Bi-vocation is an oxymoron. You will not find the word in an ordinary dictionary for its meaning is a plausible one at best. However, among the more devoted Christians this word is slowly replacing “lay”, “tent-making”, and the related general concepts of a person who is gainfully employed in a certain profession yet spends his or her available time to serve God in the capacity of a pastor, a missionary or a teacher, etc. This was necessary when the word “vocation” is degenerated to the equivalence of “profession”

Recently, a geo-physicist bi-vocation friend of mine related to me of a true story in a conference for professional Christians several years ago. In a workshop/discussion session one of the conferees expressed the commitment as a called person to serve God in his profession, “for we are all called to be priests”; immediately a pastor stood up to correct his choice of word, saying there are different levels of calling and the call to be a priest (pastor) is a “higher calling.” The session erupted for these devoted professionals were invited to encourage and promote the “lay ministry.” The pastor’s words showed that a pre-supposed glass ceiling existed. Needless to say, many delegates returned home unhappy for it implied that there are certain ecclesiastic “jobs” untouchable for these non-clerical Christians.

I sighed and responded to his story, saying, “What a pity that this pastor did not learn from his church history class that in the time of Puritans, one of their strength was in the concept of calling, as in a vocation. Etymologically speaking, vocation is from Latin voce, or voca(re), a voice, meaning a sound of somebody calling. To the Puritans, they understood that each vocation is a specific call one received from the Lord into a certain profession. He might be a physician, a merchant, a historian, an artist, but he took it seriously for God had chosen him and given him such a position to provide a living for him but his duty was to serve God in his vocation. These vocation-minded Christians no doubt had a sense of commitment for excellence in all their endeavors. Then, the voce was lost in vocation; the meaning of vocation mutated into profession, and the emphasis is now on the training to be able to meet an industrial standard. In fact, many dictionaries treat these two words as synonyms. Vocation is no longer a divine word.”

Then, my friend entered a personal note on his daughter who is a committed teacher and Christian. He told me, “In California, they routinely fire teachers in the summer months and rehire them back come Septembers, in order to reduce the payroll. I ask my daughter to change her job for stability, and she said, ‘But teaching is my vocation!’ for she takes it as from the Lord her calling to teach.”

So, what is a bi-vocational ministry? If you have a Puritan concept of vocation you don’t need to tell people you are “bi-” and “vocation,” for “vocation” means “bi-“ when you understand that God has called you to serve Him but gives you a 9-5 profession for your livelihood.

Well, words evolve. I do hope the bi-vocational concept catches on and becomes a movement in the Twenty-first Century and IBS is a part of it.