How to Lead a Church With No Staff

What Bivocational Ministry Is Teaching Me

I never planned on becoming a bivocational pastor. There. I said it. There is something humbling about admitting that. I had become accustomed to thinking about pastoral ministry through the lens of having the time to give myself fully to the work of the church. But seasons change. Circumstances change. Churches change. And sometimes God takes you into a season you would not have chosen for yourself and begins teaching you things you could not have learned any other way. The looming question is, “how to lead a church with no staff?”

That is where I find myself now. I am serving a church with no staff, and I have recently become bivocational. It has forced me to rethink how I lead. More than that, it has forced me to rethink what pastoral leadership is supposed to look like.

What Does Ephesians 4 Say About a Pastor’s Role?

When a church has no staff, the temptation is obvious: become the staff.

If something needs to be done, do it. If a ministry needs organizing, organize it. If somebody has a problem, handle it. If nobody volunteers, volunteer. If something breaks, fix it. If there is a meeting, attend it. If there is a need, fill it.

Before long, the pastor becomes the answer to every question and the solution to every problem.

I have felt that pressure. And I have succumbed to it at times. But I am learning something important: being needed is not the same thing as being faithful.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:11–12 that Christ gave pastors and teachers to equip the saints “for the work of ministry.”

That means my job is not to do all the ministry. My job is to equip God’s people to do ministry. That sounds simple. Living it out is much harder.

How Do You Develop Leaders When You Have No Staff?

When you have no staff, you have to start looking around the congregation differently. Instead of asking, “Who can help me?” you begin asking, “Who has God already given us?”

There are people sitting in our pews who love Jesus and love His church. They may not have ministry titles. They may not have formal theological training. They may not think of themselves as leaders.

But they can pray. They can encourage. They can disciple. They can teach. They can visit. They can serve. They can evangelize. They can lead.

Some of the most valuable ministry in a church happens through people whose names will never appear on a staff page.

My responsibility is to identify those people, equip them, trust them, and release them. And that requires something every pastor struggles with: giving up control.

Delegation can be uncomfortable because when you give someone responsibility, they may not do it exactly the way you would.

But the church does not need everyone to do ministry exactly like I would. The church needs God’s people to faithfully use the gifts God has given them.

What Should a Solo Pastor Prioritize? 

Working another job has put a very real limit on my time. I cannot pretend I have unlimited hours anymore.

And strangely enough, that has been good for me.

I have had to ask a question that every pastor should probably ask more often: What actually matters?

I need time in Scripture. I need time in prayer. I need to prepare to preach. I need to shepherd people. I need to develop leaders. And I need to be faithful to my family.

Everything else has to be evaluated.

Some things can be delegated. Some things can be simplified. Some things can wait. And some things probably never needed to be done in the first place.

Bivocational ministry has taught me that busyness is not the same thing as fruitfulness.

I can spend an entire day doing things for the church and still neglect the things God has actually called me to do. That is a hard lesson for a pastor who likes to get things done.

How Can a Pastor Stop Trying to Do Everything?

I used to look at a ministry need and think, “How am I going to get this done?”

Now I am trying to ask a different question: “Who can I equip to do this?”

That one question changes the entire way you lead.

Instead of being the person who does everything, you become the person who develops people. Instead of building ministries around the pastor’s availability, you build ministries around the gifts of the body. Instead of creating dependency, you create disciples.

That is healthier for the church. And, frankly, it is healthier for the pastor.

How Do You Lead a Church With No Staff?

Perhaps this is the deepest lesson God is teaching me through this season.

The church is not mine. It belongs to Jesus.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I will build my church.”

That promise is particularly precious when you are looking at a church with limited resources, no staff, and a pastor who has another job.

There are days when I look at everything that needs to be done and wonder how it is all going to happen.

Then I remember: It is not my church to build.

Jesus has already promised to build His church.

My responsibility is to be faithful. Faithful to preach the Word. Faithful to pray. Faithful to shepherd. Faithful to equip. Faithful to make disciples. Faithful to lead. And faithful to trust God with the results.

Maybe No Staff Is Not the Problem

I am still learning how to lead a church with no staff while working bivocationally. There are days when it is exhausting. There are days when I wish we had more resources, more workers, and more hours in the week.

But I am beginning to see something I did not see before.

Maybe having no staff is not simply a problem to solve. Maybe it is an opportunity.

An opportunity to recover the biblical picture of the church as a body in which every member matters and every believer has a ministry.

The answer to having no staff cannot simply be for the pastor to work harder. Eventually, the pastor will run out of hours.

The answer is to cultivate a church where God’s people understand that the work of ministry belongs to the whole body.

I may be bivocational. I may have no staff. I may have fewer hours than I once had. But I am not alone.

Christ is building His church. He has given me His Word, His Spirit, His people, and His promise. And perhaps this season is teaching me something I should have known all along: The pastor was never meant to carry the church by himself.

Jesus is the Chief Shepherd. I am simply one of His under-shepherds, called to be faithful with what He has placed in front of me.

So I am learning to work hard without pretending I can do everything. I am learning to delegate without feeling guilty. I am learning to trust other people. I am learning to say no. I am learning to protect my family. I am learning to prioritize prayer and the Word.

And above all, I am learning to trust the One who promised that He would build His church.

That is a good place for a pastor to be. Not in control. Not carrying everything. But faithfully following Christ and trusting Him to do what only He can do.

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