When I accepted the call to serve as a bivocational pastor at College Grove Baptist Church two years ago this month, I didn’t realize just how literal the “bi” in “bivocational” would feel. Most days, I’m toggling between a spreadsheet and a sermon, between training teams in corporate strategy and shepherding souls in a local country church. Somewhere along the way, I backed into a thought that feels more like a confession than a clever line:
“Too sacred for the boardroom, too strategic for the pulpit—that’s how it feels to live between the steeple and the stock ticker.”
It’s not just poetic tension—it’s my life.
On one hand, I’ve been blessed with incredible leadership training in the corporate world. The principles I’ve learned from organizations like The Ken Blanchard Companies and Korn Ferry have shaped how I coach, train, and think about systems. I’ve sat in rooms where strategy is sharpened, vision is clarified, and performance is measured in percentages.
On the other hand, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has provided a rich biblical and theological foundation for my calling. I’ve wrestled with doctrine, dived into church history & missions, and emerged with a deeper love for Scripture and the mission of God. Seminary has trained my mind and formed my convictions.
But here’s what neither the boardroom nor the classroom could fully prepare me for in the local church:
- How to navigate a church polity shaped more by tradition than Scripture.
- How to walk with saints through grief, bitterness, or spiritual stagnation.
- How to shepherd when some sheep don’t want to be led—or simply (and humbly so) don’t see you as the shepherd.
- How to lead when growth requires change, which exposes fear, which creates deep seeded conflict.
There’s no manual for the sacred tension of loving people who question your leadership, or for stewarding vision when others long for the comfort of the familiar. You don’t learn that in a corporate retreat or a seminary lecture, especially a seminary lecture viewed through an online platform as part of distance learning. You learn it the hard way—on the ground, with prayerful knees and a broken heart. If you’re lucky, you have a mentor who can help you see into the shadowed hearts of a congregation and spill wisdom that overflows from their own mistakes in a long ministry.
Being bivocational isn’t about splitting time—it’s about weaving and braiding together two worlds with the spiritual thread of calling. It’s about learning to lead with integrity when the metrics don’t match and faithfully trusting God to work in both your meetings and your messages.
So, to the others out there who live in this same space:
You are not crazy. You are called.
You are tired, but you’re also entrusted to love those who walk through your doors.
And the gap between sacred and strategic? That might just be the space where God does His best work in you.
