Mark Coppenger on Bi-Vocational Ministry
May 21, 2003
After four years as president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1995-1999), Sharon and I headed to the Chicago area, Evanston to be exact, where we took up church planting in 2000. We served that congregation until we moved to Nashville in 2011, where I headed up the SBTS extension (as well as the other ten extensions scattered around the country). On one occasion, we had 50 in attendance with an offering of less than $50, most of the attendees being students at Northwestern University. Early on, we realized that we’d be bi-vocational. To make ends meet, Sharon served as secretary to a school principal (and later, the administrative assistant to a superintendent), and I did adjunct teaching at a number of Chicagoland schools, including Wheaton, Trinity, and Elmhurst, as well as subbing at two local high schools. Quite an experience. And here’s a report on those early years, as I recounted them to a chapel gathering back at MBTS in 2003.