Co-Vocational Pastor Grateful for Opportunities for Community Engagement

Working in small towns in central Nebraska the past 15 years, Pastor Brent E. Graves has always held a second job to supplement his church salary. But he now prefers to call himself “co-vocational” instead of “bi-vocational.”

That’s because in the fall of 2023 Graves, 41, stopped working for someone else and launched Brent Graves Tree Service. He specializes in tree trimming and removal for residential property, but can also handle commercial accounts.

When not cutting down trees, Graves is pastor of Living Hope Church in Cozad, a town of just under 4,000. January marks his sixth anniversary with the AG congregation.

While he’s been around a while, owning his own business for the past 15 months has allowed Graves more flexibility than when he was working for another company.

Being co-vocational means when the need arises, he can set aside work to tend to ministerial duties, says the 2008 graduate of Central Bible College (now Evangel University).

“It’s a mindset,” Graves says of the less-familiar pastoral term. “I’m still working it out myself, but being co-vocational has allowed me to be out in the community way more than I’ve ever done before. My goal is not to be a full-time pastor, but to be in the community and to use the business to give me opportunities to minister to people.”

Not only has the job allowed him more flexibility, it has provided more income to support his wife, Mandy, and their five children, ages four to 15. Mandy lends a hand by fielding business calls, keeping track of her husband’s schedule, and even pitching in if he needs an extra pair of hands on a job.

Yet it is the ministerial rewards that make Graves glad he became an entrepreneur. Over the past year the pastor has seen several breakthroughs in ministry.

One example is a man he had been helping who struggles with substance abuse. They lost touch, until one day the pastor saw the man in the hardware store. When Graves asked, “How are you doing?” the man replied, “Not very good.”

“I was able to encourage him and pray with him in front of the hardware store,” Graves says. “When you’re working for someone else, it’s hard to do that. There was also a couple who had attended last spring, but then life got in the way. My wife and I ran into them in the community and reconnected, and now they’re back in church.”

At the same time, more members are showing a willingness to get involved in ministry. One of Living Hope’s leaders has started teaching lessons more often at Sunday night youth group meetings. After a recent hail storm, a board member met with the contractor to discuss repairs to the building.

Deacon George A. Myers, 51, has noticed more visitors showing up in recent times, reflective of the growth from average attendance in the 20s six years ago to 30 or more today.

“It seems like more members are filling in where they are needed too,” says Myers, now in his second year as a deacon.

“I prefer smaller churches,” adds the self-employed truck driver. “At least with Brent it’s easier to talk with the pastor. When people have problems and stuff, he’s more available. That’s what I like about our church. It seems when places get too big it’s harder to get with the pastor and work things out.”

Myers symbolizes the kind of person Graves is seeking to reach. In the past, Myers vowed to never go to church because they were “full of hypocrites.” That changed when he went to Living Hope to see his daughter get baptized.

“I felt a calling to go back,” Myers says. “It seemed right to me. I got baptized just before Brent came to the church. The thing that helped me grow was having a Bible app on my phone. I could listen to it driving down the road.”

Graves admits going through struggles and doubts about stepping out to start his own business. He cautions that he doesn’t want to make it sound like “it’s all roses and rainbows,” but that he has seen God provide in numerous ways.

Generally, autumn is the worst time to start a tree business, but after finding a mechanically-sound bucket truck and buying four kinds of insurance needed in his field, Graves was off and running.

“If I’m being honest, I was a reluctant businessman,” Graves says. “I never saw myself starting a business, but it’s what God wanted me to do. It’s allowed me to continue pastoring the church and taught me a lot about self-discipline.

“The biggest thing this has done is put Mandy and me in the community every day. It’s given us the ability to pastor a community, not just a church.”