, which is why we need the wisdom of friends who can tell us when we’re about to make a mistake that will rob us of the focus we need to fulfill our calling. The work of pastoring is too important. We need pastors who are freed to pastor.