In the Mid-West there are all sorts of churches right now in small towns who do not have full-time pastors or share theirs with several other congregations.

Here’s an article talking about the fact that many pastors are now bi-vocational and have a 2nd job to pay the bills:

More Pastors Are Working Two Jobs

We have become so use to the fact that ‘Pastor’ is an occupation in this country and in the West that we don’t remember that it hasn’t always been that way nor maybe will it be in the future. After all the Apostle Paul made tents. Not only that, but in many 3rd world countries including China and especially in Muslim nations where the churches meet in homes the pastors nearly all work other jobs.

Fact is, if the church becomes persecuted in the West and in America and has to go underground, guess what—only the apostate churches will probably have paid clergy. Something to think about even though in the present context it seems rather unlikely to ever happen.

Read the back of the book and you’ll see that at some point everything changes. With all of the earthquakes and natural disasters lately and all of the world-wide political and economic changes happening right now who knows what the political and cultural context will be like in the near future. Many world leaders including some of our own are pushing for some kind of new World order economically and politically.

Pastors and leaders will continue to be called by the Holy Spirit to the ministry but in the future pastors may need to be prepared to be self-supporting far more than they are now in America.              *Top

(Saddleback Church near my home via Wikipedia)

It seems that most Megachurch leaders don’t really think of themselves as ‘Pastors’ but more as a "preacher-teacher," or "directional leader"—at least according to this article and research including a survey of 232 megachurch senior pastors over churches with 2,000 members or more.

What do you think—do members of megachurches suffer for lack of good pastoring? Probably.

From my experience in John Wimber’s mega Anaheim Vineyard church, small group leaders functioned as the real pastors over the flock– though John was probably the most accessible mega pastor that I have ever seen—and I have attended or visited a whole lot of megachurches over the years in So. Cal.