Bi-vocational Pastor/Elder for Preaching and Teaching

Job Description

Pastoral Position Posting

Job Overview:
Position: Bi-vocational Pastor/Elder ($20,000 yr.)
Place: Grace Reformed Church – Wausau, Wisconsin
The Grace Reformed Church is seeking a bi-vocational Pastor/Elder candidate to join the current pastoral leadership who will faithfully co-shepherd God’s people through the preaching of the Word, spiritual care, and purposeful discipleship. We are a small (presently 25-35 attendees) but growing, Christo-centric congregation that is committed to the Scripture, Reformed theology, and Elder-led leadership. The pastoral addition will be joining a church that cherishes expositional preaching, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the saints.

About Grace Reformed Church:
The Grace Reformed Church is a Covenantal Reformed Baptist Church that substantially holds to the 1689 LBC. The Church was founded in April of 2012 and held her first service in a living room with 10 people. Within 3 months the church moved into a store front and then in April of 2017 the church acquired the building where she presently meets. The Grace Reformed Church exists to glorify God by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, seeing the transformation of the lives of her membership by being conformed to the image of Christ, and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. We are a unified, familial congregation who loves each other and strives for intentional engagement in each other’s lives. Our leadership structure pursues a plurality of elders who minister together in equal authority, accountability, and function. Our church is centered in a growing community with the city population census projecting between 39,000-41,000 people for 2026 with several more thousands in the immediate surrounding towns/villages. The community sits between old world logging and sawmill industry and modern manufacturing with dairy holding a respectable top 3 percent of the manufacturing. The age demographic is trending younger and presently stands at an average age of 38 years and the ethnic demographic of Wausau includes 79.44% White, 10.42% Asian(Hmong), and 3.27% for Black American, Mexican, and Native Americans making up the latter percentages. Wausau (‘Wah-saw’) provides ample opportunity for ministries and outreach with needs found at the ends of many spectrums.

Role Summary:
This Pastor/Elder position is looking for an individual who will serve as the primary preaching and teaching elder. Their tasks will include the care and spiritual oversight of the membership as they shepherd alongside the existing eldership. As a bi-vocational role, the church recognizes and supports a healthy rhythm of work, rest, and pastoral duties held in healthy balance. The individual filling this ministry position will be tasked with preaching the weekly Sunday sermons, teaching Sunday’s Early Study Hour, leading a Men’s Bible Study.

Primary Responsibilities:
Preaching & Teaching:
Deliver faithful, expositional sermons that clearly proclaim the gospel, find their end in Jesus Christ, and provide the textual content to the hearers for the purpose of enabling them to further study the Scripture and pursue the application of it to their lives.
Develop the congregation spiritually through Scripture in a way that promotes and strengthens biblical literacy and devotion and challenges them to grow in discernment.

Shepherding & Pastoral Care:
Provide compassionate, biblical care to members through prayer, counsel, and presence.
Model and cultivate a culture of humility, holiness, and spiritual growth.
Model relevant and practical faith in personal disciplines in such areas of marriage, parenting, family, finances, relationships, personal care, serving, reliability, faithfulness, patient-endurance, etc.
Participate in membership care, weddings, funerals, baptisms, and other pastoral duties as they may be delegated among the eldership.

Leadership & Oversight:
Serve as a fellow elder, working closely within the church leadership to guide vision, doctrine, mission, and congregational needs.
Help equip a next generation of Christians and leaders within the church.
Discipleship & Equipping:
Invest relationally in members to cultivate maturity in Christ and spiritual formation.

Ministry Qualifications:
A man of proven Christian character, meeting the biblical qualifications of Elder (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).
Agreement with Covenantal Reformed theology, Baptist polity, and the church’s established Doctrinal Positions and Spiritual/Ministarial Convictions.
Ready to preach, apt to teach, and possess evangelistic zeal.
Must be spiritually mature, doctrinally sound, and scripturally proficient.
Demonstrated ability to shepherd, disciple, and relate warmly to the congregation.
Ability to work in a bi-vocational capacity, balancing outside employment and family with pastoral ministry.
Must have the interests of Christ’s before his own (Phil. 2:19-21).

Personal Qualifications:
The qualities and qualifications of the ideal candidate should include transparency, approachability, humility, steadiness, long-suffering, patience, evangelistic and ministerial energy. The incoming pastor/elder must come with a spirit and attitude of commitment to the ministry, people, and city, avoiding the temptation to view this smaller ministry as a stepping stone. He should be characterized as.
Humble, steady, and approachable.
Having a shepherd’s heart that values people more than a platform.
Have a collaborative spirit willing to labor alongside other elders.
Be committed to long-term faithfulness over quick results.
Ideally possessing seminary credentials. Ministry experience with previous ministries’ recommendations may be considered.
Someone who is presently active in ministry in his local church.
Must provide a formal recommendation from the elders of his church.

Expectations:
The minister is a member of the body of Christ before he is a pastor. Engagement and transparency are reasonable expectations of the church as is the display of a humble and honest attitude.
Grace Reformed Church should be a place for the minister, his wife, and children to feel safe, loved, and appreciated. The church should be a place of spiritual and personal growth. The church should be a safe and supportive place to grow in the faith, increase in understanding, and develop doctrine as Scripture informs our minds, hearts, and lives. Both Eldership and Church membership should always be reforming.
The church should be understanding and respectful of the pastor’s time and energies especially in a bi-vocational situation.

The Grace Reformed Church’s Philosophy:
The Grace Reformed Church is a 1689 LBC, Federalist, Reformed Baptist Church. We embrace the Five Sola’s, we are Calvinistic in all Five Points. We embrace a Covenantal Hermeneutic for theological interpretation, and the eldership embraces an Amillennial End-Time view. We are a family-integrated congregation. We enjoy a variety of hymn styles for corporate worship, making use of the Old Hymns as well as modern hymns from ministries such as the Getty’s, City Alight, Sovereign Grace Music, etc. The church formally makes use of the ESV for its Preaching and Teaching ministries. The Church stands opposed to “woke” theology and philosophy believing that such virtues as “equality” and “equity” are not themselves the gospel but are the result of the gospel.
The Grace Reformed Church strongly emphasizes the liberty of personal conscience in the area of “secondary” matters. What is not primary and explicit is left to the individual Christian’s understanding and convictions from the Scripture. As a 1689 LBC Church the “Primary” matters of the faith (i.e. Soteriology, Christology, Bibliology, etc.) as formulated and postulated in the 1689 LBC are embraced unequivocally in unity. All matters of a secondary nature expressed in the Confession may be challenged or departed from on a consistent and contextual grounds via the Scripture. All differing positions held on “secondary” matters shall be tempered with charity. A few of the areas that GRC permits divergence of opinion and practice are:
Bible Versions.
Head Coverings on women during worship.
Women praying during corporate worship.
The Reformed End-Times views (excepting Dispensationalism).
Continuationism and Cessationism.
The consumption of alcohol and tobacco.
Annihilationism and Eternal Conscience Torment.

How To Apply
Please submit the following to

Resume
Personal testimony
Philosophy of ministry
Letter of recommendation from the Elders of your church membership.
Ministry credentials and experience.
Links to sermon recordings