As tithing has dropped across the church over the years, many pastors have had to become bi-vocational. This seems odd to some who are unable to think of a pastor being anything other than a pastor, but bi-vocational pastors are not a new thing. Indeed, the Apostle Paul made a habit of generating income through tent-making, which had been the trade he grew up with.
It can be easy for pastors to get caught up in the church-world, never really getting out into the community or getting to know people outside of the church. Sometimes their lives can be void of even knowing a non-Christian. But bi-vocational pastors have the gift of getting to know and work with people outside of the faith. They get to see what it’s like for many of their congregants everyday and get to learn a lot about evangelism and the like. As a new generation of Paul’s are raised up to pastor small and creative churches, we’ll get to see more of what Paul’s ministry was like.
*This devotional was created out of the themes of Acts 18:1-17 found in today’s reading at CommonPrayer.net.
Jamin Bradley 
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