Part-Time Is Plenty

Churches experiencing numerical and financial decline may dread the day when they can no longer afford a full-time pastor. Freeing up funds that would go to a full-time salary sure would help the budget—maybe even enough to turn things around—but is it even possible to run effective ministries with just a half- or quarter-time professional?

In Part-Time Is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy, journalist and part-time pastor Jeffrey MacDonald says yes—churches can grow more vibrant than ever, tapping into latent energy and undiscovered gifts, revitalizing worship, and engaging in more effective ministry with the community.

Readers of Part-Time Is Plenty get a much-needed playbook for helping congregations thrive with a part-time ministry model. They learn to see the model in a new light: to stop viewing part-time as a problem to be eradicated and to instead embrace it as a divine gift that facilitates a higher level of lay engagement, responsibility, playfulness, and creativity.

In 2020, The BTS Center helped the author, Jeffrey MacDonald, launch his book, and then led a study group through a deep encounter with MacDonald’s ideas. Here is a discussion guide prepared by The BTS Center in collaboration with the author, for use among congregations that are navigating big decisions and wishing to live into a bold new vision for congregational life.

You can review and purchase the book here.